Podcast Episodes

Geoffrey West on Networks, Scaling, and the Pace of Life

Episode 5

If you scale up an animal to twice its height, keeping everything else proportionate, its volume and weight become eight times as much. Such a scaling relation was used by J.B.S. Haldane in his famou…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago

Anthony Pinn on Humanism, Theology, and the Black Community

Episode 4

According to atheism, God does not exist. But religions have traditionally done much more than simply proclaim God's existence: they have provided communities, promoted the arts, handed down moral gu…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago

Alice Dreger on Sexuality, Truth, and Justice

Episode 3

The human mind loves nothing more than to build mental boxes -- categories -- and put things into them, then refuse to accept it when something doesn't fit. Nowhere is this more clear than in the ide…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago

Carlo Rovelli on Quantum Mechanics, Spacetime, and Reality

Episode 2

Quantum mechanics and general relativity are the two great triumphs of twentieth-century theoretical physics. Unfortunately, they don't play well together -- despite years of effort, we currently lac…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago

Carol Tavris on Mistakes, Justification, and Cognitive Dissonance

Episode 1

For the first full episode of Mindscape, it's an honor to welcome social psychologist Carol Tavris. Her book with co-author Eliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), explores the effect tha…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago

Welcome to the Mindscape Podcast!

I've decided to officially take the plunge into the world of podcasting. The new show will be called Mindscape, and will mostly consist of me talking to smart people about interesting ideas. (Occasio…

Published on 7 years, 2 months ago