logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2025
1h 16m

307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Co...

SEAN CARROLL | WONDERY
About this episode
I talk with mixologist Kevin Peterson about the science of cocktails. 
Up next
Jan 26
342 | Rachell Powell on Evolutionary Convergence, Morality, and Mind
Evolution with natural selection involves an intricate mix of the random and the driven. Mutations are essentially random, while selection pressures work to prefer certain outcomes over others. There is tremendous divergence of species over time, but also repeated convergence to ... Show More
1h 37m
Jan 19
341 | Stewart Brand on Maintenance as an Organizing Principle
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," wrote W.B. Yeats. I don't know about the centre, but the tendency of things to fall apart is pretty universal, ultimately due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Anyone living in a society or involved with technology must therefore be ... Show More
1h 12m
Jan 12
340 | Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on What Matters and Why It Matters
At any given moment, an uncountable number of events are happening, but only some of them matter to us. What does it mean for something to matter, and more importantly, what does it mean for us to matter -- to ourselves as well as to others? The need to matter can be motivation t ... Show More
1h 18m
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2021
169. The Science of Cool, with Dr. Troy Campbell
<div style="color: black; padding: 10px; font-size: 115%;">Today is a very fun episode about something that you might not think has a science to it, but definitely does which is so amazing! My guest is Troy Campbell, who got his Ph.D. at Duke University and has worked at/for Disn ... Show More
48m 49s
Nov 2024
502. Angry and Red: Color as Emotion | Mark Changizi
Jordan Peterson sits down with theorist and researcher Mark Changizi. They discuss the biological reasons for mass hysteria on the societal level, why we evolved to have color vision, and how we understand and interpret the patterns of the natural world.   Mark Changizi is a theo ... Show More
1h 43m
Oct 2022
How Gamification Has Taken Over, Brewing An Ancient Beer Again. Oct 14, 2022, Part 1
<p>Scientists Are Trying To Study Human Neurons… In Rat Brains?</p> <p>Scientists have a tricky time studying neurons, partially because they are remarkably difficult to grow in a lab. They need other cells around them, and they don’t replicate or reproduce like other cells do. I ... Show More
46m 59s
Sep 2025
Professor Dame Carol Robinson, scientist
Professor Dame Carol Robinson is a scientist who was the first female professor of Chemistry at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. She has been awarded scientific prizes from all over the world for her pioneering work studying complex macromolecules using an instrument calle ... Show More
50m 20s
Jan 2017
Age of noise - British drinking
The 'age of noise': How a preoccupation with unwanted sounds came to characterise modernity. The 20th century saw the expansion of cities and technological change. The sounds of motor cars, vacuum cleaners and gramaphones filled the air, leading social commentators to forecast th ... Show More
28m 11s
Feb 2025
523. Why We Dream, Learn, and Adapt Faster Than Any Other Species | Dr. David Eagleman
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with neuroscientist, bestselling author, and PBS presenter Dr. David Eagleman. They discuss brain plasticity, how perception works, whether free will exists (and if it’s superordinate), how willingness to engage with higher entropy indicates sophi ... Show More
1h 35m
Nov 2018
Roger Highfield in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Roger Highfield is Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group. A physical chemist by training, he honed his journalistic skills while a postdoctoral researcher before becoming Science Editor of the Daily Telegraph for the next 20 years. After a spell as Editor of th ... Show More
49m 37s
Jun 2021
The Science of Less ft. Leidy Klotz
<p>Today we are talking about the science of less or the science of subtraction with expert on the subject Leidy Klotz! He’s an amazing researcher, on the front page of Nature Magazine, and he’s going to teach us about how getting rid of things is a better way to solve our&nbsp;p ... Show More
58m 53s
Feb 2024
Rupert Sheldrake — On Scientism, Morphic Resonance and the Extended Mind (EP. 204)
<p>Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of 9 books and over 100 scientific papers. A critic of what he sees as the scientific establishment's dogmatic dedication to materialism, he is perhaps best known for his theory of "morphic resonance," via which information and activi ... Show More
1h 7m
Apr 2025
Doyne Farmer on making sense of chaos for a better world
Doyne Farmer is something of a rebel. Back in the seventies, when he was a student, he walked into a casino in Las Vegas, sat down at a roulette table and beat the house. To anyone watching the wheel spin and the ball clatter to its final resting place, his choice of number would ... Show More
28m 32s