New Books Network Podcast

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast December 1, 2023

How We Age

The Science of Longevity

Coleen T. Murphy

Hosted by Mark Klobas

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All of us would like to live longer, or to slow the debilitating effects of age. In How We Age: The Science of Longevity (Princeton UP, 2023), Coleen Murphy shows …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones November 26, 2023

The Future of Innovation

A Discussion with Min W. Jung

Min W. Jung

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

Humans have been so dominant on Earth in large part because of their capacity to innovate – but how does that work exactly? Why can they innovate so much? That …

Music November 14, 2023

The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning

Gary Tomlinson

Hosted by Nathan Smith

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What is meaning? How does it arise? Where is it found in the world? In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered these questions in different ways. Some see meaning …

Comics and Graphic Novels October 30, 2023

Who Understands Comics?

Questioning the Universality of Visual Language Comprehension

Neil Cohn

Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

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Drawings and sequential images are so pervasive in contemporary society that we may take their understanding for granted. But how transparent are they really, and how universally are they understood …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones October 24, 2023

The Future of Paying Attention

A Discussion with Carolyn Dicey Jennings

Carolyn Dicey Jennings

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

Is it really harder to pay attention to something than it used to be? No doubt the world is getting faster, and social media platforms are so good at grabbing …

Neuroscience October 7, 2023

Neuroethics

Agency in the Age of Brain Science

Joshua May

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

Is free will an illusion? Is addiction a brain disease? Should we enhance our brains beyond normal? Neuroethics: Agency in the Age of Brain Science (Oxford UP, 2023) blends philosophical …

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast October 1, 2023

Free Agents

How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

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 we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of …

Game Studies September 23, 2023

Time and Space in Video Games

A Cognitive-Formalist Approach

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst

Video games are temporal artifacts: They change with time as players interact with them in accordance with rules. In Time and Space in Video Games: A Cognitive-Formalist Approach (Transcript …

Sociology September 14, 2023

Technosleep

Frontiers, Fictions, Futures

Catherine Coveney, Michael Greaney, Eric L. Hsu, Robert Meadows, and Simon J. Williams

Hosted by Michael Johnston

Technosleep: Frontiers, Fictions, Futures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) draws on a variety of substantive examples from science, technology, medicine, literature, and popular culture to highlight how a new technoscientifically mediated and …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones August 26, 2023

The Future of Talking

A Discussion with Shane O'Mara

Shane O'Mara

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

Talking is a defining part of what makes us human – we are almost constantly in dialogue but what purpose does all this conversation serve? Both for the individual and …

Science, Technology, and Society August 6, 2023

Nervous Systems

Brain Science in the Early Cold War

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 complex circumstances surrounding the genesis of our …

MIT Press Podcast July 24, 2023

Consciousness

Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist

Christof Koch

Hosted by MIT Press

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What links conscious experience of pain, joy, color, and smell to bioelectrical activity in the brain? How can anything physical give rise to nonphysical, subjective, conscious states? Christof Koch has …

MIT Press Podcast July 20, 2023

Infectious Behavior

Brain-Immune Connections in Autism, Schizophrenia, and Depression

Paul H. Patterson

Hosted by MIT Press

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In Infectious Behavior, neurobiologist Paul Patterson examines the involvement of the immune system in autism, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder. Although genetic approaches to these diseases have garnered the lion's …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones July 14, 2023

The Future of Food

A Discussion with Kimberly Wilson

Kimberley Wilson

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

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We all know that as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don't know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part …

MIT Press Podcast July 12, 2023

Borges and Memory

Encounters with the Human Brain

Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

Hosted by MIT Press

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Imagine the astonishment felt by neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga when he found a fantastically precise interpretation of his research findings in a story written by the great Argentinian fabulist Jorge …

Neuroscience July 7, 2023

The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up

Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness

Quinn Eastman

Hosted by Melek Firat Altay

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Sleep was taking over Anna's life. Despite multiple alarm clocks and powerful stimulants, the young Atlanta lawyer could sleep for thirty or even fifty hours at a stretch. She stopped …

Medicine July 1, 2023

The Face Laughs While the Brain Cries

The Education of a Doctor

Stephen Hauser

Hosted by Ron Winslow

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Dr. Stephen L. Hauser and a patient named Andrea were both 27 years old when they met. He was an up-and-coming neurologist-in-training; she was a Harvard Law School graduate and …

MIT Press Podcast June 11, 2023

The Human Advantage

A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable

Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Hosted by MIT Press

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Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the …

Disability Studies June 3, 2023

Dyslexia

A History

Philip Kirby and Margaret J. Snowling

Hosted by Shu Wan

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In 1896 the British physician William Pringle Morgan published an account of “Percy,” a “bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his …

Almost Good Catholics May 11, 2023

The Miraculous Mind (with Paul Bloom)

What Does Psychology Say about Religion and Morality?

Paul Bloom

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec

Psychologist Paul Bloom and I talk about the human brain, morality, empathy, perversity, all the things—including Professor Bloom’s new book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind (Ecco Press, 2023) …