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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.

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

Copyright: ©2024 Nobel Prize Outreach AB

Latest Episodes:

First reactions | Svante Pääbo, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022 | Telephone interview Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

“There were almost always other types of humans around.” In this telephone conversation recorded just after he had heard news of the award of his Nobel Prize, Svante Pääbo reflects on our relationship to extinct species of early hominins and how his exploration of their genetics might influence our view of ourselves and our place in nature. He also discusses what gave him the confidence to undertake the decades-long search and the influence of his mother and Nobel Prize laureate father, Sune Bergström. He tells Adam Smith that having a laureate father taught him an important lesson: “Such people are normal human beings.”

© Nobel Prize Outreach.

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

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Laureate origin stories: Adam Smith explores what factors make a Nobel Prize laureate Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

How do you make a Nobel Prize laureate? In this special bonus episode of Nobel Prize Conversations, we explore the origin stories of these remarkable individuals. This bonus episode features the Nobel Prize's Adam Smith, who shares some of his insights after speaking to more than 150 laureates. He is interviewed by the producer of Nobel Prize Conversations, Karin Svensson.

Both nature and nurture play crucial parts in creating a Nobel Prize laureate. But there’s another, often-overlooked, factor that can shape their lives and careers: the element of chance. Or as Adam says, “These many, many, many pieces of luck, throughout life, come to make you what you are.”

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Maria Ressa: Nobel Prize Conversations Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

"We must get up, we must work like maniacs – because time is running out." Maria Ressa speaks passionately as she discusses how authoritarians exploit social media to unravel democracy, what needs to be done to fight this and when she thinks the damage might become irreversible.

2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa is one of the founders of Rappler, an independent website for investigative journalism in the Philippines that is facing a threat of shutdown by the authorities in that country. In 2016 Rappler sounded the alarm on the social media revolution – two years later Facebook admitted responsibility for letting their platform be used as a weapon in the genocide of the Rohingyas of Myanmar.

Your host is Adam Smith, chief scientific officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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Abdulrazak Gurnah: Nobel Prize Conversations Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the author of ten novels and an emeritus professor of English and postcolonial literatures at the university of Kent. He has been hailed for his ability to convey the immigrant experience – but to him, literature is much more than just social commentry. "We also read because it gives us pleasure – sometimes completely distracts us from other things we should be doing and thinking about."

In the conversation, Abdulrazak Gurnah talks about fleeing his native Zanzibar as a teenager, and feeling unwelcome after arriving in the UK. He also offers insights into his writing: how he explores thoughtful silences and lifts the small struggles that play out in otherwise mundane lives and settings. Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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Guido Imbens: Nobel Prize Conversations Jun 22, 2022

Show notes

In an increasingly chaotic world, how can you learn to concentrate deeply on a single problem? Economic Sciences laureate Guido Imbens found his powers of concentration while getting lost in chess games as a child. ”For four or five hours you would just shut out the rest of the world, you would be focused on one task.”

Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach. In this episode Guido and Adam talk about the beauty of chess, the pitfalls in talking publicly about uncertain data, and the challenge of keeping an open mind in research. But the conversation kicks off by delving into an experience they share outside of academia: parenting teenagers.

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Hartmut Michel: Nobel Prize Conversations Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

"If somebody tells me 'this is impossible', I always think that it still might be possible – and try to find a way around." Where would the world be, without the scientists who look beyond the conventional wisdom and try to solve the unsolvable problems? Hartmut Michel speaks about his working class background, discovering his love of science – and travel – in a public library, and why he's remained true to his native Germany.

Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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David Julius: Nobel Prize Conversations Jun 08, 2022

Show notes

"I didn't really like school very much. And I was always like a little bit nervous about not doing well." David Julius, the 2021 physiology or medicine laureate, talks about his journey from anxious pupil to confident researcher, the importance of diversity in science, and how his research is connected to how different species experience the world in different ways.

Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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Benjamin List: Nobel Prize Conversations Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

"Try to follow your enthusiasm and do what you are really passionate about and what you really love to do.” As a child, Benjamin List thought chemists held the keys to the secrets of the universe. Luckily, by the time he learned this wasn't so, he was already hooked on doing chemistry experiments he found in books. Even today, he still feels passion for the field, and tries to surround himself with passionate researchers.

Benjamin List was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with David MacMillan, for his work in developing asymmetric organocatalysis, a tool for building new molecules, in cleaner and more efficient ways.Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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David Card: Nobel Prize Conversations May 25, 2022

Show notes

”An amazing number of economists have extremely paternalistic ideas. They just want to tell people what to do.” Don't worry. David Card, 2021 laureate in Economic Sciences, doesn't want to boss you around. Instead, he's made a career trying to understand the economic choices people make. He shared the prize with Josuhua Angrist and Guido Imbens for their empirical contributions to labour economics.

Professor Card talks about growing up on a dairy farm, about the need for more diversity in PhD programs and his reluctance to become involved in policy-making. Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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Giorgio Parisi: Nobel Prize Conversations May 18, 2022

Show notes

Some people manage to retain the relentless curiosity of a child into adulthood, keeping them on a constant quest of exploration. Meet Giorgio Parisi, who tells us about his journey of curiosity, which started by learning to read numbers at the age of 3: “I was reading the number of the bus when the bus was arriving.” At an early age, he also started to read the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, as his parents’ large library encouraged reading.

Parisi describes his life journey and how he ultimately decided to dedicate his life to physics as that topic made more sense to him than mathematics. In 2021 he was awarded the physics prize "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales." He shared the prize with Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann.

Your host is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

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

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