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 Introduction
04:24 Introducing Mike, the Levin Lab and the Embodied Minds Research Agenda
06:30 Early Curiosity Origins - TVs and Bugs
09:45 Fresh Eyes Method
11:48 Hidden Capacties of Algorithms
13:21 Beyond Disciplines
15:07 Navigating Academia Your Way
17:08 Curating Radical Ideas
20:21 Two Minds Strategy and Being Realistic
24:45 Understanding Communities, Building Your Own Community
26:09 Slow Curated Rollout Dial
29:32 Imposter Syndrome Reality
29:58 Data Over Opinions
32:11 Interdisciplinary Metaphors
34:44 Rethinking Scientific Categories
36:23 Hiring For Discomfort, Building a MultiDisciplinary Team
39:14 From Crazy To Obvious
41:07 Seeding Lab Communication
43:51 Partnering With Model Systems
45:06 Sharing Science
45:51 Productivity And Sacrifice
47:22 Stress And Best Job
49:19 Speaking to Young Researchers
50:55 Never Give Up
Related links:
The Levin Lab website and Starter pack: Introductory materials to the lab's academic work
Tufts Allen Discovery Center
Mike's personal Blog: Forms of life, forms of mind and Google Scholar page
Podcast Exploring the origin and nature of minds in the physical universe and YouTube channel
TED conversation about "The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life"
Advice he gives to his students
