Science

Science

episodes

Interviews with scientists about their new books.

Brandon R. Brown, "Sharing Our Science: How to Write and Speak STEM" (MIT Press, 2023)

March 18, 2024

Sharing Our Science

Brandon R. Brown
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Brandon Brown, Professor of Physics at the University of San Francisco. We talk about factoring in both message-sender and…

Lorraine Daston, "Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate" (Columbia Global Reports, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Rivals

Lorraine Daston
Hosted by Victor Monnin

In Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate (Columbia Global Reports, 2023), Lorraine Daston, Director Emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the …

Kenneth Miller, "Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep" (Hachette Books, 2023)

March 8, 2024

Mapping the Darkness

Kenneth Miller
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Why do we sleep? How can we improve our sleep? A century ago, sleep was considered a state of nothingness—even a primitive habit that we could learn …

Thomas Metzinger, "The Elephant and the Blind: The Experience of Pure Consciousness: Philosophy, Science, and 500+ Experiential Reports" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 6, 2024

The Elephant and the Blind

Thomas Metzinger
Hosted by Jeff Adler

What if our goal had not been to land on Mars, but in pure consciousness? The experience of pure consciousness—what does it look like? What is the ess…

Sten Grillner, "The Brain in Motion: From Microcircuits to Global Brain Function" (MIT Press, 2023)

February 23, 2024

The Brain in Motion

Sten Grillner

C. S. Sherrington said “All the brain can do is to move things". The Brain in Motion: From Microcircuits to Global Brain Function (MIT Press, 2023) sh…

Christopher Reddy, "Science Communication in a Crisis: An Insider's Guide" (Routledge, 2023)

February 13, 2024

Science Communication in a Crisis

Christopher Reddy
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Christopher Reddy, environmental chemist and Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts…

Michael Devitt, "Biological Essentialism" (Oxford UP, 2023)

February 10, 2024

Biological Essentialism

Michael Devitt
Hosted by Carrie Figdor

What makes a species a species? Aristotle answered the species question by positing unchanging essences, properties that all and only members of a spe…

How the Hypothesis Means: A Discussion with Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, and Bradley Alger

February 4, 2024

How the Hypothesis Means

Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, and Bradley Alger
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to Episode No.6 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. The…

Use of Bacteriophages as Natural Antimicrobials to Manage Bacterial Pathogens in Aquaculture in Vietnam and Australia

February 2, 2024

Use of Bacteriophages as Natural Antimicrobials to Manage Bacterial Pathogens in Aquaculture in Vietnam and Australia

Carola Venturini
Hosted by Natali Pearson

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing protein production industry globally, with Vietnam one of the top producers and exporters of seafood products. In V…

Science Is a Creative Human Enterprise: A Discussion with Natalie Aviles

January 31, 2024

Science Is a Creative Human Enterprise

Natalie B. Aviles
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Natalie Aviles, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia. We talk about how organizations shape people, an…

Ludovic Slimak, "The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

January 26, 2024

The Naked Neanderthal

Ludovic Slimak

What do we really know about our cousins, the Neanderthals? For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. More recently, the pe…

The Future of Images of Human Evolution

January 20, 2024

The Future of Images of Human Evolution

Gowan Dawson

We are all familiar with the “march of progress” image - the representation of evolution that depicts a series of apelike creatures becoming progressi…

Harry van der Hulst, "A Mind for Language: An Introduction to the Innateness Debate" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

January 20, 2024

A Mind for Language

Harry van der Hulst
Hosted by Madhumanti Datta

How does human language arise in the mind? To what extent is it innate, or something that is learned? How do these factors interact? The questions s…

Free to Investigate: Dr. Scott Atlas on the Freedom in the Sciences

January 16, 2024

Free to Investigate

Scott W. Atlas
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Can we have science without freedom of speech? Dr. Scott Atlas's professional work and personal experiences bring to light an important and often unde…

Thom van Dooren, "The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds" (Columbia UP, 2019)

January 6, 2024

The Wake of Crows

Thom van Dooren
Hosted by Mark Molloy

Crows can be found almost everywhere that people are, from tropical islands to deserts and arctic forests, from densely populated cities to suburbs an…

Lee McIntyre, "The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience" (MIT Press, 2019)

January 2, 2024

The Scientific Attitude

Lee McIntyre
Hosted by Jonathan Haber

What can explain the success of science as an endeavor for getting closer to truth? Does science simply represent a successful methodology, or is it s…

Jonathan B. Losos, "The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa" (Viking, 2023)

December 20, 2023

The Cat's Meow

Jonathan B. Losos

The domestic cat--your cat--has, from its evolutionary origins in Africa, been transformed in comparatively little time into one of the most successfu…

Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies, "Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music" (Columbia UP, 2023)

December 16, 2023

Every Brain Needs Music

Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies

Whenever a person engages with music--when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or …

Toward Equity in Science: A Discussion with Cassidy Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière

December 16, 2023

Toward Equity in Science

Cassidy R. Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Cassidy Sugimoto and Vincent Larivière, co-authors of Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advanc…

Philip Goff, "Why? The Purpose of the Universe" (Oxford UP, 2023)

December 10, 2023

Why? The Purpose of the Universe

Philip Goff
Hosted by Carrie Figdor

Does the universe have a purpose? If it does, how is this connected to the meaningfulness that we seek in our lives? In Why? The Purpose of the Univer…