Things You Can't Live Without

Hod Lipson - Columbia University professor and award-winning robotics researcher - shares with Dr. Anna the one item he can’t live without - his Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The conversation reveals how much GPUs underpin our electronic world, and how one somewhat unsung element - boron - is at the heart of making them work. Rio Tinto’s Chief Executive, Minerals, Sinead Kaufman, unpicks what boron is, how it’s extracted, and what needs to be done to keep us having the electronic devices so many of us rely on. We also look at how AI might have a role to play in the future of mining, why boron is “the WD-40 of the world” and what’s being done to help sustainability by “robots eating robots”!

Spacecraft engineer Dr. Leah Alconcel joins Dr. Anna to tell her about the one item she can’t live without - her lasersFrom sending spacecraft to Saturn to the possibility of being able to watch TikTok in outer space, Dr. Leah shares the critical role that lasers have in her life. We are joined again by Rio’s Chief Scientist, Nigel Steward, who reveals how lasers are in fact a fundamental part of everyone’s daily lives and the role of the very small but powerful metals called Rare Earths which ironically (and thankfully) are not that rare.

Chemical biologist and explorer Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza shares with Dr. Anna the one item she can’t live without - her field microscope. Dr. Rosa takes us on an expedition to the Amazon as we understand how integral her microscope is to her day-to-day work searching for the tiniest creatures, from heat-loving microbes that exist in boiling rivers to the stingless bee native to Peru. Another exploration expert - Rio Tinto’s Managing Director of Studies, Alison Morley - joins us to share tales of following the clues found in the patterns in rocks and what these patterns tell us about our earth, before Dr. Anna asks both Dr. Rosa and Alison how we can ensure that these ecosystems being explored are protected for our future. 

Cooking sensation and two-time Top Chef winner Buddha Lo joins Dr. Anna to share the one item he can’t live without - salt.Buddha takes us to his kitchen in New York where he explains its critical role in food not just today, but throughout history. Rio Tinto’s Chief Advisor Process Development, Amy Lamb, joins the discussion to explain salt’s journey from the sea to the table and why you can’t eat the salt you use to grit the road, before Dr. Anna asks what lengths they’d go to to ensure that we didn’t have to live without this vital material.

Daytime Emmy Award-winning science communicator, podcaster, TV presenter, writer and food buff Alie Ward joins Dr. Anna to share her unquenchable love for the item she can’t live without - her insulated flask. As a self-confessed ice fiend, Alie shares the daily amazement her flask provides, which she tells Dr. Anna is akin to magic. To help unravel some of the mystery, chemist and broadcaster Andrea Sella helps lift the lid on the science of vacuums and we are joined again by Rio Tinto’s Chief Advisor of Discovery, Marie-Pierre Paquin, who delivers Alie the amazing news that a future of low carbon steel is coming.

Singer, songwriter, author and broadcaster Cerys Matthews joins Dr. Anna this week to share the items she can’t live without - her climbing equipment. Mark Davies, Chief Technical Officer at Rio Tinto, and climbing curator Nigel Buckley also join Cerys and Dr. Anna to discuss the days of climbing with wooden axes, conquering summits and current breakthroughs in achieving low-carbon aluminium.

Award-winning Foley artist Shelley Roden joins Dr. Anna on the podcast to explain why she can’t live without trash.As a Foley artist, Shelley spends her days using trash to make the sound effects for live action and animated films. She’s worked on over two hundred titles such as Black Panther and Disney’s Encanto and she challenges Dr. Anna and Rio Tinto’s Metallurgical Engineer Saskia Duyvesteyn to a live sound quiz. Together, they look at the value of ‘waste’ and what the circular economy could mean for preserving the resources of this planet.

BBC broadcaster and cycling obsessive OJ Borg joins Dr. Anna to share the item he can’t live without - his e-bike. Alongside bike historian Tony Hadland and Rio Tinto’s General Manager of Technical Development, Jared Osborne, they unearth the explosion in the popularity of the e-bike, investigate how you turn rocks into batteries and discuss the impact to the planet of keeping the world charged.

Paralympic gold medallist and ambassador for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, Rudy Garcia-Tolson joins Dr. Anna to share the one item he can’t live without - his prosthetic legs.Rio Tinto’s Chief Advisor of Discovery, Marie-Pierre Paquin also joins the conversation. As they track the evolution in prosthetic limbs, Rudy shares memories of search parties being sent out to find parts of his legs during recess, and they investigate the complexity of processing one of the central materials in prosthetics - Titanium - which is one of the most abundant metals on earth.