The Joy of Why - More Conversations, Complex Questions, and Bold Ideas in Season Five of ‘The Joy of Why’

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

What is the future of gene editing with CRISPR? Has AI changed mathematics forever? Will we find other civilizations in the universe? What if we’ve been wrong about dark energy all along? These are just a few of the big, bold questions we’ll be exploring in the new season of The Joy of Why.Mathematician Steven Strogatz and physicist Janna Levin are back as your hosts for these and other conversations that explore the frontiers of basic science and mathematics. Each episode features an in-depth conversation in which Steven or Janna sits down with a leading scientist or mathematician to unpack one big idea or area of research. The two hosts also chat together throughout each episode, sharing their own thoughts, reactions, and questions.New episodes drop every other Thursday, kicking off on June 11 with biochemist and Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, who helped revolutionize gene editing and biology as co-discoverer of the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The wide-ranging conversation explores the discovery and sudden rise of CRISPR as a tool that can modify genes in a highly precise manner, the successes and issues the work raised, and what comes next.All 12 episodes of Season 5 will be available to stream or read here, and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I'm Steve Strogatz. And I'm Jan 11. And this is the joy of why. Season five. Can't wait. This is going to be really an interesting season. You don't want to get us started people, really. Absolutely fascinating.

Yeah, you'll hear conversations with astrophysicist Adam Reese. The model tells us how to explain the trajectory of the universe. Something has to get. Either the cosmic microwave measurement or the local measurement is wrong, or the story that connects them is not quite wrong. Right. Biochemist Jennifer Dowdena. With CRISPR, it's not as though we could foresee everything that was to come,

but we could really pretty immediately see how this could be a very powerful tool because of the ease of deployment. Mathematician Lauren Williams. You know, with the model of traffic flow and with the scattering amplitude, somehow it's always about particles or waves being flung together and then they sort of repel. All of this and much more on one podcast. Subscribe or follow The Joy of Why. New episodes drop every other Thursday starting June 11th.

I feel like we should be saying something in unison. Okay, yeah, we could do that. Listen to season five of Quantum Magazines, The Joy of Why. All right. No, I think that's good.