Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas16 Maalis 2020

88 | Neil Shubin on Evolution, Genes, and Dramatic Transitions

"What good is half a wing?" That's the rhetorical question often asked by people who have trouble accepting Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Of course it's a very answerable question, but figuring out what exactly the answer is leads us to some fascinating biology. Neil Shubin should know: he is the co-discoverer of Tiktaalik Roseae, an ancient species of fish that was in the process of learning to walk and breathe on land. We talk about how these major transitions happen — typically when evolution finds a way to re-purpose existing organs into new roles — and how we can learn about them by studying living creatures and the information contained in their genomes.

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Neil Shubin received his Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University. He is currently the the Robert Bensley Distinguished Service Professor and Associate Dean of Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical society. His first book, Your Inner Fish, was chosen by the National Academy of Sciences as the best science book of 2009, and was subsequently made into a TV special. His new book is Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA.

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305 | Lilliana Mason on Polarization and Political Psychology

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Bonus | Cuts to Science Funding and Why They Matter

The Trump administration, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, has proposed sweeping cuts to spending on science research here in the US, in particular at the National Institu...

12 Helmi 20251h 10min

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

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AMA | February 2025

Welcome to the February 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Pa...

3 Helmi 20253h 44min

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

A typical human lifespan is approximately three billion heartbeats in duration. Lasting that long requires not only intrinsic stability, but an impressive capacity for self-repair. Nevertheless, thing...

27 Tammi 20251h 7min

302 | Chris Kempes on the Biophysics of Evolution

Randomness plays an important role in the evolution of life (as my evil twin will tell you). But random doesn't mean arbitrary. Biological organisms are physical objects, after all, and subject to the...

20 Tammi 20251h 30min

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

Big data is ruling, or at least deeply infiltrating, all of modern existence. Unprecedented capacity for collecting and analyzing large amounts of data have given us a new generation of artificial int...

13 Tammi 20251h 9min

300 | Solo: Does Time Exist?

A new year, and a new centennial -- 300 (regularly-numbered) episodes of Mindscape! Our tradition is to have a solo episode, and what better topic than the nature of time? Physicists and philosophers ...

6 Tammi 20252h 11min