About

Cambridge Nights is a modest attempt to share bits and pieces of Cambridge with the rest of the world. In this first season, we have put together a series of interviews with academics who will discuss the way in which they view the world.

The rules of Cambridge Nights are very simple:

First, each episode is about academics and their ideas. As I interview them, my goal is not to confront them, but rather to provide a space where they can share their views and thoughts. The audience is welcome to agree or disagree with our guests, but as an interview goes, the goal of Cambridge Nights is to help extract, rather than confront, their views.

Second, guests are not asked to simplify or condense their narratives. We invite them because we want to hear what they have to say, and we want to give them the time to say it comfortably. There are many high-speed formats out there. Cambridge Nights is an alternative where thoughts can be developed and reflected upon without the need to rush.

Finally, we ask our guests to share with us two things: their views on the world, and a bit of their life stories. After hearing what these wonderful academics have to say we ask them to share with the audience the personal context in which their work is taking place.

We hope you enjoy listening to each one of these interviews, and that they help bring you closer to some of these exciting ideas.

All the best

César A. Hidalgo
ABC Career Development Professor, MIT Media Lab
Assistant Professor, MIT

36 comments on “About”

  5. Felicidades! El programa, las pláticas y la iniciativa en sí, me parecen excelentes.

    Ojalá algún día podamos platicar con ustedes para el auditorio de México.

    Sigan adelante, esperamos la segunda temporada.

    Saludos

    Erick Zárate
    97Gigas: Tu clave de acceso a las nuevas tecnologías
    http://www.97gigas.com

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  6. Cesar, The work you’re doing is wonderful. Too often scientists are essentially aloof. People are unable to connect. Yet, in the format you provide, not only the content, but the people are accessible. Keep up the great work! I look forward to future postings.

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  8. Dr. Hidalgo,
    This is a great idea and a wonderful way to introduce science and scientists to all of us. I just came across this site so I have some catching up to do which I am looking forward to immensely.
    Thank you and your colleagues for your excellent effort to improve science literacy.

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  10. These are fascinating and enlightening conversations, Prof. Hidalgo, even to a non-scientist like me. I particularly appreciate the variety of fields you are covering. I would urge you to include some women scientists in your docket, as well, as these interviews could be useful in informing and inspiring future scientists.

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  12. I really enjoy these interviews! I have the impassioned request that you include at least a few interviews with female scientists.

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  13. Dear Cesar,

    I enjoy Cambridge Night immensely. The fact that you are interviewing is a long way ahead from looking at lectures on video. I want to do a similar thing with people that I invite here to teach in training courses. I have access to high quality academic and industrial people that would agree to be interviewed They all have strong opinions in fields of research in Biology and Computer science. Can I ask you for references on how I should equip myself to collect video interviews with this level of technical quality?

    Thanks
    Pedro

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  16. It’s so refreshing to find conversations geared to intelligent and educated people without the fear of being branded “elite”, and yet in formats that a non-academic can understand. You seem to have found the perfect balance.
    And with our busy lives, it’s nice that one can listen to these interviews without having to commit hours to each one. They fit nicely into a lunch hour, a drive home, or even a longish coffee break.

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  17. Cesar,

    This is fantastic! Especially, it allows scientists to poke at ideas that are in their minds but not in the realm of science. This really fills a huge gap that exists between formal science and informal, nascent ideas. It is also amazing that in this information age and social-networking, such format did not emerge and evolve. Thanks for being a catalyst.

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  19. Dear Commentators,

    First of all. Thanks for your comments.

    Believe it or not, busy and accomplished academics are not very eager to donate their time to an online video series involving a show that does not exist, targeted to an audience that is not yet there. This was the scheduling challenge we faced on season 1.

    The people that participated in this first season are all personal friends of mine that were willing to take the risk, and donate their time for this experiment. In fact, I had personal acquaintances that decided not to participate simply because, ex-ante, they could not see this as a useful use of their time.

    So, the lineup of season 1 reflects the instantiation of a project performed in an uncertain environment, with important time constraints, and with basically zero budget.

    I hope the comments of those that ask for more women scientist in the series do not imply a deliberate attempt from our end to portray a picture of science in which women are not active participants. Our attempt was simply to share a small sample of academic life that could help illustrate the potential of the format and provide a platform to build it further. As any attempt to make something in the real world, this was subject to a variety of context specific constraints.

    I apologize for not having female guests in Season 1. Our hope is to leverage the little attention that we have gotten so far to help a wider variety of guests. Hopefully, this will allow us to include a more diverse group of people, when it comes to gender, ethnicity and field of study.

    So far, we have confirmed professors Marta Gonzalez and Rosalind Picard from MIT for season 2.

    I hope you enjoy what we have been able to offer so far and that the messages of our guests help inspire thoughts and ideas.

    All the best

    C

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  22. Thank you very much. I saw this in a NYTimes article and just viewed Dr. Mercador’s interview. I talk about this stuff all the time!! This is an excellent venue and much needed.

    A problem Science has is that it is viewed as … uncaring of the consequences of the knowledge produced by its practitioners. This show gives those scientists a venue to express themselves as human, and to nurture the fascination in their audience that propelled them on the career path.

    I think you have an excellent product here. I hope it can expand beyond Cambridge to include scientists across the country and globe. Thanks for not simplifying the stuff. The use of metaphor is a powerful tool for scientists in explaining their views to lay people but often much complexity is lost in the overuse of metaphor. I think teachers of undergrad level will love this as a resource to begin students thinking about the mentoring process, and to ask questions of professors at their own universities.

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    • Thanks Henry! These are great comments!

      I am glad to hear that you like the style :-) . For season 2 we are looking for people to contribute questions for our guests, and we would love to get question from people like you.

      We are now working on season 2, with the hope to help push the show and what it stands for a little bit further.

      Cheers!

      C

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  23. Thank you so much for initiating this project. I came upon it as a consequence of an article in the NY Times and have been riveted to the interviews since finding it. As an almost 70 year old former student of physics and electrical engineering, who drifted off into a career in economics and finance, I am thoroughly fascinated by how far and fast the fields I studied in the 60s have grown, changed, merged into each other, branched out into whole new fields, and progressed to a point almost unrecognizable to an earlier generation of students.

    More important than my own fascination with your work, however, is what something along these lines if aired to the public more widely might accomplish in a) exciting young people about the possibilities of careers in science and b) in altering the somewhat negative views much of the public has of scientists and their work in general (e.g., witness the denial of global warming and even evolution). I have no brilliant ideas about how to go about broadening the audience and generating interest, but I would certainly encourage you to try. Meanwhile, keep up the good work.

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    • Dear Buckner. Thanks for you comments!

      Our hope is to help push the exact points you mention. In the future, we are looking forward to have people start similar projects in other locations. If all works well, we can have a “Madrid, Nights” or “London, Nights” started by people that believe in the same ideas.

      Your comments are extremely valuable and they help us keep on going :-)

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  25. Great interviews to learn about current topics on science. Please continue this project in time. Mercader was at his best !

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  26. Fun shows!

    I am the Program Director of Astronomy.FM, an all-astronomy internet radio station.

    May we carry “Cambridge Nights”?

    I look forward to hearing from you!

    Thanks! ~Michael
    Michael [at] Astronomy [dot] FM

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    • Hi Michael,

      Cambridge Nights is free of use for non commercial purposes. If that is the case, please feel free to carry them.

      We would appreciate you would mention the original source.

      Cheers!!

      C

      Reply ↓

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