62 | Michele Gelfand on Tight and Loose Societies and People
Physicists study systems that are sufficiently simple that it's possible to find deep unifying principles applicable to all situations. In psychology or sociology that's a lot harder. But as I say at ...
2 Sep 20191h 12min
61 | Quassim Cassam on Intellectual Vices and What to Do About Them
All of us have been wrong about things from time to time. But sometimes it was a simple, forgivable mistake, while other times we really should have been correct. Properties that systematically preven...
26 Aug 20191h 10min
60 | Lynne Kelly on Memory Palaces, Ancient and Modern
Memory takes different forms. Memories can be encoded in the strength of neural connections in our brains, but there's a sense in which photographs and written records are memories as well. What did p...
19 Aug 20191h 15min
59 | Adam Becker on the Curious History of Quantum Mechanics
There are many mysteries surrounding quantum mechanics. To me, the biggest mysteries are why physicists haven't yet agreed on a complete understanding of the theory, and even more why they mostly seem...
12 Aug 20191h 40min
58 | Seth MacFarlane on Using Science Fiction to Explore Humanity
Fiction shines a light on the human condition by putting people into imaginary situations and envisioning what might happen. Science fiction expands this technique by considering situations in the fut...
5 Aug 20191h 12min
57 | Astra Taylor on the Promise and Challenge of Democracy
"Democracy may not exist, but we'll miss it when it's gone" — or so suggests the title of Astra Taylor's new book. We all know how democracy falls short, in practice, of its lofty ideals; but we can a...
29 Jul 20191h 23min
56 | Kate Adamala on Creating Synthetic Life
Scientists can't quite agree on how to define "life," but that hasn't stopped them from studying it, looking for it elsewhere, or even trying to create it. Kate Adamala is one of a number of scientist...
22 Jul 20191h 12min
55 | A Conversation with Rob Reid on Quantum Mechanics and Many Worlds
As you may have heard, I have a new book coming out in September, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. To celebrate, we're going to have more than the usual number o...
15 Jul 20191h 26min
