Have you ever felt, “Oh my God, I’m turning into my mother (or father)!” ? Robert Plomin explains why that happens in Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (MIT Press, 2019).
A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent lifelong sources of our psychological individuality―the blueprint that makes us w ... Show More
Today
Rafael Yuste, "Lectures in Neuroscience" (Columbia UP, 2023)
The human brain is perhaps the most intricate and fascinating object in the known universe. Through a mysterious process, the activity of billions of neurons within a few pounds of matter generates the unfathomable complexity of the mind.Lectures in Neuroscience is a conversatio ... Show More
1h 1m
Jan 13
Dagomar Degroot, "Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Our Place in the Solar System" (Harvard UP, 2025)
Our solar system is a dynamic arena where asteroids careen off course and solar winds hurl charged particles across billions of miles of space. Yet we seldom consider how these events, so immense in scale, influence our fragile blue planet: Earth. In Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: ... Show More
1h 15m
Jan 11
Alison Bashford, "Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Why did Isaac Newton read books on chiromancy, the occult science of hand reading that revealed the secrets of the soul? Why did Charles Darwin claim that the hand gave humans dominion over all other species? Why did psychoanalyst Charlotte Wolff climb into the primate cages of t ... Show More
45m 19s
Jul 2020
#211 — The Nature of Human Nature
Sam Harris speaks with Robert Plomin about the role that DNA plays in determining who we are. They discuss the birth of behavioral genetics, the taboo around studying the influence of genes on human psychology, controversies surrounding the topic of group differences, the first l ... Show More
1h 12m
Aug 2023
The Life Scientific: Anne Ferguson-Smith
Our genes can tell us so much about us, from why we look the way we look, think the way we think, even what kind of diseases we might be likely to suffer from. But our genes aren't the whole story. There are other, complex and intriguing systems within every cell in our bodies wh ... Show More
27m 22s
Jun 2023
Anne Ferguson-Smith on unravelling epigenetics
Our genes can tell us so much about us, from why we look the way we look, think the way we think, even what kind of diseases we might be likely to suffer from. But our genes aren't the whole story. There are other, complex and intriguing systems within every cell in our bodies wh ... Show More
28m 2s
Nov 18
Encore: Ep. 6 - Kristine's DNA Bombshell
Hey, Fellow Travelers. This week, we explore what happens when a DNA test reveals a shocking surprise. Kristine was adopted and had always hoped to find her biological parents—and in her early twenties, she did. But there was a secret that she—and her biological father—didn't kno ... Show More
46m 48s