92 | Kevin Hand on Life Elsewhere in the Solar System
Mon, 13 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s hard doing science when you only have one data point, especially when that data point is subj...
91 | Scott Barry Kaufman on the Psychology of Transcendence
Mon, 06 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If one of the ambitious goals of philosophy is to determine the meaning of life, one of the ambitiou...
90 | David Kaiser on Science, Money, and Power
Mon, 30 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Science costs money. And for a brief, glorious period between the start of the Manhattan Project in ...
89 | Lera Boroditsky on Language, Thought, Space, and Time
Mon, 23 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
What direction does time point in? None, really, although some people might subconsciously put the p...
Tara Smith on Coronavirus, Pandemics, and What We Can Do
Wed, 18 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
This is a special episode of Mindscape, thrown together quickly. Many thanks to Tara Smith for joini...
88 | Neil Shubin on Evolution, Genes, and Dramatic Transitions
Mon, 16 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“What good is half a wing?” That’s the rhetorical question often asked by people who have trou...
87 | Karl Friston on Brains, Predictions, and Free Energy
Mon, 09 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If you tell me that one of the world’s leading neuroscientists has developed a theory of how the b...
86 | Martin Rees on Threats to Humanity, Prospects for Posthumanity, and Life in the Universe
Mon, 02 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Anyone who has read histories of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the&...
85 | L.A. Paul on Transformative Experiences and Your Future Selves
Mon, 24 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s hard to make decisions that will change your life. It’s even harder to make a decision if y...
84 | Suresh Naidu on Capitalism, Monopsony, and Inequality
Mon, 17 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Nations generally want their economies to be rich, robust, and growing. But it’s also important to...
83 | Kwame Anthony Appiah on Identity, Stories, and Cosmopolitanism
Mon, 10 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Greek statesman Demosthenes is credited with saying “I am a citizen of the world,” and the i...
82 | Robin Carhart-Harris on Psychedelics and the Brain
Mon, 03 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances was a 1971 United Nations treaty that placed str...
81 | Ezra Klein on Politics, Polarization, and Identity
Mon, 27 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
People have always disagreed about politics, passionately and sometimes even violently. But in certa...
80 | Jenann Ismael on Connecting Physics to the World of Experience
Mon, 20 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Physics is simple; people are complicated. But even people are ultimately physical systems, made of ...
79 | Sara Imari Walker on Information and the Origin of Life
Mon, 13 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We are all alive, but “life” is something we struggle to understand. How do we distinguish a “...
78 | Daniel Dennett on Minds, Patterns, and the Scientific Image
Mon, 06 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Wilfrid Sellars described the task of philosophy as explaining how things, in the broadest sense of ...
Holiday Message 2019: On Publishing Books
Sun, 22 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the second annual Mindscape Holiday Message! No substantive content or deep ideas, just m...
77 | Azra Raza on The Way We Should Fight Cancer
Mon, 16 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the United States, more than one in five deaths is caused by cancer. The medical community h...
76 | Ned Hall on Possible Worlds and the Laws of Nature
Mon, 09 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s too easy to take laws of nature for granted. Sure, gravity is pulling us toward Earth today; ...
75 | Max Tegmark on Reality, Simulation, and the Multiverse
Mon, 02 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We've talked a lot recently about the Many Worlds of quantum mechanics. That’s one kind of multive...
74 | Stephen Greenblatt on Stories, History, and Cultural Poetics
Mon, 25 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
An infinite number of things happen; we bring structure and meaning to the world by making art and t...
73 | Grimes (c) on Music, Creativity, and Digital Personae
Mon, 18 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Changing technologies have always affected how we produce and enjoy art, and music might be the most...
72 | César Hidalgo on Information in Societies, Economies, and the Universe
Mon, 11 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Maxwell's Demon is a famous thought experiment in which a mischievous imp uses knowledge of the velo...
71 | Philip Goff on Consciousness Everywhere
Mon, 04 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The human brain contains roughly 85 billion neurons, wired together in an extraordinarily complex ne...
70 | Katie Mack on How the Universe Will End
Mon, 28 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Cosmologists are always talking excitedly about the Big Bang and all the cool stuff that happened in...
