Show notes
Mike Levin is a Professor of Biology at Tufts University in the US and leads the Levin Lab and pursues research across cancer, birth defects, regenerative medicine, AI, synthetic morphology, and philosophy, unified by a central aim: understanding how minds become embodied and scale across biological and synthetic systems. Mike explains his early inspirations and his practice of looking for what is “not in the textbook,” challenging dominant paradigms and treating scientific frameworks as metaphors that both reveal and hide phenomena. He describes navigating academia by separating creative exploration from pragmatic communication, strategically and slowly rolling out disruptive ideas as data accumulate, and connecting new ideas to what others value. He discusses building and managing an interdisciplinary lab, sustaining high publication output through intensive work, persisting through rejection, and advising students to envision long-term outcomes and not give up. This conversation will inspire you to also ask new questions.00:29 Episode Introduction04:24 Introducing Mike, the Levin Lab and the Embodied Minds Research Agenda06:30 Early Curiosity Origins - TVs and Bugs09:45 Fresh Eyes Method11:48 Hidden Capacties of Algorithms13:21 Beyond Disciplines15:07 Navigating Academia Your Way17:08 Curating Radical Ideas20:21 Two Minds Strategy and Being Realistic24:45 Understanding Communities, Building Your Own Community26:09 Slow Curated Rollout Dial29:32 Imposter Syndrome Reality29:58 Data Over Opinions32:11 Interdisciplinary Metaphors34:44 Rethinking Scientific Categories36:23 Hiring For Discomfort, Building a MultiDisciplinary Team39:14 From Crazy To Obvious41:07 Seeding Lab Communication43:51 Partnering With Model Systems45:06 Sharing Science45:51 Productivity And Sacrifice47:22 Stress And Best Job49:19 Speaking to Young Researchers50:55 Never Give UpRelated links:The Levin Lab website and Starter pack: Introductory materials to the lab's academic workTufts Allen Discovery CenterMike's personal Blog: Forms of life, forms of mind and Google Scholar pagePodcast Exploring the origin and nature of minds in the physical universe and YouTube channelTED conversation about "The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life"Advice he gives to his students
