Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMilo Beckman, "Math Without Numbers" (Dutton, 2020)
Episode 60
One of the questions I am often asked is exactly what do mathematicians do. The short answer is that they look at different mathematical structures, …
5 years, 4 months ago
Alan Lightman, "Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings" (Pantheon, 2021)
Episode 42
Imagination with a Straight Jacket
Alan Lightman is a writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Ma…
5 years, 4 months ago
Emily Willingham, "Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis" (Avery, 2020)
Episode 19
The fallacy sold to many of us is that the penis signals dominance and power. But this wry and penetrating book reveals that in fact nature did not s…
5 years, 4 months ago
David Badre, "On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done" (Princeton UP, 2020)
Episode 8
On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done (Princeton UP, 2020) is a look at the extraordinary ways the brain turns thoughts into actions—and how this s…
5 years, 4 months ago
Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton, "Vera Rubin: A Life" (Harvard UP, 2021)
Episode 196
Few astronomers in the 20th century did as much to expand our understanding of the universe as Vera Rubin. To tell her remarkable story in their biog…
5 years, 4 months ago
Henry T. Greely, "CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans" (The MIT Press, 2021)
Episode 38
What does the birth of babies whose embryos have gone through genome editing mean—for science and for all of us?
In November 2018, the world was shock…
5 years, 4 months ago
Thomas Pradeu, "Philosophy of Immunology" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Episode 241
Vaccines make us wholly or partly immune to disease, such as Covid-19. But what is it to be immune? What is an immune system, and what does it do? In…
5 years, 4 months ago
Jack Price, "The Future of Brain Repair: A Realist's Guide to Stem Cell Therapy" (MIT Press, 2020)
Episode 37
A scientist assesses the potential of stem cell therapies for treating such brain disorders as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
S…
5 years, 4 months ago
Jennifer M. Rampling, "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
A four-hundred-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. Tracing the development of a…
5 years, 4 months ago
Michael Rossi, "The Republic of Color: Science, Perception, and the Making of Modern America" (Chicago UP, 2019)
Episode 276
The appreciation of color is considered universal among human societies, yet varies vastly according to cultural norms and material circumstances. In…
5 years, 4 months ago