EPISODE · Jan 20, 2026 · 58 MIN
Francesca Samsel - Vulnerability, making a new language, and pursuing the irrational
from Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan · host Ryan McGranaghan
Francesca Samsel is crafting a new language for our world. That is, she crosses art, science, and visualization to open new ways of understanding and engaging with the natural world, not just visually but across the sensorial spectrum. She recognizes the inextricably social element to this, too, and her work raises our capacity to collaborate, and in the process, alters our sense of what scientific inquiry is and can (and perhaps needs to) be. Her work as her life are teachers we need for the world we are walking into. Origins Podcast WebsiteFlourishing Commons NewsletterShow Notes:vulnerability (11:30)problem with the 'follow your passion' path (14:20)Ganymede (15:00)what she tells her students (15:50)art-science collaboration (16:00)Santa Fe Institute (21:20)James (Jim) Ahrens (24:00)Craig Tweedie (25:20)visual structure to see the complexity in data (29:00)Isaac Asimov 'that's funny' (30:20)the need for scientific breakthrough (31:20)Lia Halloran - your hand will physically guide you the way to breakthrough (31:30)the only mark that you determine as an artist is the first one (33:00)delivery-oriented society (34:30)"Stewardship of Global Collective Behavior" by Joseph Bak-Coleman et al. (40:00)visual vocabulary work (42:00)Art-Sci-Vis Lab at UT Austin (43:20)flourishing (47:00)Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (51:45)lightning round (48:00)Artist: Jon McCormick (work called "Fifty Sisters")Passion: geoscience and the complexity you find when you walk out of the doorHeart sing: fused glass, ice, and rockScrewed up: obliviousness to colleaguesFind Francesca online:Website UT AustinLogo artwork by Cristina GonzalezMusic by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media
What this episode covers
Francesca Samsel is crafting a new language for our world. That is, she crosses art, science, and visualization to open new ways of understanding and engaging with the natural world, not just visually but across the sensorial spectrum. She recognizes the inextricably social element to this, too, and her work raises our capacity to collaborate, and in the process, alters our sense of what scientific inquiry is and can (and perhaps needs to) be. Her work as her life are teachers we need for the...
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Francesca Samsel - Vulnerability, making a new language, and pursuing the irrational
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