The Year of Curiosity Podcast

Jay McKinney, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science

Jay McKinney, our newly-hired Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, joins Jenn and George to share his perspective on how AI generative thinks, the likelihood that this technology will lead us to the singularity, and the coolness of giant robots. (The answers are, in order, it doesn’t, it won’t, and they’re very cool. It’s a fun conversation, though, so you should listen!)

Sam Thayer, Director of the Office of Accessibility Resources

Sam Thayer, Director of the Office of Accessibility Resources (and our second alum from the Class of 2010) talks with us about the ways that AI technology is providing new options for meeting student accommodations, but why she tends to take a slow and skeptical approach when assessing new AI tools.

Quoc Nguyen '25

George and Jennifer chat with Quoc Nguyen, a recent alum and current PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Minnesota. Quoc tells us about his experiences as a CS major and Educational Associate in the age of generative AI and why he’s been reluctant to integrate AI tools into his own work.

Anastasia Salter, Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor in Digital Arts and Humanities

Jennifer and George chat with Anastasia Salter, Carleton’s Benedict Distinguished Professor in Digital Arts and Humanities and the co-author of the upcoming book, Critical Making in the Age of AI. Anastasia talks about the ways that AI changes our relationships with writing, from literature to code. Meanwhile, George talks about the limitations of AI powered sunglasses and Jenn discusses how to freak out self-driving taxis.

Janet Scannell, Chief Technology Officer

Janet Scannell, Carleton’s Chief Technology Officer, talks with Jennifer and George about defining Carleton’s Year of Curiosity around AI and the benefits and challenges that this technology holds for Carleton. Also, George wonders what defines a Minnesota winter and Jennifer plugs the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

William North, Professor of History and Sindy Fleming, Associate Dean of Students

Jennifer and George chat with Bill North (History/Medieval Studies) and Sindy Fleming (Sophomore Class Dean) about their first-year seminar course, Civil Discourse in a Troubled Age, and the ways that AI might change our students' ability to connect and engage with other people. Also, Jennifer gets curious about aptonyms.

Ross Elfline, Professor of Art History

Jennifer and George talk with Ross Elfline, Professor of Art History, about how the conversation around AI today echoes the artistic movements of the 1930s and 1960s and why he finds “AI slop” fascinating.  We also learn what one AI tool thinks about the podcast and speculate about how AI might affect airline safety.

Kendall George, Cybersecurity Officer for Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges

We talk to Kendall George, the Cybersecurity Officer for Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, about how AI is affecting the cybersecurity industry, how AI might make email scams harder to spot, and how to successfully argue with ChatGPT about the definition of a horror movie.

Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Professor of Physics

Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Professor of Physics joins us to talk about the ways she’s been using AI to help students learn Physics and quantitative reasoning skills, and we also discuss mushroom-robot hybrids.

Eric Alexander, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Jennifer and George talk with Eric Alexander, Associate Professor of Computer Science.