Apr 15
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 planet Polyphemus from the moon Pandora? In Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact (Reaktion, 2025), Keith Cooper explores ... Show More
49m 34s
Apr 12
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 look with just our eyes we are seeing and appreciating only a tiny fraction of the Universe. What does the cosmos have in store for ... Show More
1h 8m
Apr 8
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 only in creative endeavours. In fact, we use imagination constantly as we reminisce, anticipate, plan, daydream, read, create imagine ... Show More
1h 8m
Aug 2023
Gary Smith, "Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)
There is no doubt science is currently suffering from a credibility crisis. Gary Smith's book Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science (Oxford UP, 2023) argues that, ironically, science's credibility is being undermined by tools created by scientists themsel ... Show More
36m 48s
Sep 2021
The psychology of science denial, doubt and disbelief, with Gale Sinatra, PhD, and Barbara Hofer, PhD
On hot-button topics such as climate change, vaccines and genetically modified foods, science denial is rampant – and it crosses party and ideological lines. What are the psychological forces that lead people to disbelieve scientific consensus? Is science denial worse than it’s e ... Show More
36m 52s
May 2021
Combatting Anti-Science with Richard Dawkins
<p>How do we stop anti-science? In this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to talk about religion, the importance of science communication, and Dawkins’ new book, <em>Books Do Furnish a Life.</em></p>
<p>NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can ... Show More
53m 48s
Sep 2023
Break the Science Barrier: Why science matters
Break the Science Barrier is a TV documentary that I presented on Channel 4 in 1996. It argues for the importance, for society, of scientific ways of thinking. In it, I interviewed David Attenborough, Alec Jeffreys, who discovered DNA fingerprinting, and Douglas Adams, who gave a ... Show More
44m 27s
Listen to this interview of Joshua Schimel, Professor of soil ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded (Oxford UP, 2011). We talk about how writing is research, and about how the Vietnam War was really just one big fat rejected manuscript.
Joshua Sch ... Show More
<p><strong>Neil deGrasse Tyson</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/neiltyson" target="_blank">@neiltyson</a>) is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of <a href="https://www.startalkradio.net/" target="_blank"><em>StarTalk Radio</em></a>, and author o ... Show More
<p><strong>Stuart Ritchie</strong> (<a href="https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie" target="_blank">@StuartJRitchie</a>) is a lecturer in the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-That- ... Show More