S1E121 - Jeremy Bailenson - Exciting and Immersive Virtual and Augmented Realities

In this episode, Michael Krasny sat down with virtual reality and augmented reality expert and Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson in an expansive and highly illuminating discussion about the present and future of both VR and AR and the ongoing and imminent connections to AI.

Krasny began by asking Bailenson about his evolution as a VR pioneer and its present status. Bailenson spoke of "presence" and the filming of a Sixty Minutes episode complete with a real feeling earthquake and an accompanying panic attack, followed by a discussion of "the proteus effect" and the effect of avatars. Krasny then asked Bailenson about funding and his history with Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Bailenson spoke about NSF and NIH funding and concerns and safeguards he had if funding is hit under Trump, as well as his past experiences with politicians who sought to stop funding VR and AR research and what he (Bailenson) has done by way of preparation for that possibility. Krasny then asked Bailenson about the downsides and dangers of VR and AR, possible guidelines and his work with athletic teams through STRIVR. The two then spoke about visualization and uses of VR in different sports as well as "zoom fatigue," a phenomenon Bailenson coined the term for, and end of life VR use, and went on to discuss VR and mental health, VR and education and VR in the workplace, its effect on productivity, as well as VR and AR and sex. This rich and illuminating dialogue concluded with talk about the Sphere in Las Vegas, (which Bailenson has been very involved in), and immersive experiences in general, as well as Gen AI and talking in the future to figures from one's past. In the end of the interview, Krasny asked Beilenson to gauge and evaluate the effect and impact of the Stanford environment on his research.

Biography

Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication, Professor (by courtesy) of Education, Professor (by courtesy) Program in Symbolic Systems, and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication for over a decade. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. He spent four years at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor.

Conversation recorded on March 14, 2025.