The hypoelliptic Laplacian gives a natural interpolation between the Laplacian and the geodesic flow. This interpolation preserves important spectral quantities. I will explain its construction in the context of compact Lie groups: in this case, the hypoelliptic Laplacian is the analytic counterpart to localization in equivariant cohomology on the coadjoint orbits of loop groups. The construction for noncompact reductive groups ultimately produces a geometric formula for the semisimple orbital integrals, which are the key ingredient in Selberg trace formula. In both cases, the construction of the hypoelliptic Laplacian involves the Dirac operator of Kostant.