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Nobel Prize Conversations — Education
Nobel Prize Conversations

Through their lives and work, failures and successes – get to know the individuals who have been awarded the Nobel Prize. The host for this podcast is Adam Smith, who has the happy task of interviewing our Nobel Prize laureates.

Sit in on our conversations as we delve into how these personalities found their fields of interest — often by coincidence — how they view collaboration, curiosity and failure, and what keeps them going. The laureates share what they have learned from their career and what they like to do outside of their work – from music to fly-fishing. We let the discussions flow freely, resulting in richly varied stories on topics ranging from poverty prevention to the science of black holes and the importance of being a role model.

Don’t miss the First Reactions from our 2025 Nobel Prize laureates coming up in October.

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Copyright: ©2024 Nobel Prize Outreach AB

Latest Episodes:

First reactions | Philip Dybvig, prize in economic sciences 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

“When I woke up I had what seemed like thousands of messages” — Philip Dybvig’s phone was on silent, so he missed the call from Stockholm. When, half asleep, he did confirm the news, he recalls that his initial response was one of stress: “What’s this going to do to my life?” In this call recorded a few hours later he talks briefly to Adam Smith about the theoretical model that he and Douglas Diamond built, and how important it is to ensure that such findings are accessible to policymakers: “We worked so hard to make the paper simple.”

© Nobel Prize Outreach.

First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First reactions | Douglas Diamond, prize in economic sciences 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

“There are very few people in the world I’d rather be sitting next to when discussing these issues” — In this interview recorded just after the public announcement, Douglas Diamond, the first of the three laureates to hear the news, speaks about his happiness at receiving the economic sciences prize together with Philip Dybvig and Ben Bernanke. He tells Adam Smith how he and Dybvig laid the groundwork for their intense working relationship, which lead to the influential Diamond-Dybvig model, while waiting outside their supervisor’s office at Yale, plentifully supplied with cookies. Fast forward to the financial crisis 15 years ago and, Diamond says, “The world was incredibly lucky to have Ben Bernanke sitting in the Federal Reserve”.

© Nobel Prize Outreach.

First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First reactions | Oleksandra Matviychuk, Nobel Peace Prize 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 08, 2022

Show notes

“Common people have a much greater impact than they can even imagine” — When asked what brings her hope, Oleksandra Matviychuk replies, “Ordinary people.” Although the challenges faced might seem insurmountable, she sees first hand how people have the power to change the status quo: “Mobilisation of common people can change world history quicker than UN intervention.” In this conversation with Adam Smith, recorded the day after the announcement of the award of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to the organisation she heads, Matviychuk speaks of the sense of solidarity to be gained from fighting together for human rights: “This is about a story that freedom has no borders and human rights values are universal.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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The Call from Oslo to Center for Civil Liberties, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

"It is incredible" — Before the public announcement of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Olav Njølstad, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, called Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director of Center for Civil Liberties to inform her that her organisation was one of the three Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 2022.

Today the Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

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First reactions | Barry Sharpless, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

“You should be drawn to uncertainty” — Barry Sharpless quotes Einstein when asked about his daring approach to choosing problems: “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there’s no hope for it”. Ever inventive, he starts this conversation with Adam Smith not by talking about the work that led to his first Nobel Prize, or even to his second, but his very latest research findings from the lab. Recorded on the morning he was woken very early by the news from Stockholm, he goes on to discuss the dangerous thrill of ideas and how difficult problems just insist on being tackled: “If the damn thing comes back to me and says, ‘You don’t know the answer to this,’ then I say I’ve got to give that respect, and try it again.”

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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First reactions | Carolyn Bertozzi, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

“When the world is in trouble, chemistry comes to the rescue” - As just illustrated by the Covid pandemic, says Carolyn Bertozzi, “Chemistry is such an exciting area of science for people who want to have an impact.” This call with Adam Smith, recorded immediately after the public announcement of her Nobel Prize, caught her just before the world started descending on her home in California. As the 8th female Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry, she says “I can’t help but think about all the women that came before me that didn’t have the opportunity to be recognised.” But her view of the future is bright: “I’m very optimistic about how science, and the culture of science, is trending.”

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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First reactions | Morten Meldal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

“Reality is much more complex than we, as chemists, are able to imagine” — In the call recorded just after he had heard that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize, Morten Meldal describes how he views chemistry as a way of describing reality. It’s a field that should appeal to the young, he says, since “Understanding how everything works is a very challenging but also a very rewarding experience.” And the possibilities are endless, as he tells Adam Smith: “We are only scratching the beginning of our understanding of organic chemistry.”

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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First reactions | John Clauser, Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

“What a waste of time, now start doing some real physics!” – As a young man, John Clauser set out to topple quantum mechanics, but all his faculty thought he was crazy. “I thought it was important at the time, even though I was going to ruin my career by doing it, and in some sense I did: I’ve never been a professor!” But, as he tells Adam Smith in this joyous call recorded in the middle of the night, as Clauser is besieged by reporters, he was having fun. And, as history surely confirms, “I proved that I was a decent experimentalist!”

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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First reactions | Anton Zeilinger, Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

“It’s probably one of the most beautiful theories ever invented.” – Anton Zeilinger conveys his love for the elegant simplicity of quantum mechanics in this call recorded shortly after the public announcement of his Nobel Prize. “With very few symbols”, he explains, “you can explain a whole lot of things from the smallest quantum particles up to the origin of the universe.” Zeilinger emphasises that the news also sends a message of huge appreciation to all the people he worked with, and ends by introducing Adam Smith to the strange and potentially useful world of quantum teleportation.

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First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

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First reactions | Alain Aspect, Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

“The conclusion is, yes, quantum mechanics resists all possible attacks!” — Alain Aspect was trying to find the limit of quantum mechanics, but, as he says in this call with Adam Smith, “I didn’t find it!”. Recorded just after he had received news of his Nobel Prize, this conversation captures his thoughts about the place of his work in the long history of quantum mechanics, the need for constant questioning and reflection, and how he gets his head around the weirdness of quantum entanglement.

© Nobel Prize Outreach.

First reactions terms of use: https://www.nobelprize.org/ceremonies/streams-terms-of-use

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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