Life, Automated https://www.kqed.org/podcasts en KQED Inc Life, Automated explores how AI and automation are reshaping everyday life–how we work, learn, communicate, and make decisions–through conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and other unexpected experts. Each episode is built around a single, accessible question. How quickly will AI take over our jobs? How concerned should we really be about AI’s impact on the climate? And, why the heck are we forming emotional attachments to chatbots? Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, aiming to move beyond both hype and alarmism to help listeners better understand the future we’re collectively creating. Host Jess Love is a science writer with a PhD in cognitive psychology and is the Sr. Director for the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Her writing has appeared in The American Scholar, Discover, Quartz, and more. https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/70f7d94e-66a7-11f1-8db2-ff51361d9078/image/a6e7b6c45b0b6d62172396c676a91969.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress Life, Automated https://www.kqed.org/podcasts episodic Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Life, Automated explores how AI and automation are reshaping everyday life–how we work, learn, communicate, and make decisions–through conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and other unexpected experts. Each episode is built around a single, accessible question. How quickly will AI take over our jobs? How concerned should we really be about AI’s impact on the climate? And, why the heck are we forming emotional attachments to chatbots? Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, aiming to move beyond both hype and alarmism to help listeners better understand the future we’re collectively creating. Host Jess Love is a science writer with a PhD in cognitive psychology and is the Sr. Director for the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Her writing has appeared in The American Scholar, Discover, Quartz, and more. Life, Automated explores how AI and automation are reshaping everyday life–how we work, learn, communicate, and make decisions–through conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and other unexpected experts. Each episode is built around a single, accessible question. How quickly will AI take over our jobs? How concerned should we really be about AI’s impact on the climate? And, why the heck are we forming emotional attachments to chatbots? Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, aiming to move beyond both hype and alarmism to help listeners better understand the future we’re collectively creating.


Host Jess Love is a science writer with a PhD in cognitive psychology and is the Sr. Director for the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Her writing has appeared in The American Scholar, Discover, Quartz, and more.


]]> KQED ondemand@kqed.org Coming July 15th! Life, Automated Life, Automated explores the surreal, exciting, and occasionally terrifying ways AI and automation are reshaping our daily lives.Through thoughtful conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and more, we do our best to make sense of how technology is changing—and how it is changing us. We ask: What does the economy look like if AI can do much of what humans can? Will AI tools isolate us further, or steer us back toward community and common ground? Can the average person expect to be better off a decade from now? And what the heck should we tell a sixteen year old who wants to know whether learning German (or design, or coding, or the piano) is still worth it? Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, going deep without getting too technical. Because you shouldn’t need to be an “AI person” to understand the future we’re collectively building. The show is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, distributed by KQED. You can reach us at lifeautomatedpod@gmail.com. Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:00:00 -0000 trailer Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Life, Automated explores the surreal, exciting, and occasionally terrifying ways AI and automation are reshaping our daily lives.Through thoughtful conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and more, we do our best to make sense of how technology is changing—and how it is changing us. We ask: What does the economy look like if AI can do much of what humans can? Will AI tools isolate us further, or steer us back toward community and common ground? Can the average person expect to be better off a decade from now? And what the heck should we tell a sixteen year old who wants to know whether learning German (or design, or coding, or the piano) is still worth it? Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, going deep without getting too technical. Because you shouldn’t need to be an “AI person” to understand the future we’re collectively building. The show is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, distributed by KQED. You can reach us at lifeautomatedpod@gmail.com. Life, Automated explores the surreal, exciting, and occasionally terrifying ways AI and automation are reshaping our daily lives.
Through thoughtful conversations with researchers, practitioners, artists, and more, we do our best to make sense of how technology is changing—and how it is changing us.


We ask: What does the economy look like if AI can do much of what humans can? Will AI tools isolate us further, or steer us back toward community and common ground? Can the average person expect to be better off a decade from now? And what the heck should we tell a sixteen year old who wants to know whether learning German (or design, or coding, or the piano) is still worth it?


Life, Automated is grounded and non-ideological, going deep without getting too technical. Because you shouldn’t need to be an “AI person” to understand the future we’re collectively building.


The show is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, distributed by KQED. You can reach us at lifeautomatedpod@gmail.com.



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