Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
258 | Solo: AI Thinks Different
27 Nov 2023
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
20 Nov 2023
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
13 Nov 2023
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
06 Nov 2023
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
30 Oct 2023
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
23 Oct 2023
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
16 Oct 2023
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
09 Oct 2023
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
02 Oct 2023
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
25 Sep 2023
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
18 Sep 2023
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
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The study of cognition and sentience would be greatly abetted by the discovery of intelligent alien ...
AMA | September 2023
04 Sep 2023
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
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Over the last year, AI large-language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have demonstrated a remar...
247 | Samuel Bowles on Economics, Cooperation, and Inequality
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/08/21/247-samuel-bowles...
246 | David Stuart on Time and Science in Maya Civilization
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
You might remember the somewhat bizarre worries that swept through certain circles back in 2012, bas...
AMA | August 2023
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the August 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
245 | Solo: The Crisis in Physics
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually poin...
244 | Katie Elliott on Metaphysics, Chance, and Explanation
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Is metaphysics like physics, but cooler? Or is it a relic of an outdated, pre-empirical way of think...
243 | Joseph Silk on Science on the Moon
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Earth's atmosphere is good for some things, like providing something to breathe. But it does get...
242 | David Krakauer on Complexity, Agency, and Information
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Complexity scientists have been able to make an impressive amount of progress despite the fact that ...
AMA | July 2023
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the July 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...
241 | Tim Maudlin on Locality, Hidden Variables, and Quantum Foundations
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Last year's Nobel Prize for experimental tests of Bell's Theorem was the first Nobel in the foundati...
240 | Andrew Pontzen on Simulations and the Universe
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It's somewhat amazing that cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, can make any progress at...
239 | Brian Lowery on the Social Self
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There is an image, especially in Western cultures, of the rugged, authentic, self-made individual ch...
AMA | June 2023
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the June 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...
238 | Scott Shapiro on the Technology and Philosophy of Hacking
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Modern computers are somewhat more secure against being hacked - either by an inanimate virus or a h...
237 | Brooke Harrington on Offshore Wealth as a Complex System
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The modern world is large and interconnected, and there are a lot of systems that might be important...
236 | Thomas Hertog on Quantum Cosmology and Hawking's Final Theory
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Is there a multiverse, and if so, how should we think of ourselves within it? In many modern cosmolo...
AMA | May 2023
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the May 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by...
235 | Andy Clark on the Extended and Predictive Mind
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
What is the mind, and what does it try to do? An overly simplified materialist view might be that th...
234 | Tobias Warnecke on Cellular Structure and Evolution
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Eukaryotic cells manage to pull off a number of remarkable feats. One is packing quite a long DNA mo...
233 | Hugo Mercier on Reasoning and Skepticism
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Here at the Mindscape Podcast, we are firmly pro-reason. But what does that mean, fundamentally and ...
232 | Amy Finkelstein on Adverse Selection and Hidden Information
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If you knew exactly when every person was going to die, or require medical care, you could make a ki...
Ask Me Anything | April 2023
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the April 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...
231 | Sarah Bakewell on the History of Humanism
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Human beings are small compared to the universe, but we're very important to ourselves. Humanism can...
230 | Raphaël Millière on How Artificial Intelligence Thinks
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to another episode of Sean Carroll's Mindscape. Today, we're joined by Raphaël Millière, a...
229 | Nita Farahany on Ethics, Law, and Neurotechnology
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Every time our brain does some thinking, there are associated physical processes. In particular, ele...
AMA | March 2023
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the March 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...
228 | Skye Cleary on Existentialism and Authenticity
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
God is dead, as Nietzsche’s madman memorably reminded us. So what are we going to do about it? If ...
227 | Molly Crockett on the Psychology of Morality
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Most of us strive to be good, moral people. When we are doing that striving, what is happening in ou...
226 | Johanna Hoffman on Speculative Futures of Cities
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Cities are incredibly important to modern life, and their importance is only growing. As Geoffr...
AMA | February 2023
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the February 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...
225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and Agency
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Human beings have developed wondrous capacities to take in information about the world, mull it over...
224 | Edward Tufte on Data, Design, and Truth
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
So you have some information — how are you going to share it with and present it to the rest of th...
223 | Tania Lombrozo on What Explanations Are
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There are few human impulses more primal than the desire for explanations. We have expectations conc...
222 | Andrew Strominger on Quantum Gravity and the Real World
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Quantum gravity research is inspired by experiment — all of the experimental data that supports qu...
221 | Adam Bulley on How Mental Time Travel Makes Us Human
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
One of the most powerful of all human capacities is the ability to imagine ourselves in hypothetical...
Holiday Message 2022: Thinking Really Slowly
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to that beloved Mindscape annual tradition, the Holiday Message. An opportunity for a quicke...
220 | Lara Buchak on Risk and Rationality
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Life is rich with moments of uncertainty, where we’re not exactly sure what’s going to happen ne...
AMA | December 2022
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the December 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...
219 | Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn on the Neuroscience and Philosophy of Curiosity
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s easy enough to proclaim that we are curious creatures, but what does that really mean? What k...
218 | Raphael Bousso on Black Holes and the Holographic Universe
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Stephen Hawking’s discoveries of black hole radiation, entropy, and the information-loss problem h...
217 | Margaret Levi on Moral Political Economy
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Why do people voluntarily hand over authority to a government? Under what conditions should&nbs...
AMA | November 2022
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the November 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...
