Paola Arlotta: Brain Development from Stem Cell to Organoid | Lex Fridman Podcast #32

Paola Arlotta is a professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University. She is interested in understanding the molecular laws that govern the birth, differentiation and assembly of the human brain’s cerebral cortex. She explores the complexity of the brain by studying and engineering elements of how the brain develops. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep32-sb See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. *CONTACT LEX:* *Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey *AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama *Hiring* - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring *Other* - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact *OUTLINE:* 0:00 - Introduction 1:05 - How unlikely is the human brain? 5:28 - Brain development process 13:57 - Brain development organization as a distributed vs centralized system 20:08 - Nature vs nurture, hardware vs software 22:38 - Brain organoids 36:40 - Our place in the history of understanding the brain 39:45 - Building a human brain 42:45 - Ethics 49:02 - Lessons from raising kids 52:14 - How has studying the brain changed your understanding of self? 54:08 - Merging with AI *PODCAST LINKS:* - Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips *SOCIAL LINKS:* - X: https://x.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://instagram.com/lexfridman - TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://facebook.com/lexfridman - Patreon: https://patreon.com/lexfridman - Telegram: https://t.me/lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman