157 | Elizabeth Strychalski on Synthetic Cells and the Rules of Biology
Natural selection has done a pretty good job at creating a wide variety of living species, but we humans can't help but wonder whether we could do better. Using existing genomes as a starting point, b...
26 Jul 20211h 17min
156 | Catherine D'Ignazio on Data, Objectivity, and Bias
How can data be biased? Isn't it supposed to be an objective reflection of the real world? We all know that these are somewhat naive rhetorical questions, since data can easily inherit bias from the p...
19 Jul 20211h 28min
155 | Stephen Wolfram on Computation, Hypergraphs, and Fundamental Physics
It's not easy, figuring out the fundamental laws of physics. It's even harder when your chosen methodology is to essentially start from scratch, positing a simple underlying system and a simple set of...
12 Jul 20212h 40min
AMA | July 2021
Welcome to the July 2021 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of questi...
9 Jul 20213h 49min
154 | Reza Aslan on Religion, Metaphor, and Meaning
Religion is an important part of the lives of billions of people around the world, but what religious belief actually amounts to can vary considerably from person to person. Some believe in an anthrop...
5 Jul 20211h 25min
153 | John Preskill on Quantum Computers and What They're Good For
Depending on who you listen to, quantum computers are either the biggest technological change coming down the road or just another overhyped bubble. Today we're talking with a good person to listen to...
28 Jun 20211h 32min
152 | Charis Kubrin on Criminology, Incarceration, and Hip-Hop
It's all well and good to talk abstractly about morality and justice, but at some point you have to sit down and figure out what to do about people who break the rules. In our modern legal system, mos...
21 Jun 20211h 19min
151 | Jordan Ellenberg on the Mathematics of Political Boundaries
Any system in which politicians represent geographical districts with boundaries chosen by the politicians themselves is vulnerable to gerrymandering: carving up districts to increase the amount of se...
14 Jun 20211h 23min
