Revisiting the dawn of human cognition
There's a common story about the human past that goes something like this. For a few hundred thousand years during the Stone Age we were kind of limping along as a species, in a bit of a cognitive rut...
1 Juni 202356min
Medieval monks on memory, meditation, and mind-wandering
You know the feeling. You're trying to read or write or think through a project, maybe even just respond to an email, when your attention starts to drift. You may not even notice it until you've alrea...
17 Maj 20231h 2min
Species of conversation
We humans are social animals—and that takes work. As we move through the world, we have to navigate around other people's desires, needs, and beliefs. Much of this work happens in conversation—through...
3 Maj 20232h 1min
Minding plants
Let's start with a little riddle: What kind of organism has no eyes, no mouth, and no brain, but—arguably—has a mind? Most of the work on non-human minds has, naturally, focused on animals—apes, dogs...
19 Apr 20231h 13min
From the archive: Animal minds and animal morality
Taking care of some spring cleaning this week, but we're excited to resurface this conversation with Kristin Andrews and Susana Monsó. We'll be back with a fresh episode in two weeks. In the meanwhi...
5 Apr 20231h 34min
The "I" of the beholder
Let's face it, we're all a little bit self-involved. It's not just that we spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves. There's another layer to it: we spend a lot of time thinking about what other p...
22 Mars 202349min
The mighty T-Rex brain
When you think of the dinosaurs, you probably think of supersized lizards. At least I do. They were gargantuan, certainly, and maybe quite agile, but also a bit dim-witted. Maybe not markedly dim-witt...
8 Mars 202355min
The allure of stories
Once upon a time there was a king and a bishop... No, I'm not actually going to tell you a story right now. I just wanted you to notice something: As I started into that, your mind likely shifted int...
22 Feb 20231h 20min
