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Sara Walker

Theoretical physicist and astrobiologist, professor at Arizona State University and the Santa Fe Institute, known for her work on the origins of life and Assembly Theory.

Mar 31, 2026

0:23
[dramatic music] How do you think we should ask the question about what our purpose is, and finding our purpose?
0:30
I always like Joseph Campbell's follow your bliss [laughs].
0:33
Like, this idea that, like, you should follow the things that make you intrinsically happy.
0:37
And I also do this with my students at ASU.
0:40
Like, my first way of, like, mentoring them is to try to find out what their core passion questions are, and then how do we find problems to work on that are aligned with who you are intrinsically and what you're interested in? 'Cause I think, you know, if you wanna unlock human potential, you have to have people working on things they love.
0:57
Before you, like, try to think about a career or anything else you wanna do in your life, you have to think about how it makes you feel moving in a direction you feel like you wanna be moving.
1:04
People think science is this, like, technical thing that, like, you're just doing calculations or something, but the way that we do science in the space I work in, generating new explanations and new ideas, is much more creative.
2:58
Mm.

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