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PODCAST

Works in Progress Podcast

Works in Progress

Works in Progress is an online magazine devoted to new and underrated ideas about economic growth, scientific progress, and technology. Subscribe to listen to the Works in Progress podcast, plus Hard Drugs by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.

technology

All Episodes

58:07

Treating cost disease with Congressman Jake Auchincloss

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/10/24

How can we build new cities in America? Which historical president is Trump most like? Why did immigration policy go so wrong? Sam and Pieter sit down with Congressman Jake Auchincloss to discuss the politics of the Abundance movement. They talk about Auchincloss's fight against free parking, regulating big tech, the success of YIMBYs, and why curing Alzheimers should be the next American moonshot project.Read more about some of the things they talked about:How Madrid built its metro

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60:48

The art of protein design with AI

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/10/15

What if you could design a protein never seen before? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore how researchers are using new tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold, and ProteinMPNN to ‘hallucinate’ entirely novel proteins: designing them from scratch to solve problems evolution hasn’t tackled. They talk about how these technologies could transform medicine, agriculture, and materials science. Along the way, they reflect on the surprising ways AI is changing the process of science itself.Hard

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55:04

Hacking proteins with AI

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/10/01

Nature didn’t evolve all the proteins we need, but maybe artificial intelligence can help. Jacob and Saloni explore how tools like AlphaFold and ProteinMPNN are helping researchers re-engineer proteins, to make them safer, more stable, and more effective. They talk about how new technologies could help make a long-sought vaccine against Strep A, which causes scarlet fever and rheumatic heart disease, and how similar tools have already led to breakthroughs against COVID and RSV.Hard Drugs is

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72:38

How traffic modernism ruined cities with Nicholas...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/09/26

Nicholas Boys Smith joins Ben and Sam to explain how to plan spaces that people like; dense, sociable and, above all else, beautiful. He says people don't like new buildings because they don't trust what planners and architects are going to do to the places that matter to them. As an alternative he presents his playbook for how YIMBYs can win over the public.If you liked this episode, you'll enjoy our first episode on The Great Downzoning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAcEfeLlqLoFor more

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17:31

100 years of insulin in 15 minutes

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/09/16

A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In the second part of a mini series on proteins, drug development and AI, Saloni tells the story of how insulin went from a crude animal extract to the first genetically-engineered drug, kickstarting the biotech industry along the way.Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob

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76:51

Why feminism worked best in the West with Alice Evans

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/09/10

Social scientist Alice Evans talks about why, despite a superficially similar feminist movement in East Asia, Western feminism has been much successful. Alice, Sam and Aria talk about dating markets, drinking culture at work, top-down media control, and what tax policy is best for motivating people to have more children.For more of Alice's work, check out her Substack.Go to worksinprogress.co to read more from Works in Progress.ReferencesFlowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's

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19:49

Proteins: Weird blobs doing important things

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/09/03

This episode kicks off a mini-series on proteins, drug development and AI. Saloni and Jacob explore the world of proteins, including how proteins fold into complex shapes, why that complexity matters and how crowded and dynamic the inside of a cell really is; and they exchange surprising statistics about proteins.Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.You can watch or listen on

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78:44

How to become President of China with Dan Wang

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/08/27

Is it better to be run by engineers, lawyers or regulators? Can you build an economy on luxury handbags or do you need advanced manufacturing? Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future discusses why China outbuilds America, how the young and ambitious succeed in China, and the secret to finding the best Chinese restaurants.You can order his new book here, read his annual letters on China here, and check out London's best Suzhou noodles here.If you want more from

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75:45

The underrated economics of land with Mike Bird

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/08/15

Why is Chinese housing so expensive despite being oversupplied? How did land reforms in Russia lead to the Bolshevik revolution? What killed Georgism? The Economist’s Wall Street Editor, Mike Bird, discusses the underrated economics of land.You can preorder Mike's book here and read more about land readjustment in Works in Progress Issue 19.

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71:47

How Henry VIII accidentally started the Industrial...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/07/29

Historian Anton Howes discusses how Henry VIII turned Britain into an economic backwater – making it the unlikeliest place for the Industrial Revolution to happen. But, he explains it only took a small cabal of people who understood the problems of the time to turn the fate of the country (and thus, the world) around.You can learn more about the history of the Industrial Revolution on Anton's Substack, Age of Invention. And you can learn more about progress at Works in Progress.

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58:41

Stian Westlake on the intangible economy and paying...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/07/11

Why does London dominate Britain's economy, whereas Germany's is spread out across the whole country? Why don't restaurants scale well? What kind of social science research (if any) should the government be funding? Stian Westlake – Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council and author of Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy – joins the Works in Progress podcast to discuss these questions.

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69:32

Samuel Hughes on The Great Downzoning

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/06/27

Before the twentieth century, most cities were highly permissive about what people were allowed to build on their land. Nearly all Western householders lost these liberties during the first half of the twentieth century. Samuel Hughes calls this phenomenon The Great Downzoning. In the first episode of the Works in Progress Podcast, he describes how and why this happened, and what it means for modern pro-housing campaigners.

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293:46

Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/06/11

Lenacapavir is a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and it could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide. Saloni and Jacob talk about the development and prospects for this new drug, as well as the history of HIV, the initial discovery of retroviruses, and how HIV was transformed from a death sentence to a manageable condition.Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy about medical innovation presented by Saloni

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1:08

Coming soon: The Works in Progress Podcast

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/06/07

Coming soon: the Works in Progress Podcast. Featuring underrated ideas to improve the world – for bigger, more beautiful cities; clean energy that's too cheap to meter; truly pathbreaking scientific research; everyday progress in things like food and drink; and more.Plus: Hard Drugs, a new series hosted by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about medical progress and the quest to eradicate the world's worst diseases.Subscribe now.

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34 results

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