{"podcast":{"title":"The Genius Of Design","slug":"the-genius-of-design-7710439","podcast_index_feed_id":7710439,"rss_url":"https://api.riverside.fm/hosting/u87yDcCn.rss","website_url":"www.ousmandiallo.io","image_url":"https://hosting-media.riverside.com/media/podcasts/437aa2db-2205-40e9-b457-792ecc320f50/logos/20ff143b-4624-4691-90be-f397bf2550c8.png","author":"Ousman Diallo","episode_count":19,"summary":"The place where creatives/builders find inspiration, discover tools, and develop the mental models they need to thrive in a digital world.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T02:20:38.053688+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-genius-of-design-7710439"},"episode":{"title":"NYU Scientist Who Started in Art… Karolina Sulich on Why You Were Never Meant to Pick One Field","slug":"nyu-scientist-who-started-in-art-karolina-sulich-on-why-you-were-never-meant-to-pick-one-field","published_at":"2026-06-04T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-genius-of-design-7710439/nyu-scientist-who-started-in-art-karolina-sulich-on-why-you-were-never-meant-to-pick-one-field","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-genius-of-design-7710439","url":"https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/5cb92e7b9361a59fc5643de9225c2d0ee0b6498817aed8766f65bf4cd504fa7d/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiJkYTczY2ZiYS02N2E3LTRiYWEtODUyNC1iNDU1ZWU5MTc4ZWIiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiI0MzdhYTJkYi0yMjA1LTQwZTktYjQ1Ny03OTJlY2MzMjBmNTAiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2ODRmNzAzNDkyYzFlZWZiNzkxZWRhODQiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmEwYzU1NDkwYjRlOTAzZjhjMWIxNzJiL291c21hbi1kcy1zdHVkaW8tY29tcG9zZXItMjAyNi01LTE5X18xNC0xOS0yMS5tcDMifQ==.mp3","audio_url":"https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/5cb92e7b9361a59fc5643de9225c2d0ee0b6498817aed8766f65bf4cd504fa7d/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiJkYTczY2ZiYS02N2E3LTRiYWEtODUyNC1iNDU1ZWU5MTc4ZWIiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiI0MzdhYTJkYi0yMjA1LTQwZTktYjQ1Ny03OTJlY2MzMjBmNTAiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2ODRmNzAzNDkyYzFlZWZiNzkxZWRhODQiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmEwYzU1NDkwYjRlOTAzZjhjMWIxNzJiL291c21hbi1kcy1zdHVkaW8tY29tcG9zZXItMjAyNi01LTE5X18xNC0xOS0yMS5tcDMifQ==.mp3","summary":"Karolina collaborates with living organisms. At NYU's Laboratory of Living Interfaces, she works with microbes — reading their DNA to detect heavy-metal contamination in soil and water, building computational pipelines that turn a cocktail of unknown bacteria into a readable signal. But her first training wasn't in science. It was in art. In this episode, we follow the thread between those two worlds — and why Karolina insists they were never separate. We get into why she sees math and code as a form of poetry, why identity is something you do and not something you are , and why the educational system's habit of labeling kids early (\"you're an arts person,\" \"you're a math person\") quietly held her back for years. The heart of the conversation is about how to think. Karolina makes the case that there are no shortcuts to mastery — that the brain is biological jelly with its own modus operandi, and no AI tool changes the fact that real understanding takes time, repetition, and being willing to be a beginner again. We talk about the equation Ousman scribbled mid-conversation — curiosity greater than ego — and why that single inequality might be the whole game. We also get into the Gowanus Canal: how an atmospheric art installation made of contaminated water and sludge accidentally produced a legitimate scientific question, and what that says about where good questions actually come from. Plus DNA you can print, the biosecurity stakes of writing the language of life, de-extincting mammoths, and a rescued park parakeet that may be her next research subject. If you've ever felt boxed in by your own label, or wondered how to ask a question worth chasing — this one's for you.","meta_description":"Karolina collaborates with living organisms. At NYU's Laboratory of Living Interfaces, she works with microbes — reading their DNA to detect heavy-metal c…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5850,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-genius-of-design-7710439/episodes/nyu-scientist-who-started-in-art-karolina-sulich-on-why-you-were-never-meant-to-pick-one-field/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-genius-of-design-7710439/nyu-scientist-who-started-in-art-karolina-sulich-on-why-you-were-never-meant-to-pick-one-field.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}