23 Sep 2026 · 55 min
An AI@GSB Special: Demis Hassabis Thinks We’re in the ‘Foothills of the Singularity’
Google DeepMind's CEO discusses solving intelligence, giving away AlphaFold, and why he believes AGI is just around the corner.
Podcast · Business
If/Then
by Stanford GSB · English · Business
How do we lead with purpose, make better decisions, and navigate an uncertain future? On If/Then , Stanford GSB faculty break down cutting-edge research on leadership, strategy, and more, exploring enduring questions and the forces reshaping business and society today, from AI to geopolitics. Hos
- New episodes
- Every two weeks
- Typical length
- 27 min
- Latest
- 23 Sep 2026
- Language
- English
Latest episode
Earlier episodes 29 most recent
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S3 · E56 · 26 Aug 2026 · 20 min
Think Fast Talk Smart: "What Other People Teach You About Your Communication"
What if purpose is what drives us to act, but meaning comes from how those actions affect other people?This week on If/Then, we’re sharing a conversation between two Stanford GSB colleagues: Think Fast, Talk Smart host Matt Abrahams and organizational behavior professor Brian Lowery.Recorded live at Stanford’s LEAD Me2We event, Matt and Brian explore the difference between purpose and meaning, why meaning is rooted in our relationships with others, and how the way we show up shapes the people around us. They also discuss sincerity, leadership, and how to give feedback that helps people feel…
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S3 · E55 · 8 Jul 2026 · 33 min
Stanford Legal: "The Importance of Critical Thinking and Civil Discourse in Today's Polarized World"
How do you engage effectively across deep disagreement without shutting down the conversation?This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode from our colleagues at Stanford Legal, the podcast from Stanford Law School that looks at the cases, questions, and conflicts shaping public life.In a world where confidence is rewarded and humility can feel like a liability, Stanford Law professor Robert MacCoun argues for something radical: fewer unwavering opinions, more critical reflection, and a better way to disagree. On Stanford Legal, MacCoun joins co-hosts Pam Karlan and Diego Zambrano for a…
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S3 · E54 · 25 Jun 2026 · 29 min
What AI Can’t Do — And Why
“Humans manage to do so much with surprisingly little,” says Douglas Guilbeault, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Whereas AI, by comparison, is doing relatively little, but with so much power, so much compute, so many resources, and by comparison, relatively fewer constraints.”On a bonus episode of the If/Then podcast, Guilbeault describes the implications of his recent work. Although he readily acknowledges that AI is “increasingly able to do quite a lot,” Guilbeault and his colleagues believe they have identified a key principle…
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S3 · E53 · 10 Jun 2026 · 45 min
Our AI Future: From Abundance to Apocalypse
Abundance, anyone? While the risks posed by artificial intelligence are extraordinary, so is the potential, says professor of economics Chad Jones.
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S3 · E52 · 20 May 2026 · 24 min
The Art of Friction
“Great leaders are people who think of themselves as trustees of other people’s time,” says Huggy Rao.
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S3 · E51 · 6 May 2026 · 26 min
Unconventional Wisdom
Seeing the world differently can be costly, but it can also provide a competitive edge.
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S3 · E50 · 22 Apr 2026 · 25 min
Why Who You Are Affects How You Think
The moment we see someone as an individual rather than a category, we become more likely to find common ground.
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S3 · E49 · 8 Apr 2026 · 27 min
The Paradox of Masculinity
“We spend a lot of time talking about gender inequality through the lens of women’s disadvantage,” she says. “I think that many of the problems that we’re seeing today… are actually bound up in masculinity.”
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S3 · E48 · 25 Mar 2026 · 26 min
What We Actually Learn From Experience
Steven Callander has spent years building a mathematical framework to answer the question of how people learn from experience. “Here in Silicon Valley, the expression that you learn from failure is very widespread and very intuitive. But the question is… what do you learn? How do you optimally learn from that experience?”In this episode, Callander, the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management and Professor of Political Economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, explains the hidden, deceptively simple logic of correlated learning — and it may change how you think about…
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S3 · E47 · 11 Mar 2026 · 25 min
How Dating and Sports Explain the Job Market
Seemingly unrelated activities — like taking a soccer penalty kick or crafting an online dating profile — involve an embedded economics.
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S3 · E46 · 4 Mar 2026 · 1 min
If/Then Returns: Season Three
If/Then Season 3 is coming next week. GSB faculty explore innovative research that deepens our understanding of business and leadership.
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S2 · E45 · 22 Dec 2025 · 29 min
GSB at 100: "The Moment"
The fourth and final episode of GSB at 100 captures a snapshot of a once-in-a-century milestone.
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S2 · E44 · 26 Nov 2025 · 29 min
GSB at 100: "The Experience"
From management to modeling, we explore the classroom experience at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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S2 · E43 · 12 Nov 2025 · 25 min
GSB at 100: "The Spirit"
Meet some of the people whose work powers a school that changes lives, organizations, and the world.
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S2 · E42 · 29 Oct 2025 · 27 min
What's Your Problem: "Teaching Computers to See"
This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of What’s Your Problem?, a show from Pushkin Industries where entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists talk about the future they’re trying to build—and the problems they must solve to get there. Hosted by former Planet Money co-host Jacob Goldstein, each conversation explores the challenges and breakthroughs shaping the next wave of innovation.In this episode, Goldstein speaks with Fei-Fei Li, Stanford computer scientist, former Chief Scientist of AI and Machine Learning at Google, and one of the most influential figures in the field of…
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S2 · E41 · 24 Sep 2025 · 21 min
GSB at 100: The Magic
Professors reflect on what Stanford GSB has accomplished in one hundred years and what the future may hold.
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S2 · E40 · 27 Aug 2025 · 56 min
View From The Top: “Lisa Su Is Still Curious About How Things Work”
This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of View From The Top: The Podcast, an audio series featuring leaders from around the world in conversation with MBA students. Recorded live at the CEMEX Auditorium at Stanford Graduate School of Business, episodes feature insights on effective leadership, the values that guide it, and lessons learned along the way.Lisa Su, the chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), leads one of the world’s most influential technology companies, a pioneer in high-performance computing and designer of chips that power everything from cellphones to…
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S2 · E39 · 13 Aug 2025 · 16 min
The Joy of Discovery and Why Research Matters
As we celebrate the conclusion of the second season of the If/Then podcast, we present a bonus episode featuring Deborah H. Gruenfeld, the Joseph McDonald Professor and Professor of Organizational Behavior and a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Gruenfeld, who appeared on the first season of If/Then in an award-winning episode about hierarchies and the nature of power, returned to the studio to share her thoughts on the value of academic research and its impact on individuals and organizations. “The nice thing about research is that it…
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S2 · E38 · 30 Jul 2025 · 34 min
The Future of Everything: "The Future of Motivation"
How do you stay motivated when your goal is months — or even years — away? Stanford’s Szu-chi Huang breaks down the science of sticking with it.
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S2 · E37 · 9 Jul 2025 · 24 min
Think Fast, Talk Smart: "Tensions and Trade-Offs of Leadership and Communication"
Leadership isn’t about avoiding uncertainty: it’s about embracing the clarity that ambiguity can bring.
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S2 · E36 · 25 Jun 2025 · 30 min
Culture Still Eats Strategy For Breakfast
Do you stick to the rules or do you roll through stop signs? Whether you’re “tight” or “loose” — how closely you adhere to social norms — has major implications for your life at home and at work. “To be effective, we want to be ambidextrous,” says Michele Gelfand, the John H. Scully Professor in Cross-Cultural Management and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Even if we might lean tight or loose, we want to be able to create a context where we can have both tight and loose elements.”Sophisticated strategies will fail if they don’t account for…
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S2 · E35 · 11 Jun 2025 · 28 min
The AI Prescription for Healthcare
AI has the potential to reshape medicine. But translating its promise into solutions for providers and patients is a high-stakes challenge.“There’s a lot more problems than solutions available,” says Mohsen Bayati, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Professor of Operations, Information & Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “So it’s ripe for innovation.”From trust and privacy to hallucination and data quality, the complications are significant. Bayati says that safely and effectively integrating AI into an enormous industry that treats people in their most vulnerable moments requires…
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S2 · E34 · 28 May 2025 · 27 min
Designing the AI Organization
“The way I think about trying to anticipate and shape the AI future requires us to take a step back and ask ourselves first, ‘What does this technology do? What does it enable?’” reflects Amir Goldberg, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “That’s very different from asking ourselves, ‘How is the technology implemented?’” From locating the origins of innovation to identifying hidden barriers blocking new ideas, Goldberg presents a framework for harnessing novel technological capabilities like AI — capabilities that are essential for staying ahead of…
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S2 · E33 · 14 May 2025 · 30 min
What Happened to the Middle?
Neil Malhotra, the Edith M. Cornell professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, aims to identify the nature of our tumultuous political moment in his work. In this episode, Malhotra explores rising distrust, shifting political identities, and what these changes mean for individuals — and businesses. Plus, the billion-dollar question: “Is Trump creating a movement that is separate from himself or is it identified with himself?” Malhotra asks. “It remains to be seen.”Is there a political question you’d like us to explore? Email us at ifthenpod@stanford.edu.This…
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S2 · E32 · 30 Apr 2025 · 26 min
Small Business, Big Impact
Sridhar Narayanan, a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studies how small businesses operate and why they’re so important, especially in the developing world. “Modernizing small businesses will have a profound impact on economies worldwide in many ways,” he says. In this episode of If/Then, Narayanan explains why so many retailers still rely on cash, how modernization can boost revenue, and what these patterns reveal about credit access, trust in institutions, and global economic development.Have you modernized a small business or did you choose to stick with…
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S2 · E31 · 16 Apr 2025 · 28 min
Could Financial Literacy Change the World?
Only a third of the global population is financially literate. Why? Because most of us don’t learn the basics of personal finance in school — or elsewhere. Treating financial literacy as an afterthought can have serious consequences, from personal calamities to economic crises, according to Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of finance and the director of the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making at Stanford Graduate School of Business. On this episode of If/Then, Lusardi makes the case for treating financial education like preventative care: essential, cost-effective, and an enormous…
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S2 · E30 · 2 Apr 2025 · 25 min
Adapting To Massive Technological Change
Susan Athey, the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab, studies the impact of technological innovations on workers, businesses, and society. Will the world’s economies successfully adapt to a future defined by artificial intelligence? On this episode, Athey shares what the stories of 22,000 laid-off workers in Sweden can tell us about who recovers from economic turmoil, how small design changes and product features can have outsize societal impact, and how AI could transform the way we work, from…
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S2 · E29 · 19 Mar 2025 · 26 min
Think You Know Yourself? Think Again.
Brian Lowery, the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the author of Selfless: The Social Creation of You, argues that identity is about much more than external characteristics, family history, or the collection of experiences that compose the chronology of our lives. In fact, Lowery argues, our identities are constantly being formed, shifted, and even co-created — by the people around us. In this episode, Lowery breaks down how leaders, colleagues, and even casual acquaintances influence the people we are continually…
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S2 · E28 · 5 Mar 2025 · 25 min
How Taxes Influence Innovation
What’s one of the most powerful forces behind technological breakthroughs, business strategy, and job creation? The tax code.Rebecca Lester, an associate professor of accounting and one of three inaugural Botha-Chan Faculty Scholars at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studies how subtle tax incentives can trigger monumental business decisions, determining how companies invest, grow, and innovate.These incentives don’t just shape corporate strategy — they ripple across industries, economies, and markets. From advancing clean energy to catalyzing global competition, you might think of tax…
About If/Then
How do we lead with purpose, make better decisions, and navigate an uncertain future? On If/Then , Stanford GSB faculty break down cutting-edge research on leadership, strategy, and more, exploring enduring questions and the forces reshaping business and society today, from AI to geopolitics. Hosted by senior editor Kevin Cool.
If/Then is a English business podcast from Stanford GSB. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
- Publisher
- Stanford GSB
- Language
- English
- Category
- Business
- New episodes
- Every two weeks
- Typical length
- 27 min
- Latest episode
- 23 Sep 2026
- Feed
- RSS — paste into any podcast app
- Apple Podcasts
- podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1725380194
- Rights
- © StanfordBusiness
More English business 6
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