Neuroscience

Neuroscience

episodes

Interviews with neuroscientists about their new books

Adam Zeman, "The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

April 8, 2026

The Shape of Things Unseen

Adam Zeman
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

A compelling insight into how our imagination works, based on the latest scientific research. People often think of imagination as something used onl…

167* Addiction with Gina Turrigiano (EF, JP)

March 26, 2026

Addiction with Gina Turrigiano (EF, JP)

In Recall This Book's second episode (January 2019) John and Elizabeth spoke with their brilliant Brandeis colleague, the MacArthur-winning neuroscien…

Alan J. McComas, "Consciousness: The Road to Reductionism" (American Scientist, 2025)

February 27, 2026

Consciousness

Alan J. McComas
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

Neuroscientific evidence increasingly shows that consciousness is a remarkable but explainable function of a machinelike brain. Alan J. McComas' discu…

Polina Dimova, "At the Crossroads of the Senses: The Synaesthetic Metaphor Across the Arts in European Modernism" (Penn State UP, 2024)

February 6, 2026

At the Crossroads of the Senses

Polina Dimova
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Inspired by Richard Wagner’s idea of the total artwork, European modernist artists began to pursue multimedia projects that mixed colors, sounds, and …

Andreas Killen, "Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War" (Harper, 2023)

February 1, 2026

Nervous Systems

Andreas Killen
Hosted by Paul Lerner

In this eye-opening chronicle of scientific research on the brain in the early Cold War era, the acclaimed historian Andreas Killen traces the compl…

Steve Ramirez, "How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past" (Princeton UP, 2025)

January 19, 2026

How to Change a Memory

Steve Ramirez
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

As a graduate student at MIT, Steve Ramirez successfully created false memories in the lab. Now, as a neuroscientist working at the frontiers of brain…

Justin Gregg, "If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity" (Little, Brown, 2022)

January 18, 2026

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

Justin Gregg
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What if human intelligence is actually more of a liability than a gift? After all, the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without…

Rafael Yuste, "Lectures in Neuroscience" (Columbia UP, 2023)

January 16, 2026

Lectures in Neuroscience

Rafael Yuste
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

The human brain is perhaps the most intricate and fascinating object in the known universe. Through a mysterious process, the activity of billions of …

How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

January 8, 2026

How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

Rachel Barr

Your brain is the most remarkable thing in the known universe. Always trying to mend itself, and always trying to protect you, it’s in a constant stat…

Marc Berman, "Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical, and Social Well-Being" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)

January 8, 2026

Nature and the Mind

Marc Berman
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Dr. Marc Berman, the pioneering creator of the field of environmental neuroscience, has discovered the surprising connection between mind, body, and e…

Kevin J. Mitchell, "Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will" (Princeton UP, 2023)

January 1, 2026

Free Agents

Kevin J. Mitchell
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As w…

Eduardo Mercado III, "Why Whales Sing" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025)

November 11, 2025

Why Whales Sing

Eduardo Mercado III
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

With breathtaking complexity and haunting beauty, the songs of whales have long fascinated scientists. Whales are the only mammals that can sing conti…

Gaurav Suri and Jay McClelland, "The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines" (Basic Books, 2025)

October 29, 2025

The Emergent Mind

Gaurav Suri and Jay McClelland
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

When we are trying to solve a problem, what happens? We find ourselves weighing arguments, or relying on intuition, then reaching a conscious decision…

Jeffrey D. Sharon, "The Great Balancing Act: An Insider's Guide to the Human Vestibular System" (Columbia UP, 2025)

October 21, 2025

The Great Balancing Act

Jeffrey D. Sharon
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

What's the secret to keeping your balance? The ear does more than hear: it helps us stay stable by perceiving movements and gravity. Elegant sensors d…

Leon J. Hilton, "Counter-Cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

September 2, 2025

Counter-Cartographies

Leon J. Hilton
Hosted by Clayton Jarrard

What if we embraced neurodivergent ways of being not as deviations to be corrected but as vital ways of inhabiting the world? What new realities might…

Christopher Kemp, "Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation" (Norton, 2022)

August 24, 2025

Dark and Magical Places

Christopher Kemp
Hosted by Galina Limorenko

Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have―…

James Kimmel, Jr., "The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction—and How to Overcome It" (Random House, 2025)

August 14, 2025

The Science of Revenge

James Kimmel, Jr.
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

There is a hidden addiction plaguing humanity right now: revenge. Researchers have identified retaliation in response to real and imagined grievances …

Frances Egan, "Deflating Mental Representation" (MIT Press, 2025)

August 10, 2025

Deflating Mental Representation

Frances Egan
Hosted by Carrie Figdor

The human mind has the curious, even mysterious, ability to generate thoughts about things with which we are not in causal contact, such as when we th…

Paul Thagard, "Bots and Beasts: What Makes Machines, Animals, and People Smart?" (MIT Press, 2021)

August 9, 2025

Bots and Beasts

Paul Thagard
Hosted by Galina Limorenko

Octopuses can open jars to get food, and chimpanzees can plan for the future. An IBM computer named Watson won on Jeopardy! and Alexa knows our favori…

Judith Grisel, "Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction" (Doubleday, 2019)

August 4, 2025

Never Enough

Judith Grisel
Hosted by Emily Dufton

Not a lot of authors go from spending their early twenties homeless and addicted to cocaine to becoming one of the world’s leading researchers on the …