69 | Cory Doctorow on Technology, Monopoly, and the Future of the Internet
Mon, 21 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Like so many technological innovations, the internet is something that burst on the scene and pervad...
68 | Melanie Mitchell on Artificial Intelligence and the Challenge of Common Sense
Mon, 14 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Artificial intelligence is better than humans at playing chess or go, but still has trouble holding ...
67 | Kate Jeffery on Entropy, Complexity, and Evolution
Mon, 07 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Our observable universe started out in a highly non-generic state, one of very low entropy, and diso...
66 | Will Wilkinson on Partisan Polarization and the Urban/Rural Divide
Mon, 30 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The idea of “red states” and “blue states” burst on the scene during the 2000 U.S. President...
65 | Michael Mann on Why Our Climate Is Changing and How We Know
Mon, 23 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We had our fun last week, exploring how progress in renewable energy and electric vehicles may help ...
64 | Ramez Naam on Renewable Energy and an Optimistic Future
Mon, 16 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Earth is heating up, and it’s our fault. But human beings are not always complete idiots (occa...
63 | Solo -- Finding Gravity Within Quantum Mechanics
Mon, 09 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
I suspect most loyal Mindscape listeners have been exposed to the fact that I’ve written...
62 | Michele Gelfand on Tight and Loose Societies and People
Mon, 02 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Physicists study systems that are sufficiently simple that it’s possible to find deep unifying pri...
61 | Quassim Cassam on Intellectual Vices and What to Do About Them
Mon, 26 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
All of us have been wrong about things from time to time. But sometimes it was a simple, forgivable ...
60 | Lynne Kelly on Memory Palaces, Ancient and Modern
Mon, 19 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Memory takes different forms. Memories can be encoded in the strength of neural connections in our b...
59 | Adam Becker on the Curious History of Quantum Mechanics
Mon, 12 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There are many mysteries surrounding quantum mechanics. To me, the biggest mysteries are why physici...
58 | Seth MacFarlane on Using Science Fiction to Explore Humanity
Mon, 05 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Fiction shines a light on the human condition by putting people into imaginary situations and envisi...
57 | Astra Taylor on the Promise and Challenge of Democracy
Mon, 29 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“Democracy may not exist, but we’ll miss it when it’s gone” — or so suggests the title of ...
56 | Kate Adamala on Creating Synthetic Life
Mon, 22 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Scientists can’t quite agree on how to define “life,” but that hasn’t stopped them from stud...
55 | A Conversation with Rob Reid on Quantum Mechanics and Many Worlds
Mon, 15 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
As you may have heard, I have a new book coming out in September, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum W...
54 | Indre Viskontas on Music and the Brain
Mon, 08 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It doesn’t mean much to say music affects your brain — everything that happens to you affects yo...
53 | Solo -- On Morality and Rationality
Mon, 01 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
What does it mean to be a good person? To act ethically and morally in the world? In the old days we...
52 | Frank Lantz on the Logic and Emotion of Games
Mon, 24 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Games play an important, and arguably increasing, role in human life. We play games on our computers...
51 | Anthony Aguirre on Cosmology, Zen, Entropy, and Information
Mon, 17 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Cosmologists have a standard set of puzzles they think about: the nature of dark matter and dark ene...
50 | Patricia Churchland on Conscience, Morality, and the Brain
Mon, 10 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s fun to spend time thinking about how other people should behave, but fortunately we also have...
49 | Nicholas Christakis on Humanity, Biology, and What Makes Us Good
Mon, 03 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s easy to be cynical about humanity’s present state and future prospects. But we have made it...
48 | Marq de Villiers on Hell and Damnation
Mon, 27 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If you’re bad, we are taught, you go to Hell. Who in the world came up with that idea? Some will a...
47 | Adam Rutherford on Humans, Animals, and Life in General
Mon, 20 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Most people in the modern world — and the vast majority of Mindscape listeners, I would imagine —...
46 | Kate Darling on Our Connections with Robots
Mon, 13 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Most of us have no trouble telling the difference between a robot and a living, feeling organism. Ne...
45 | Leonard Susskind on Quantum Information, Quantum Gravity, and Holography
Mon, 06 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For decades now physicists have been struggling to reconcile two great ideas from a century ago: gen...
44 | Antonio Damasio on Feelings, Thoughts, and the Evolution of Humanity
Mon, 29 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When we talk about the mind, we are constantly talking about consciousness and cognition. Antonio...
43 | Matthew Luczy on the Pleasures of Wine
Mon, 22 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Some people never drink wine; for others, it’s an indispensable part of an enjoyable meal. Whateve...
42 | Natalya Bailey on Navigating Earth Orbit and Beyond
Mon, 15 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The space age officially began in 1957 with the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite. But recent years ...
41 | Steven Strogatz on Synchronization, Networks, and the Emergence of Complex Behavior
Mon, 08 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
One of the most important insights in the history of science is the fact that complex behavior can a...
40 | Adrienne Mayor on Gods and Robots in Ancient Mythology
Mon, 01 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The modern world is full of technology, and also with anxiety about technology. We worry about robot...
39 | Malcolm MacIver on Sensing, Consciousness, and Imagination
Mon, 25 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Consciousness has many aspects, from experience to wakefulness to self-awareness. One aspect is imag...
38 | Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist’s Sense of Meaning
Mon, 18 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Let’s say, for sake of argument, that you don’t believe in God or the supernatural. Is there sti...
37 | Edward Watts on the End of the Roman Republic and Lessons for Democracy
Mon, 11 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When many of us think “Ancient Rome,” we think of the Empire and the Caesars. But the Empire was...
36 | David Albert on Quantum Measurement and the Problems with Many-Worlds
Mon, 04 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Quantum mechanics is our best theory of how reality works at a fundamental level, yet physicists sti...
35 | Jessica Yellin on The Changing Ways We Get Our News
Mon, 25 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Everything we think about the world outside our immediate senses is shaped by information brought to...
34 | Paul Bloom on Empathy, Rationality, Morality, and Cruelty
Mon, 18 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Within every person’s mind there is on ongoing battle between reason and emotion. It’s not alway...
33 | James Ladyman on Reality, Metaphysics, and Complexity
Mon, 11 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Reality is a tricky thing. Is love real? What about the number 5? This is clearly a job for a philos...
32 | Naomi Oreskes on Climate Change and the Distortion of Scientific Facts
Mon, 04 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Our climate is in the midst of dramatic changes, driven largely by human activity, with potentially ...
31 | Brian Greene on the Multiverse, Inflation, and the String Theory Landscape
Mon, 28 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
String theory was originally proposed as a relatively modest attempt to explain some features of str...
30 | Derek Leben on Ethics for Robots and Artificial Intelligences
Mon, 21 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s hardly news that computers are exerting ever more influence over our lives. And we’re begin...
29 | Raychelle Burks on the Chemistry of Murder
Mon, 14 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Sometimes science is asking esoteric questions about the fundamental nature of reality. Other times,...
28 | Roger Penrose on Spacetime, Consciousness, and the Universe
Mon, 07 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Sir Roger Penrose has had a remarkable life. He has contributed an enormous amount to our understand...
Holiday Message 2018
Mon, 24 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There won't be any regular episodes of Mindscape this week or next, as we take a holiday break. Regu...
27 | Janna Levin on Black Holes, Chaos, and the Narrative of Science
Mon, 17 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It's a big universe out there, full of an astonishing variety of questions and puzzles. Today's gues...
26 | Ge Wang on Artful Design, Computers, and Music
Mon, 10 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Everywhere around us are things that serve functions. We live in houses, sit on chairs, drive in car...
25 | David Chalmers on Consciousness, the Hard Problem, and Living in a Simulation
Mon, 03 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The "Easy Problems" of consciousness have to do with how the brain takes in information, thinks abou...
24 | Kip Thorne on Gravitational Waves, Time Travel, and Interstellar
Mon, 26 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
I remember vividly hosting a colloquium speaker, about fifteen years ago, who talked about the LIGO ...
