Topic
44 facts from 33 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
World War II
Frederick Terman, who ran Harvard's wartime radio research lab, was a Stanford professor on loan to Harvard.
“Terman was a Stanford professor. He was just on loan to Harvard during the war years because that's where the government set up the radio labs.”
1950s
The Stanford Industrial Park, now the Stanford Research Park, was carved out of the Stanford campus and leased to companies.
“It's initially called the Stanford Industrial Park. Today it's called the Stanford Research Park.”
1962
Phil Knight's Stanford research paper argued that Japanese running shoes could do to Adidas what Japanese cameras did to German cameras.
“Thus, I argued in my paper that Japanese running shoes might do the same thing.”
1964
Morris Chang completed his PhD at Stanford in two and a half years while Texas Instruments sponsored him.
“So, he finishes his PhD in two and a half years.”
1970s
In a 1970s Stanford study described by Rahul Vohra, children with no expected reward spent 17% of their time drawing, versus 8% for children who expected a reward.
“The children with no reward spent 17% of their time drawing. But the children who expected a reward, the ones who had received compensation, so to speak, they only spent 8% of their time drawing.”
1992
Jensen Huang finished his Stanford master's degree around Thanksgiving 1992, after eight years of part-time study.
“So one day, right around Thanksgiving 1992, Jensen has finally, after eight years, finished his master's degree at Stanford.”
1995
According to the hosts, Stanford's endowment blackballed Benchmark during its first fundraising and later became an investor after its management team turned over.
“Literally, Stanford black balls benchmark. Insane. Totally insane.”
1999
According to Ray Kurzweil, a 1999 Stanford conference polled AI experts on when AI would pass the Turing test, and the average answer was a hundred years.
“It was really the first time that AI experts worldwide were polled on this prediction. Uh, and the average poll was a hundred years.”
1999
In the 1999 Stanford poll, 20 percent of AI experts said a machine would never pass the Turing test and 80 percent said it would happen but not in their lifetimes.
“Uh, 20% believed it would never happen. And that was the view in 1999. 80% believed it would happen, but not within their lifetimes.”
2003
Tangen attributes to Huang a 2003 Stanford remark that his will to survive exceeds almost everybody else's will to kill him.
“In 2003 at Stanford, you said, Um, my will to survive exceeds almost everybody else's will to kill me.”
2005
Stanford won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge with a self-driving car, according to Rabinovich.
“I remember when Stanford won the DARPA grand challenge in 2005, where a self-driving car drove, I think, from LA.”
2012
DoorDash was founded by Stanford students Andy Fang, Stanley Tang, Evan Moore and Tony Hsu.
“Andy Fang and Stanley Tang were the two undergraduate computer science majors. And the two GSB business school students were Evan Moore and Tony Hsu.”
2016
Andrew Huberman says David Goggins visited his lab at Stanford in late 2016 or early 2017.
“It was late 2016, early 2017, I believe, when you were in my lab at Stanford.”
2023
Rao said attendance at the Content Authenticity Initiative symposium grew from 59 people at the first one, four years earlier, to 180 at the latest at Stanford.
“the first time we did this four years ago, there was fifty nine people. This time, there was 180 people.”
2023
Tom Davenport said a Stanford study found little cheating with generative AI in schools.
“It was a study out of Stanford saying that there's not much cheating happening because of generative AI in schools.”
2023
Dasdan cited Stanford research showing large language models may focus on the beginning and end of their input and ignore the middle.
“They showed, for example, LLMs might be focused on, you know, the first data, as well as the last part, middle parts might be ignored.”
2023
Dasdan said Stanford did research around 2023 on how language models use long context.
“There is some research, for example, I think 2023 or so that Stanford did that.”
2024
The host said Stanford's AI Index found entry-level developer employment fell by nearly 20% from its 2024 peak.
“the Stanford's latest AI index found that entry-level developer employment went down with nearly 20% from 2024, which was when it was at its peak, right?”
2025
Both AI co-founders began claiming they had attended Stanford, a detail that became lodged in their memory.
“and he'll say they both will say, like, I went to Stanford, because, like, what would a startup founder be?”
2025
Accenture's AI training includes an hour of computer-based training, two hours in person, and a two-hour course created with Stanford.
“it's two hours of in-person training, and then we have another two hours of a course that we created with Stanford.”
2025
The host said a follow-up to a Stanford-linked study of AI-generated research ideas found that, once executed, the human ideas worked better than the AI ideas.
“And then when they actually did that, what they found was that the human ideas did, in fact, work better than the AI ideas.”
Undated
Anna Lembke, citing Stanford researcher Rob Malenka's work, says oxytocin, the hormone involved in pair bonding, links directly to dopamine neurons and causes dopamine release.
“oxytocin, um, you know, is the hormone that's involved in human pair bonding and relationships and love. And it directly links to dopamine neurons and causes the release of dopamine.”
