logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2020
36m 53s

Bringing Gamma Back, Again

Wnyc Studios
About this episode
Today, we return to the lab of neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai, which brought us one of our favorite stories from four years ago - about the power of flashing lights on an Alzheimer’s-addled (mouse) brain. In this update, Li-Huei tells us about her team’s latest research, which now includes flashing sound, and ways in which light and sound together might retriev ... Show More
Up next
Jul 31
The Shoe Thrower
When no one seems to be listening, how far do you go to be heard? In December 2008, George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad for a press conference. And at the very end of his remarks, a shoe came flying past his head. It was “the shoe heard around the world,” and countles ... Show More
1h 17m
Jul 24
Return of Alpha Gal
Several years ago, in 2016, we told a story about Amy Pearl. For as long as she could remember, Amy loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn’t tolerate it. No steaks. No brisket. No weenies. It made no sen ... Show More
55m 47s
Jul 17
Neither Confirm Nor Deny
In an episode we first ran back in 2019, we explore how a sunken nuclear submarine, a crazy billionaire, and a mechanical claw gave birth to a phrase that has hounded journalists and lawyers for 40 years and embodies the tension between the public’s desire for transparency and th ... Show More
29m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2024
Memory And The Brain
Original broadcast date: December 23, 2022. Our brains are magnificently complex - and highly fallible. This hour, neuroscientist and novelist Lisa Genova explains how to keep our brains healthy and what to do when something goes wrong. TED Radio Hour+ subscribers now get access ... Show More
50m 8s
May 2022
Fading into Memories, Music for the Mind, Air Diamonds
Today, you’ll learn about how doctors may have accidentally confirmed that our lives do flash before our eyes just before death, the scientists aiming to legitimize art and music therapy as treatment for mental trauma and how scientists are pulling diamonds out of thin air! ... E ... Show More
14m 47s
Oct 2021
217 - Livewired - David Eagleman (rebroadcast)
<p>In this episode we sit down with neuroscientist David Eagleman to learn how brains turn noise into signal, chaos into order, electrical spikes into meaning, and how new technology can expand subjective reality in ways never before possible. </p> <p>In his new book, Livewired, ... Show More
1h 13m
Jan 2020
TU112: The Life-Changing Science of Memory Reconsolidation with Guests Bruce Ecker & Tori Olds
Memory reconsolidation brings awareness to old maps and traumatic emotional learning and gives us a clean slate to build new learning pathways. Powerhouse clinicians Bruce Ecker & Tori Olds join co-host Sue Marriott in a discussion on the science behind this process and Coherence ... Show More
1 h
Sep 2025
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s
Sep 2025
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s
Mar 2024
A New Headset Aims to Treat Alzheimer’s With Light and Sound
An experimental device developed by Cognito Therapeutics seeks to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients using light and sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 
8m 48s
Mar 2025
Everyday Neuro 024: Mental Time Travel – How the Hippocampus Enables Recalling the Past and Imagining the Future
In this episode, dedicated to the pioneering researcher Professor Eleanor Maguire, I talk about how the hippocampus acts like a time machine, to help us remember events and special moments in our past, navigate the present and travel into the future. I talk about Maguire’s ground ... Show More
21m 15s
Nov 2021
Mind readers
Will scientists ever fully understand the human brain? In their quest for knowledge, they’ve tried knives, magnets, computers, blood, and even a good metaphor. For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable It’s a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics ... Show More
32m 10s