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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

#22
Language: en Science Society & Culture
Last Checked: 2025-08-02 10:43:30

323 | Jacob Barandes on Indivisible Stochastic Quantum Mechanics

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The search for a foundational theory of quantum mechanics that all physicists can agree on remains a...

322 | Philip Pettit on Language, Agency, Politics, and Freedom

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of the capacities that distinguish humans from other species, we generally turn to int...

321 | David Tong on Open Questions in Quantum Field Theory

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Quantum field theory is the basis for our most successful theories of fundamental physics. And yet, ...

AMA | July 2025

Mon, 07 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the July 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...

320 | Solo: Complexity and the Universe

Mon, 30 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Our universe started out looking very simple: hot, dense, smooth, rapidly expanding. According to ou...

319 | Bryan Van Norden on Philosophy From the Rest of the World

Mon, 23 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It is common to refer to philosophy as "a series of footnotes to Plato." But in the original quote, ...

318 | Edward Miguel on the Developing Practice of Development Economics

Mon, 16 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Economics is seeing an upsurge in the importance of controlled, reproducible empirical studies. One ...

317 | Nicole Rust on Why Neuroscience Hasn't Solved Brain Disorders

Mon, 09 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The human brain is extremely complicated, but decades of careful neuroscientific research have revea...

AMA | June 2025

Mon, 02 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the June 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...

316 | Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper

Mon, 26 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Einstein's general theory of relativity, plus some reasonable assumptions about the universe and wha...

315 | Branden Fitelson on the Logic and Use of Probability

Mon, 19 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Every time you see an apple spontaneously break away from a tree, it falls downward. You therefore c...

314 | Karen Lloyd on the Deep Underground Biosphere

Mon, 12 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

There are living creatures dwelling deep below the surface of the Earth, as deep as we are able to d...

313 | Eric Topol on the Changing Face of Medicine and Aging

Mon, 05 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Medical science is advancing at an astonishing rate. Today we talk with leading expert Eric Topol ab...

AMA | May 2025

Mon, 28 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the May 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by...

312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs

Mon, 21 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The germ theory of disease is a crowning achievement of science, up there with modern physics, conti...

311 | Annaka Harris on Whether Consciousness is Fundamental

Mon, 14 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Questions about consciousness range from the precise and empirical -- what neurons fire when I have ...

AMA | April 2025

Mon, 07 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the April 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...

310 | Marc Kamionkowski on Dark Energy and Cosmic Anomalies

Mon, 31 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Cosmologists were, let us be honest, pretty stunned in 1998 when observations revealed that the...

309 | Christof Koch on Consciousness and Integrated Information

Mon, 24 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Consciousness is easier to possess than to define. One thing we can do is to look into the brain and...

308 | Alison Gopnik on Children, AI, and Modes of Thinking

Mon, 17 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

We often study cognition in other species, in part to learn about modes of thinking that are differe...

AMA | March 2025

Mon, 10 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the March 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...

307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Cocktails

Mon, 03 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

A lot of science goes into crafting the perfect cocktail. Balancing sweet and bitter notes, providin...

306 | Helen Czerski on Our Energetic Oceans

Mon, 24 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It is commonplace to refer to the Earth's oceans as vast and largely unexplored. But we do understan...

305 | Lilliana Mason on Polarization and Political Psychology

Mon, 17 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Political outcomes would be relatively simple to predict and understand if only people were well-inf...

Bonus | Cuts to Science Funding and Why They Matter

Wed, 12 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The Trump administration, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, has proposed...

304 | James Evans on Innovation, Consolidation, and the Science of Science

Mon, 10 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It is a feature of many human activities - sports, cooking, music, interpersonal relations - that be...

303 | AMA | February 2025

Mon, 03 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the February 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

303 | James P. Allison on Fighting Cancer with the Immune System

Mon, 27 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

A typical human lifespan is approximately three billion heartbeats in duration. Lasting that long re...

302 | Chris Kempes on the Biophysics of Evolution

Mon, 20 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Randomness plays an important role in the evolution of life (as my evil twin will tell you...

301 | Tina Eliassi-Rad on Al, Networks, and Epistemic Instability

Mon, 13 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Big data is ruling, or at least deeply infiltrating, all of modern existence. Unprecedented capacity...

300 | Solo: Does Time Exist?

Mon, 06 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

A new year, and a new centennial -- 300 (regularly-numbered) episodes of Mindscape! Our tradition is...

Holiday Message | Hits and Misses

Mon, 23 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It's the end of the year, and time for our annual holiday break here at Mindscape. But as usual, we ...

299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life

Mon, 16 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving ce...

