195 | Richard Dawkins on Flight and Other Evolutionary Achievements
Evolution has equipped species with a variety of ways to travel through the air — flapping, gliding, floating, not to mention jumping really high. But it hasn't invented jet engines. What are the diff...
2 Maj 20221h 18min
194 | Frans de Waal on Culture and Gender in Primates
Humans are related to all other species here on Earth, but some are closer relatives than others. Primates, a group that includes apes, monkeys, lemurs, and others besides ourselves, are our closest r...
25 Apr 20221h 8min
193 | Daniels on Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
Every time we make an important decision, it's hard not to wonder how things would have turned out had we chosen differently. The set of all those hypothetical lives is a kind of "multiverse" — not on...
18 Apr 20221h 8min
AMA | April 2022
Welcome to the April 2022 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 quest...
14 Apr 20223h 27min
192 | Nicole Yunger Halpern on Quantum Steampunk Thermodynamics
Randomness and probability are central to modern physics. In statistical mechanics this is because we don't know everything about the distribution of atoms and molecules in a fluid, so we consider a p...
11 Apr 20221h 17min
191 | Jane McGonigal on How to Imagine the Future
The future grows out of the present, but it manages to consistently surprise us. How can we get better at anticipating and preparing for what the future can be like? Jane McGonigal started out as a ga...
4 Apr 20221h 21min
190 | Lea Goentoro on Regrowing Limbs
Biological organisms are pretty good at healing themselves, but their abilities fall short in crucial ways. Planaria can be cut into pieces, and each piece will regrow into an entire organism; but for...
28 Mars 20221h 3min
189 | Brian Klaas on Power and the Temptation of Corruption
All societies grant more power to some citizens, and there is always a temptation to use that power for the benefit of themselves rather than for the greater good. Power corrupts, we are told — but to...
21 Mars 20221h 22min
