Inside the mind of an octopus, with Jennifer Mather, PhD| Listen on Anghami

Aug 20

Why numeracy counts in everyday life, with Ellen Peters, PhD

From deciding whether to buy a house to weighing the risks and benefits of taking a new medication, many important life decisions hinge on understanding numbers, statistics and probability. Ellen Peters, PhD, author of “Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Number ... Show More

35m 22s

Aug 13

Encore - How science can help you change your behavior for the better, with Katy Milkman, PhD

What can you learn from the science of behavior change that can help you make the changes you want to see in your life? Katy Milkman, PhD, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where Y ... Show More

43m 42s

Aug 6

Encore -- Why we choose to suffer, with Paul Bloom, PhD

Why do people like to watch scary movies or listen to sad songs? Why do we run marathons and raise children, even though both of those pursuits come with struggle and pain? Paul Bloom, PhD, discusses why suffering is linked to meaning in life, the connection between pleasure and ... Show More

23m 18s

Jun 11

Are Octopuses Aliens??

In 2018, a peer-reviewed article published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology suggested the theory that octopuses could have extraterrestrial origins. As in, they’re not regular Earthlings. The 33 scientists who authored the paper say, the octopus could have arrived ... Show More

34m 31s

Jun 2023

The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable

Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cous ... Show More

7m 45s

Mar 2025

Can AI match the human brain? | Surya Ganguli

AI is evolving into a mysterious new form of intelligence — powerful yet flawed, capable of remarkable feats but still far from human-like reasoning and efficiency. To truly understand it and unlock its potential, we need a new science of intelligence that combines neuroscience, ... Show More

16m 57s

Mar 2025

M. Chirimuuta, "The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience" (MIT Press, 2024)

This book is available open access here. The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience (MIT Press, 2024), Mazviita Chirimuuta argues that the standard ways neuroscientists simplify the human brain to build models for their research purposes mi ... Show More

50m 44s

Jul 2

3D-printed fake wasps help explain bad animal mimicry

In this episode:00:45 Why animals evolve to be imperfect mimicsMany harmless animals mimic dangerous ones to avoid being eaten, but often this fakery is inaccurate. To help explain why evolution sometimes favours imperfect mimicry, a team 3D printed a range of imaginary insects. ... Show More

27m 19s

Jul 7

Ep111 "Might we be surrounded with undetected minds?" (with Michael Levin)

What is intelligence? If we look hard, can we find it in unexpected places: not just in brains but in all kinds of structures? How should we recognize it? And what does any of this have to do with a bipedal dog born without front legs, or making small new organisms out of single ... Show More

51m 33s

Apr 2025

Long-awaited ape genomes give new insights into their evolution — and ours

00:46 Complete sequencing of ape genomesResearchers have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species, helping uncover the evolutionary history of our closest relatives and offering insights into what makes humans human. The genomes of chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean or ... Show More

29m 48s

May 31

596: The Awakening of Human Consciousness | Forbidden Fungus (STRIPPED)

Something extraordinary happened to the human brain 100,000 years ago. In just a few thousand generations, our brains nearly doubled in size - a change that should have taken millions of years. Scientists couldn't explain it until Terence McKenna proposed a radical theory. He bel ... Show More

23m 2s

Mar 2025

Scientists Just Discovered the Essential Nutrient That DOUBLES Dolphin Lifespan—But Should YOU Take It? | Stephanie Venn-Watson : 1256

For nearly a century, scientists believed we had discovered ALL of the essential fatty acids the human body needs. But what if they were wrong? Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist and longevity researcher, joins Dave to reveal a groundbreaking discovery—a newly ide ... Show More

1h 18m

Jan 2025

Titans of Science: Antje Boetius

Titans of Science continues with the microbiologist who discovered how an extraordinary relationship between two methane-eating seafloor species has shaped the world we know today. To explain that and much more is the ocean aficionado Antje Boetius... Like this podcast? Please he ... Show More

30m 49s

Inside the mind of an octopus, with Jenn...