216 | John Allen Paulos on Numbers, Narratives, and Numeracy
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
People have a complicated relationship to mathematics. We all use it in our everyday lives, from cal...
215 | Barry Loewer on Physics, Counterfactuals, and the Macroworld
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The founders of statistical mechanics in the 19th century faced an uphill battle to convince their f...
214 | Antonio Padilla on Large Numbers and the Scope of the Universe
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s a big universe we live in, so it comes as no surprise that big numbers are needed to describe...
AMA | October 2022
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the October 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funde...
213 | Timiebi Aganaba on Law and Governance in Space
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
With communication satellites, weather satellites, GPS, and much more, what happens in space is alre...
212 | Chiara Mingarelli on Searching for Black Holes with Pulsars
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling black holes by the LIGO and Virgo collaboratio...
211 | Solo: Secrets of Einstein's Equation
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
My little pandemic-lockdown contribution to the world was a series of videos called T...
210 | Randall Munroe on Imagining What If...?
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
What’s the fastest way to get a human being around a racetrack, if we ignore all the rules of raci...
209 | Brad DeLong on Why the 20th Century Fell Short of Utopia
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
People throughout history have imagined ideal societies of various sorts. As the twentieth century d...
AMA | September 2022
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the September 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fun...
208 | Rick Beato on the Theory of Popular Music
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
There is no human endeavor that does not have a theory of it — a set of ideas about what makes it ...
207 | William MacAskill on Maximizing Good in the Present and Future
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It’s always a little humbling to think about what affects your words and actions might have on oth...
206 | Simon Conway Morris on Evolution, Convergence, and Theism
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wide...
AMA | August 2022
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the August 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
205 | John Quiggin on Interest Rates and the Information Economy
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The idea of an “interest rate” might seem mundane and practical, in comparison to our usual topi...
204 | John Asher Johnson on Hunting for Exoplanets
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Recent years have seen a revolution in the study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than ...
203 | N.J. Enfield on Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Not Scientists
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We describe the world using language — we can’t help it. And we all know that ordinary language ...
AMA | July 2022
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the July 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded b...
202 | Andrew Papachristos on the Network Theory of Gun Violence
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The United States is suffering from an epidemic of tragic gun violence. While a political debate rag...
201 | Ed Yong on How Animals Sense the World
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
All of us construct models of the world, and update them on the basis of evidence brought to us by o...
AMA | June 2022
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the June 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! We are inaugurating a slightly differ...
200 | Solo: The Philosophy of the Multiverse
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The 200th episode of Mindscape! Thanks to everyone for sticking around for this long. To celebrate, ...
199 | Elizabeth Cohen on Time and Other Political Values
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Time is everywhere, pervading each aspect of intellectual inquiry — from physics to philosophy to ...
198 | Nick Lane on Powering Biology
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The origin of life here on Earth was an important and fascinating event, but it was also a long time...
197 | Catherine Brinkley on the Science of Cities
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The concept of the city is a crucial one for human civilization: people living in proximity, bringin...
AMA | May 2022
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the May 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by...
196 | Judea Pearl on Cause and Effect
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
To say that event A causes event B is to not only make a claim about our actual ...
195 | Richard Dawkins on Flight and Other Evolutionary Achievements
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Evolution has equipped species with a variety of ways to travel through the air — flapping, glidin...
194 | Frans de Waal on Culture and Gender in Primates
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Humans are related to all other species here on Earth, but some are closer relatives than others. Pr...
193 | Daniels on Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Every time we make an important decision, it’s hard not to wonder how things would have turned out...
AMA | April 2022
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the April 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...
192 | Nicole Yunger Halpern on Quantum Steampunk Thermodynamics
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Randomness and probability are central to modern physics. In statistical mechanics this is because w...
191 | Jane McGonigal on How to Imagine the Future
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The future grows out of the present, but it manages to consistently surprise us. How can we get bett...
190 | Lea Goentoro on Regrowing Limbs
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Biological organisms are pretty good at healing themselves, but their abilities fall short in crucia...
189 | Brian Klaas on Power and the Temptation of Corruption
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
All societies grant more power to some citizens, and there is always a temptation to use that power ...
AMA | March 2022
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the March 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded ...
188 | Arik Kershenbaum on What Aliens Will Be Like
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
If extraterrestrial life is out there — not just microbial slime, but big, complex, macroscopic or...
187 | Andrew Leigh on the Politics of Looming Disasters
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We’re pretty well-calibrated when it comes to dealing with common, everyday-level setbacks. But ou...
186 | Sherry Turkle on How Technology Affects Our Humanity
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Advances in technology have gradually been extending the human self beyond its biological extent, as...
185 | Arvid Ågren on the Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
One of the brilliant achievements of Darwin’s theory of natural selection was to help explain appa...
184 | Gary Marcus on Artificial Intelligence and Common Sense
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Artificial intelligence is everywhere around us. Deep-learning algorithms are used to classify image...
AMA | February 2022
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Welcome to the February 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are fund...
183 | Michael Dine on Supersymmetry, Anthropics, and the Future of Particle Physics
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Modern particle physics is a victim of its own success. We have extremely good theories — so good ...
182 | Sally Haslanger on Social Construction and Critical Theory
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Reality is just out there — but how we perceive reality and talk about it depends on choices we hu...
181 | Peter Dodds on Quantifying the Shape of Stories
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
A good story takes you on an emotional journey, with ups and downs along the way. Thanks to science,...