Nobel Conference Director Lisa Heldke produces new podcast ScienceWhys

Director of the Nobel Conference and Professor in Philosophy Lisa Heldke has created an innovative new podcast in conjunction with the Nobel Conference dubbed ScienceWhys. The podcast’s first episode was released on Sept. 1, and explores the complex relationship between science and ethics.
“Long ago I was also a student [at Gustavus] and I was THAT kind of student, the one who went to every Nobel Conference and took notes,” Heldke said.
“Eventually some of those notes became my PhD dissertation,” Heldke said.
“Our hope in creating ScienceWhys the podcast is that you, the listener, will be inspired to ask a new question, think more deeply about a topic you already know, or explore an issue for the very first time,” Heldke said.
The podcast’s introductory episode concludes with, “Theispodcast is produced by Gustavus graduate Will Clark,” followed by an ode to musician Bessie Smith, whose song “Thinking Blues” is the theme song for the show.
Within the podcast, Heldke conducts interviews with scientists, researchers, scholars and thinkers about how science and ethics mingle.
The show also features interviews with the Human Oncology Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Charles Sawyers, Associate Dean at the Medical University of South Carolina Chanita Hughes-Halbert and many other highly recognized professionals.
“I have an incredibly curious mind and I want to solve puzzles. The puzzles that I am most interested in involve cancer,” Sawyers said.
Heldke and Sawyers, within the second episode of ScienceWhys, discussed ethics of working on something as tragic as cancer, data sharing in the science world amidst a pandemic, embracing discoveries with humility, and solving science’s great puzzles.
“Academic researchers want to get credit for their work and get famous based on keeping their data to themselves until it’s fully shrink wrapped and ready to be published,” Sawyers said.
Sawyers continued that his work at Sloan-Kettering is ethically separated from the majority of academic researchers in the foundation of his team’s incentive basis. Sawyers spoke to the severity of cancer and cancer patients as a primary incentive for creating cures.
A podcast based on consequences, ethics, philosophy and their relation to science covers multilateral subject areas and critically examines hard hitting topics, such as cancer. Heldke conveyed the essence of the Nobel Conference into a podcast format, readily available for anyone to listen.
“This podcast is for anyone who hears about a scientific breakthrough and thinks ‘what are the downstream consequences of that?’” Heldke said.
“When I first began studying philosophy, many nights found me sleepless in St. Peter, worrying about how I knew for certain that the world as I experienced it really existed or not. Years later, I sleep a bit more soundly, but I’m still worrying about many of the same questions about the nature of knowing, the nature of truth, and the nature of reality,” Heldke said.
This combination of philosophical thought and scientific analysis come together in ScienceWhys and represent a value that is at the core of what it means to be a member of the Gustavus Community, excellence and the curiosity that encourages it.
The podcast’s first eight episodes are available for free on Spotify and the ScienceWhys website at https://anchor.fm/sciencewhys.