298 | Jeff Lichtman on the Wiring Diagram of the Brain

Mon, 09 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The number of neurons in the human brain is comparable to the number of stars in the Milky Way galax...

AMA | December 2024

Mon, 02 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the December 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

297 | Emily Wilson on Homer, Poetry, and Translation

Mon, 25 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Not too long ago, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana starred in a (loose) adaptation of Homer's epic ...

296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution

Mon, 18 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Biological evolution via natural selection is a simple idea that becomes enormously complicated in i...

295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality

Mon, 11 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Emergence is a centrally important concept in science and philosophy. Indeed, the existence of ...

AMA | November 2024

Mon, 04 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the November 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life

Mon, 28 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Erwin Schrödinger said that the important characteristic of life is that it "goes on doing somethin...

293 | Doyne Farmer on Chaos, Crashes, and Economic Complexity

Mon, 21 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

A large economy is one of the best examples we have of complex dynamics. There are multiple componen...

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

Mon, 14 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that...

AMA | October 2024

Mon, 07 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the October 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funde...

291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

Mon, 30 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Aging and death happen to the best of us, but there are increasing efforts to do something about it....

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

Mon, 23 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It's a wonder democracy works at all -- a collection of people with potentially different interests ...

289 | Cari Cesarotti on the Next Generation of Particle Experiments

Mon, 16 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

As an experimental facility, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva has been extraordinarily su...

288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

Mon, 09 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It wasn't that long ago, historically speaking, that you might put on your tuxedo or floor-length ev...

AMA | September 2024

Mon, 02 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the September 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fun...

287 | Jean-Paul Faguet on Institutions and the Legacy of History

Mon, 26 Aug

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

One common feature of complex systems is sensitive dependence on initial conditions: a small change ...

286 | Blaise Agüera y Arcas on the Emergence of Replication and Computation

Mon, 19 Aug

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Understanding how life began on Earth involves questions of chemistry, geology, planetary science, p...

285 | Nate Silver on Prediction, Risk, and Rationality

Mon, 12 Aug

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Being rational necessarily involves engagement with probability. Given two possible courses of actio...

AMA | August 2024

Mon, 05 Aug

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the August 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...

284 | Doris Tsao on How the Brain Turns Vision Into the World

Mon, 29 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The human brain does a pretty amazing job of taking in a huge amount of data from multiple sensory m...

283 | Daron Acemoglu on Technology, Inequality, and Power

Mon, 22 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Change is scary. But sometimes it can all work out for the best. There's no guarantee of that, howev...

282 | Joel David Hamkins on Puzzles of Reality and Infinity

Mon, 15 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The philosophy of mathematics would be so much easier if it weren't for infinity. The concept seems ...

Ask Me Anything | July 2024

Mon, 08 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the July 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...

281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution

Mon, 01 Jul

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Just like with physics, in biology it is perfectly possible to do most respectable work without thin...

280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence

Mon, 24 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Which is more intelligent, ChatGPT or a 3-year old? Of course this depends on what we mean by "...

279 | Ellen Langer on Mindfulness and the Body

Mon, 17 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

For those of us who are not dualists, the mind arises from our physical bodies -- mostly the brain, ...

278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People

Mon, 10 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

We claim to love all of our children, friends, and students equally. But perhaps deep down you assig...

AMA | June 2024

Mon, 03 Jun

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the June 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...

277 | Cumrun Vafa on the Universe According to String Theory

Mon, 27 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

String theory, the current leading candidate for a theory of quantum gravity as well as other partic...

276 | Gavin Schmidt on Measuring, Predicting, and Protecting Our Climate

Mon, 20 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The Earth's climate keeps changing, largely due to the effects of human activity, and we haven't bee...

275 | Solo: Quantum Fields, Particles, Forces, and Symmetries

Mon, 13 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Publication week! Say hello to Quanta and Fields, the second volume of the planned three-volume...

AMA | May 2024

Mon, 06 May

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the May 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by...

274 | Gizem Gumuskaya on Building Robots from Human Cells

Mon, 29 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Modern biology is advancing by leaps and bounds, not only in understanding how organisms work, but i...

273 | Stefanos Geroulanos on the Invention of Prehistory

Mon, 22 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Humanity itself might be the hardest thing for scientists to study fairly and accurately. Not only d...

272 | Leslie Valiant on Learning and Educability in Computers and People

Mon, 15 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Science is enabled by the fact that the natural world exhibits predictability and regularity, at lea...

AMA | April 2024

Mon, 08 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the April 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...

