  In recent years, the combination of precise quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods
with realistic nuclear interactions and consistent electroweak currents, in
particular those constructed within effective field theories (EFTs), has lead
to new insights in light and medium-mass nuclei, neutron matter, and
electroweak reactions. This compelling new body of work has been made possible
both by advances in QMC methods for nuclear physics, which push the bounds of
applicability to heavier nuclei and to asymmetric nuclear matter and by the
development of local chiral EFT interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading
order and minimally nonlocal interactions including $\Delta$ degrees of
freedom. In this review, we discuss these recent developments and give an
overview of the exciting results for nuclei, neutron matter and neutron stars,
and electroweak reactions.