23 | Lisa Aziz-Zadeh on Embodied Cognition, Mirror Neurons, and Empathy
Mon, 19 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Brains are important things; they're where thinking happens. Or are they? The theory of "embodied co...
22 | Joe Walston on Conservation, Urbanization, and the Way We Live on Earth
Mon, 12 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There's no question that human activity is causing enormous changes on our planet's environment, fro...
21 | Alex Rosenberg on Naturalism, History, and Theory of Mind
Mon, 05 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We humans love to tell ourselves stories about why things happened the way they did; if the stories ...
20 | Scott Derrickson on Cinema, Blockbusters, Horror, and Mystery
Mon, 29 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Special Halloween edition? Scott Derrickson is a film-lover first and a director second, but he's be...
19 | Tyler Cowen on Maximizing Growth and Thinking for the Future
Mon, 22 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Economics, like other sciences (social and otherwise), is about what the world does; but it's natura...
18 | Clifford Johnson on What's So Great About Superstring Theory
Mon, 15 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
String theory is a speculative and highly technical proposal for uniting the known forces of nature,...
17 | Annalee Newitz on Science, Fiction, Economics, and Neurosis
Mon, 08 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The job of science fiction isn't to predict the future; it's to tell interesting stories in an imagi...
16 | Coleen Murphy on Aging, Biology, and the Future
Mon, 01 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Aging -- everybody does it, very few people actually do something about it. Coleen Murphy is an exce...
15 | David Poeppel on Thought, Language, and How to Understand the Brain
Sat, 08 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Language comes naturally to us, but is also deeply mysterious. On the one hand, it manifests as a co...
14 | Alta Charo on Bioethics and the Law
Sat, 08 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
To paraphrase Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, scientists tend to focus on whether they can do somethin...
13 | Neha Narula on Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the Future of the Internet
Sat, 08 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For something of such obvious importance, money is kind of mysterious. It can, as Homer Simpson once...
12 | Wynton Marsalis on Jazz, Time, and America
Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:28:22 -0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Jazz occupies a special place in the American cultural landscape. It's played in elegant concert hal...
11 | Mike Brown on Killing Pluto and Replacing It with Planet 9
Mon, 27 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Few events in recent astronomical history have had the worldwide emotional resonance as the 2006 ann...
10 | Megan Rosenbloom on the Death Positive Movement
Mon, 20 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We're all going to die. But while we are alive, it's up to us how we understand and deal with that f...
9 | Solo -- Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?
Mon, 13 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It's fun to be in the exciting, chaotic, youthful days of the podcast, when anything goes and experi...
8 | Carl Zimmer on Heredity, DNA, and Editing Genes
Mon, 06 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Our understanding of heredity and genetics is improving at blinding speed. It was only in the year 2...
7 | Yascha Mounk on Threats to Liberal Democracy
Mon, 30 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Both words in the phrase "liberal democracy" carry meaning, and both concepts are under attack aro...
6 | Liv Boeree on Poker, Aliens, and Thinking in Probabilities
Mon, 23 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Poker, like life, is a game of incomplete information. To do well in such a game, we have to think i...
5 | Geoffrey West on Networks, Scaling, and the Pace of Life
Mon, 16 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If you scale up an animal to twice its height, keeping everything else proportionate, its volume and...
4 | Anthony Pinn on Humanism, Theology, and the Black Community
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 13:42:33 -0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
According to atheism, God does not exist. But religions have traditionally done much more than simpl...
3 | Alice Dreger on Sexuality, Truth, and Justice
Wed, 11 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The human mind loves nothing more than to build mental boxes -- categories -- and put things into th...
2 | Carlo Rovelli on Quantum Mechanics, Spacetime, and Reality
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 14:15:39 -0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Quantum mechanics and general relativity are the two great triumphs of twentieth-century theoretical...
1 | Carol Tavris on Mistakes, Justification, and Cognitive Dissonance
Wed, 04 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For the first full episode of Mindscape, it's an honor to welcome social psychologist Carol Tavris. ...
Welcome to the Mindscape Podcast!
Sun, 01 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
I've decided to officially take the plunge into the world of podcasting. The new show will be called...