Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchRaffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026)
In the thirteenth-century Mediterranean, commerce transformed as merchants shifted from Roman to Indo-Arabic numerals—an alternative that better faci…
2 months ago
Masud Husain, "Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain" (Canongate, 2025)
Episode 175
What makes us who we are?
Through the stories of seven of his patients, acclaimed Oxford University neurologist Masud Husain shows us how our brains c…
2 months ago
David Blumenthal and James A. Morone, "Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science" (Yale UP, 2026)
Episode 13
For nearly a century, every Democratic president—and many Republicans—entered office promising to restructure America’s health care system. Barack Ob…
2 months, 1 week ago
Adrian Woolfson, "On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence" (MIT Press, 2026)
Imagine a future where we grow houses rather than build them. Where smartphones are alive, clothing has opinions and all human knowledge fits into a …
2 months, 1 week ago
Keith Cooper, "Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact" (Reaktion, 2025)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch a double sunset on Tatooine, stand among the sand dunes of Arrakis or gaze at the gas-giant pla…
2 months, 1 week ago
Matthew Bothwell, "The Invisible Universe: Why There's More to Reality than Meets the Eye" (Simon and Schuster, 2021)
Since the dawn of our species, people all over the world have gazed in awe at the night sky. But for all the beauty and wonder of the stars, when we …
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Adam Zeman, "The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
A compelling insight into how our imagination works, based on the latest scientific research.
People often think of imagination as something used o…
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Douglas H. Erwin, "The Origins of the New: Novelty and Innovation in the History of Life, Culture, and Technology" (Princeton UP, 2026)
The Origins of the New (Princeton University Press, 2026) presents a revolutionary approach to evolutionary success in all realms of life. In this gr…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
Dominik Berrens, "Naming New Things and Concepts in Early Modern Science: The Case of Natural History" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Naming new discoveries is central to science, and for centuries, Latin dominated this process. The resulting terminology still shapes modern science,…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
Vojta Hybl, "Rocks: A Guide to the Stones Around Us and the Stories They Tell" (Frances Lincoln, 2026)
What is that rock you’ve just picked up? Which minerals is it made of, what’s unique about it and what can it reveal about Earth’s deeper story?
Rocks…
2 months, 4 weeks ago