How Vestigial Organs Work

Blacksmiths? You got that right. Learn all about this age old occupation in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In the 80s, a pair of psychologists theorized why being part of a group can change people’s thoughts and feelings, both about themselves and other people. It sounds dry, but SIT explains everything from how people justify genocide to football rivalries.See omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More

Japanese nuclear worker Hisashi Ouchi is often called on the internet “the world’s most radioactive man.” That’s not exactly true, but it gets the point across about how severe the fatal dose of radiation he received was.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

A rabbi, a descendant of Charles Darwin, a philosopher and a scholar face off over religion in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

<p>If you've taken part in a religious service, have you ever stopped to think about how it all came to be? How did people become believers? Where did the rituals come from? And most of all, what purpose does it all serve? This week, we explore these questions with psychologist A ... Show More

<p>If you've taken part in a religious service, have you ever stopped to think about how it all came to be? How did people become believers? Where did the rituals come from? And what purpose does it all serve? This week, we bring you a July 2018 episode with social psychologist A ... Show More

<p>If you've taken part in a religious service, have you ever stopped to think about how people become believers? Where do the rituals come from? And what purpose does it all serve? This week, we bring you a 2018 episode with social psychologist <a href="https://psych.ubc.ca/prof ... Show More

In episode 107 of Overthink, David and Ellie take up a philosophical perspective on biology’s squirmiest concept: the organism. From Kant’s distinction between organisms and mechanisms, to Deleuze and Guattari’s infamous call for ‘bodies without organs,’ they uncover and question ... Show More

<p>Today, a fast moving, sidestepping, gene-swapping free-for-all that would’ve made Darwin’s head spin.</p> <p>David Quammen tells us about a shocking way that life can evolve - infective heredity. To figure it all out we go back to the earliest versions of life, and we revisit ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether religion can still be seen as a way of interpreting and judging good and evil in modern western civilisation and examines what the discoveries of Darwin and our knowledge of the true physiological nature and history of man has done for us i ... Show More

<p>For the majority of human history, a failing vital organ was a death sentence. Yet hard-won lessons from countless tragic medical experiments have given modern humans the amazing ability to swap a failing organ from a healthy one, often with good odds of surviving the operatio ... Show More