episode-header-image

Jun 2024

34m 43s

Aphantasia

About this episode

What does it mean to see – and not see – in your mind? Close your eyes and imagine a red apple. What do you see? Turns out there’s a whole spectrum of answers to that question and Producer Sindhu Gnanasambandan is on one far end. In this episode, she explores what it means to see – and not see – in your mind.

Up next

In this episode, first aired in 2014, we examine three very different kinds of black boxes—spaces where we know what’s going in, we know what’s coming out, but can’t see what happens in-between. From the darkest parts of metamorphosis to a sixty-year-old secret among magicians, a ... Show More

Gray's Donation

Before he was even born, Sarah and Ross Gray knew that their son Thomas wouldn’t live long. But as they let go of him, they made a decision that reverberated through a world that they never bothered to think about. Years later, after a couple of awkward phone calls, they go on a ... Show More

In the early 2000s, Sunil Nakrani felt stuck. Back then, websites crashed all the time. When Sunil noticed this, he decided he was going to fix the internet. But after nearly a year of studying the architecture of the web, he was no closer to an answer. In desperation, Sunil sent ... Show More

Recommended Episodes

It started with students walking out of school to demand more action on climate change, built into an international movement – and then was propelled forward by a pandemic. Today on the show, the surprising story behind Europe’s climate plan, and what the rest of us can learn fro ... Show More

What If We Settled on an Exoplanet? - with Didier Queloz

Go to www.greenchef.com/WHATIF90 and use code WHATIF90 to get $90 off, including free shipping. It's been a long strange journey for Nobel Prize winning astronomer Didier Queloz. In 1995, he and his team discovered the first "Exosolar Planet" i.e. an Earth-like planet orbiting a ... Show More

Real Effects of Paying it Forward, Gorillas Humming Food Songs, and New Crowdsourced Exoplanet Names

Learn about why paying it forward has very real effects; musical animals that could help us understand how speech evolved in humans; and newly announced names for exoplanets that were crowdsourced from people just like you.Sources:Small acts of kindness at work benefit the giver, ... Show More

What If Your Teacher Were A.I.? - Guests: Dr. Joanna Bryson and Dr. Jutta Treviranus

Sign up for the Great Courses today to receive the first month for free: https://bit.ly/great-courses-what-if Is A.I. the future of education? Could human teachers one day be replaced by robots? How can A.I. enhance the educational experience? What are the pros and cons of A.I ... Show More

Answering Your Tree-Mail (and Nuclear) Questions

We love listener mail! You've sent us some amazing notes. Some made us laugh, some made us cry, and some made us say—hey, that’s a great question! We should answer it. So that’s what we did. This week, we dig into some of your questions about trees. What’s up with that tree-plant ... Show More

What If We Discovered Alien Life? - Guest: Jill Tarter

There's perhaps no bigger "What If" that will ever be asked. As long as we have been able to look up at the stars and understand the vastness of space, humans have pondered whether we are indeed alone in the universe. But perhaps no one has "been on the case" in a more serious wa ... Show More

What Stories Do America’s Monuments Tell? with Dr. Elizabeth Alexander

You’re planning an afternoon with friends, just east of Atlanta, Georgia. A picnic, maybe a scenic walk, some fireworks as the sun goes down. You find a park that seems to have it all: Stone Mountain. Then you do some research on it—and learn that it holds significance for the Co ... Show More

What If We Lived in a Closed Biosphere? - with Jane Poynter

In 1991, 8 people walked into the first ever biosphere project, committed to live there, grow their own food, recycle their waste and sustain themselves on limited amounts of oxygen for 2 years. So who better to ask "What If we lived in a closed biosphere than Jane Poynter, one o ... Show More

Introducing… Showcase from Radiotopia

Radiotopia is pleased to introduce Showcase, a new podcast featuring original series of all stripes, from producers around the world. For this intro episode, Roman Mars (99% Invisible host / creator and Radiotopia partner) talks with Julie Shapiro (Radiotopia executive producer) ... Show More

Original broadcast date: October 7, 2022. We encounter friction every day — in all its forms — as we brush our teeth, go for a jog, argue with a friend. This hour, TED speakers explore how this force can be dialed up or down to improve our lives. Guests include tribologist Jennif ... Show More