312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs
The germ theory of disease is a crowning achievement of science, up there with modern physics, continental drift, and evolution via natural selection. (Even if there will always be cranky skeptics.) B...
21 Apr 20251h 31min
311 | Annaka Harris on Whether Consciousness is Fundamental
Questions about consciousness range from the precise and empirical -- what neurons fire when I have some particular experience -- to the deeply profound -- does consciousness emerge from matter, or do...
14 Apr 20251h 10min
AMA | April 2025
Welcome to the April 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 Patre...
7 Apr 20253h 30min
310 | Marc Kamionkowski on Dark Energy and Cosmic Anomalies
Cosmologists were, let us be honest, pretty stunned in 1998 when observations revealed that the universe is accelerating. There was an obvious plausible explanation, the cosmological constant proposed...
31 Mars 20251h 26min
309 | Christof Koch on Consciousness and Integrated Information
Consciousness is easier to possess than to define. One thing we can do is to look into the brain and see what lights up when conscious awareness is taking place. A complete understanding of this would...
24 Mars 20251h 20min
308 | Alison Gopnik on Children, AI, and Modes of Thinking
We often study cognition in other species, in part to learn about modes of thinking that are different from our own. Today's guest, psychologist/philosopher Alison Gopnik, argues that we needn't look ...
17 Mars 20251h 9min
AMA | March 2025
Welcome to the March 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 Patre...
10 Mars 20252h 58min
307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Cocktails
A lot of science goes into crafting the perfect cocktail. Balancing sweet and bitter notes, providing the right amount of aeration and dilution, getting it to just the right temperature and keeping it...
3 Mars 20251h 16min