Undated
The hosts say Stanford took only about 1% of Google, while many universities seek 25% to 50% or more in technology transfer.
“Stanford only took 1% of Google when it was a Stanford, you know, graduate research project, when most universities want 25, 50 plus percent of anything”
Undated
Huberman says Karl Deisseroth, a Stanford bioengineer and psychiatrist, was his show's first guest.
“Doctor Carl Dice Roth colleague of mine at Stanford, incredible bioengineer.”
Undated
Jackie Rocca earned an MBA at Stanford and began her career as a management consultant at Bain in Los Angeles.
“Before that, I got my MBA at Stanford, and then also I have my beginnings as a management consultant, so I started my career at Bain in Los Angeles.”
Undated
Kanjun Qiu says Percy Liang is working on an effort at Stanford to build a community around open model building.
“Percy Liang is working on this, and, uh, yeah, I think like a robust open source community”
Undated
Andrew Huberman says Stanford colleague Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation, heads Stanford's dual diagnosis addiction center.
“Anna Lembke, who wrote the book Dopamine Nation. She's the head of our dual diagnosis addiction center.”
Undated
Tyler Cowen says Emergent Ventures has funded many Stanford people who are doing well as a group.
“Emergent Ventures has funded a lot of people from Stanford, uh, as far as I can tell, as a a group, they're doing very well”
Undated
Huang pursued a Stanford master's degree on nights and weekends while working full time, and it took about eight years.
“going to take him eight years to finish his master's degree because he can only go on nights and weekends”
Undated
Sharma says Stanford is a major customer of Microsoft's AI platform and is working on using AI for tumor reviews.
“Stanford's one of our big customers with the with the platform that I, uh, build, and they're working on using AI for tumor reviews.”
Undated
Pentland says Loyalagents.org, run with Consumer Reports and Stanford's law school, pushes for AI shopping agents that represent the user and are auditable.
“if you're gonna have an agent buying things for you, it had better represent you and not some other company, right?”
Undated
Practical AI episode 276 featured Stanford representatives explaining how the AI Index is created.
“You can go back and listen to episode 276. We had some representatives on from Stanford”
Undated
Hinds cites a Stanford study finding that 41% of Y Combinator AI startups are automating tasks people would prefer to keep human.
“There was a fascinating study that came out of Stanford a while back that found 41% of Y Combinator AI startups are automating things that people would prefer to keep human.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke's recruiting options included Washington, USC, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Stanford.
“Washington, uh, USC, UCLA, uh, Northwestern, Vanderbilt.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke chose Stanford because of its mix of academic and athletic excellence, including Rose Bowl wins and alumni such as Andrew Luck.
“Uh, just the combination of academic and athletic excellence at the time, you know, they were winning Rose Bowls. Andrew Luck had played there.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke's Stanford incoming class included Christian McCaffrey and Solomon Thomas, who were both first-round NFL draft picks.
“Uh, my incoming class was Christian McCaffrey, Solomon Thomas, both of them 1st 1st overall draft or 1st round draft picks.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke recalls Stanford going about 12-2, finishing No. 2 nationally and winning the Rose Bowl in his sophomore year.
“we went, uh, I think 12 and 2, we finished No. 2 in the nation, won the Rose Bowl.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke says about four or five of the roughly 20-22 players in his Stanford recruiting class were drafted.
“my incoming class was about maybe 20, 22 guys. I think about 4 or 5 of us got drafted.”
Undated
Bobby Okereke was all-Pac-12 as a senior and a Stanford captain in his fifth year.
“was a all-Pac 12 player my senior year, and then my 5th year senior year was a captain”
Undated
Erik Brynjolfsson spent over twenty-five years at MIT before moving to Stanford in Silicon Valley.
“I loved my time at MIT. I was there for over twenty five years, but now I'm out here in Silicon Valley”
Undated
Andrew Huberman said Stanford neurosurgeon Joe Parvizi showed that stimulating the anterior mid-cingulate cortex makes people report a challenge is coming and that they will lean into it.
“And if that area is stimulated, my colleague Joe Parvizi at Stanford showed this, he's a neurosurgeon. People say, I feel like a challenge is coming on and I'm gonna lean into it.”
Undated
Andrew Huberman said Stanford researcher Justin Sonnenburg's work found that when people ate more fiber, inflammatory markers rose in many of them.
“In fact, when they had people eat more fiber, for many people, inflammatory markers went up.”
Undated
Andrew Huberman said his Stanford breathing study tracked about a hundred subjects with devices measuring heart rate, heart rate variability and sleep.
“And then we did the study where about a hundred or so subjects were fixed with, um, trackers that measured heart rate and heart rate variability and sleep.”
Undated
Andrew Huberman said that in his Stanford breathing study all groups benefited, but the group doing physiological sighs benefited the most.
“And all of the groups I described saw benefits, but it was the people who did these physiological sighs that benefited the most.”
Episodes