271 | Claudia de Rham on Modifying General Relativity

Mon, 01 Apr

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Einstein's theory of general relativity has been our best understanding of gravity for over a centur...

270 | Solo: The Coming Transition in How Humanity Lives

Mon, 25 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Technology is changing the world, in good and bad ways. Artificial intelligence, internet connectivi...

269 | Sahar Heydari Fard on Complexity, Justice, and Social Dynamics

Mon, 18 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

When it comes to social change, two questions immediately present themselves: What kind of change do...

AMA | March 2024

Mon, 11 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the March 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...

268 | Matt Strassler on Relativity, Fields, and the Language of Reality

Mon, 04 Mar

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

In the 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell argued that light was a wave of electric and magnetic fields. But ...

267 | Benjamin Breen on Margaret Mead, Psychedelics, and Utopia

Mon, 26 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The twentieth century was something, wasn't it? Margaret Mead, as well as her onetime-husband&n...

266 | Christoph Adami on How Information Makes Sense of Biology

Mon, 19 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Evolution is sometimes described -- not precisely, but with some justification -- as being about the...

AMA | February 2024

Mon, 12 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the February 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

265 | John Skrentny on How the Economy Mistreats STEM Workers

Mon, 05 Feb

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Universities and their students are constantly being encouraged to produce more graduates majoring i...

264 | Sabine Stanley on What's Inside Planets

Mon, 29 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The radius of the Earth is over 6,000 kilometers, but the deepest we've ever dug below the...

263 | Chris Quigg on Symmetry and the Birth of the Standard Model

Mon, 22 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Einstein's theory of general relativity is distinguished by its singular simplicity and beauty. The ...

262 | Eric Schwitzgebel on the Weirdness of the World

Mon, 15 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Scientists and philosophers sometimes advocate pretty outrageous-sounding ideas about the fundamenta...

261 | Sanjana Curtis on the Origins of the Elements

Mon, 08 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

In mid-20th-century cosmology, there was a debate over the origin of the chemical elements. Some tho...

260 | Ricard Solé on the Space of Cognitions

Mon, 01 Jan

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Octopuses, artificial intelligence, and advanced alien civilizations: for many reasons, it's interes...

Holiday Message: Reflections on Immortality

Mon, 18 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The final Mindscape podcast of each year is devoted to a short, reflective Holiday Message. This yea...

259 | Adam Frank on What Aliens Might Be Like

Mon, 11 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It wasn't that long ago that topics like the nature of consciousness, or the foundations of quantum ...

AMA | December 2023

Mon, 04 Dec

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the December 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

258 | Solo: AI Thinks Different

Mon, 27 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The Artificial Intelligence landscape is changing with remarkable speed these days, and the capabili...

257 | Derek Guy on the Theory and Practice of Dressing Well

Mon, 20 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Putting on clothes is one of the most universal human experiences. Inevitably, this involves choices...

256 | Kelly and Zach Weinersmith on Building Cities on the Moon and Mars

Mon, 13 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

There is an undeniable romance in the idea of traveling to, and even living in, outer space. In rece...

AMA | November 2023

Mon, 06 Nov

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the November 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...

255 | Michael Muthukrishna on Developing a Theory of Everyone

Mon, 30 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

A "Theory of Everything" is physicists' somewhat tongue-in-cheek phrase for a hypothetical model of ...

254 | William Egginton on Kant, Heisenberg, and Borges

Mon, 23 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

It can be tempting, when first introduced to a deep concept of physics like Heisenberg's uncertainty...

253 | David Deutsch on Science, Complexity, and Explanation

Mon, 16 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

David Deutsch is one of the most creative scientific thinkers working today, who has as a goal to un...

AMA | October 2023

Mon, 09 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the October 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funde...

252 | Hannah Ritchie on Keeping Hope for the Planet Alive

Mon, 02 Oct

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Our planet and its environment are in bad shape, in all sorts of ways. Those of us who want to impro...

251 | Rosemary Braun on Uncovering Patterns in Biological Complexity

Mon, 25 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Biological organisms are paradigmatic emergent systems. That atoms of which they are made mindlessly...

250 | Brendan Nyhan on Navigating the Information Ecosystem

Mon, 18 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The modern world inundates us with both information and misinformation. What are the forces that con...

249 | Peter Godfrey-Smith on Sentience and Octopus Minds

Mon, 11 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

The study of cognition and sentience would be greatly abetted by the discovery of intelligent alien ...

AMA | September 2023

Mon, 04 Sep

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Welcome to the September 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fun...

248 | Yejin Choi on AI and Common Sense

Mon, 28 Aug

Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset

Over the last year, AI large-language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have demonstrated a remar...