All ears on the Big Ideas Lab podcast

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has big ideas and is showing the world in the Big Ideas Lab weekly podcast that takes listeners behind the fences and into its heart.  

“This is where big ideas come to life,” said Lab Director Kim Budil. “To do this, we bring together dynamic teams of many different disciplines — laser physicists and materials scientists and engineers and biologists and more —t o tackle some of the most unique and complex problems facing the world today. This team approach is our superpower.”

Listeners of the Big Ideas Lab will hear untold stories, meet boundary-pushing pioneers and get unparalleled access to groundbreaking science and technology. The first episode, “Meet the Lab,” features Budil, Deputy Director Carolyn Zerkle and Deputy Director for Science and Technology Pat Falcone discussing the creative, innovative and fast-paced ecosystem that is LLNL.

Like a small city, the Lab has around 10,000 employees and 500 buildings — and an unlimited supply of big ideas. Those employees include experts and newcomers from a range of science and engineering specialties as well as countless administrators, creatives, craft workers and more.

“Our breakthroughs are not one individual doing one thing. It’s teamwork and community,” Zerkle said. “It’s individuals with different backgrounds and experiences coming together to solve problems of global importance. Almost everything we do is looking 10 to 50 years into the future to make a better, safer and more secure world.”

The second episode of the Big Ideas Lab will transport listeners back over 70 years to experience the post-World War II era that the Lab grew out of. Subsequent episodes dive deeply into LLNL’s historic achievement of fusion ignition and explore how the Lab delivers on its primary mission of ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile using supercomputers, lasers, engineering and many brilliant minds.

Future episodes will delve into strategic deterrence, quantum computing and atmospheric modeling. Learn what it’s like to work at LLNL — how the busy staff recharges, reconnects and gives back to the community.  Did you know there is another site in northern California dedicated to the study of explosives? This podcast will take you there.

“I’m excited to share Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with the world through this new podcast,” Budil said.

Ready to listen and follow?

• Spotify
• Apple