Rank #44 in Social Sciences category
Inquiring Minds
Updated 2 months ago
Rank #44 in Social Sciences category
Each week Inquiring Minds brings you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We endeavor to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters with weekly coverage of the latest headlines and probing discussions with leading scientists and thinkers.
Each week Inquiring Minds brings you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We endeavor to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters with weekly coverage of the latest headlines and probing discussions with leading scientists and thinkers.
iTunes Ratings
771 RatingsHighly recommended
By DellingDog - Mar 17 2018Great!
By clint wolf - Jun 20 2017iTunes Ratings
771 RatingsHighly recommended
By DellingDog - Mar 17 2018Great!
By clint wolf - Jun 20 2017Inquiring Minds
Latest release on Aug 06, 2020
Each week Inquiring Minds brings you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We endeavor to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters with weekly coverage of the latest headlines and probing discussions with leading scientists and thinkers.
Rank #1: The Laws of Human Nature
We talk to author Robert Greene, most known for the bestselling The 48 Laws of Power, about his new book The Laws of Human Nature.
Dec 17 2018
45mins
Rank #2: 17 Michael Pollan - The Science of Eating Well (And Not Falling For Diet Fads)
The trouble with that view, however, is that what they’re eating is probably nothing like the diet of hunter-gatherers, says Michael Pollan, author of a number of best-selling books on food and agriculture, including Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. "I don't think we really understand well the proportions in the ancient diet," argues Pollan on this week’s episode. "Most people who tell you with great confidence that this is what our ancestors ate—I think they're kind of blowing smoke."
This week on the show, guest host Cynthia Graber has a wide-ranging conversation with Pollan that covers the science and history of cooking, the importance of microbes—tiny organisms such as bacteria—in our diet, and surprising new research on the intelligence of plants.
This episode also features a discussion of the new popular physics book Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn, by Amanda Gefter, and new research suggesting that the purpose of sleep is to clean cellular waste substances out of your brain.
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Jan 16 2014
57mins
Rank #3: 34 John Oliver - This World Will Be a Ball of Fire Before It Stops Being Funny
In another recent episode, Oliver expressed his frustration with the so-called climate "debate" in America by staging a more representative debate between a few climate skeptics and nearly a hundred scientists. One of the guys on the correct side of the "debate" was Bill Nye, who was booked for the show basically at the last minute.
"We just wanted to really play with that idea that the very fact that the climate debate is framed as a debate at all is problematic," Oliver says. On Inquiring Minds this week, guest host Asawin Suebsaeng talked to John Oliver about Last Week Tonight, politics, climate change, and how he went about finding a, um, very specific kind of model for the show.
This episode also features a discussion of surprising new scientific findings about why we don't remember much from our childhoods—because we were so busy growing new brain cells.
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943
RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds
Stitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
May 15 2014
46mins
Rank #4: 113 Robert Sapolsky - Being Human
We talked to Sapolsky about what it means to be human, what we humans can learn from other species, and why he—despite being a self-described pessimist—feels optimistic about our prospects as a species.
This week’s episode was recorded live in San Francisco for the 2015 Bay Area Science Festival and was produced in collaboration with The Leakey Foundation and their podcast Origin Stories.
http://leakeyfoundation.org/
http://leakeyfoundation.org/originstories
http://patreon.com/inquiringminds
Dec 04 2015
1hr 7mins
Rank #5: 105 Brad Voytek - We Neuroscientists Don't Really Know What Your Brain Is Doing
Brad Voytek is an Assistant Professor of Computational Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at UC San Diego.
Oct 09 2015
59mins
Rank #6: A Radical New History of Life
We talk to science writer David Quammen about his new book The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life.
Nov 23 2018
43mins
Rank #7: Why Buddhism is True
We talk to journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author Robert Wright about his latest book Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment.
Sep 18 2017
45mins
Rank #8: 172 Dan Ariely - The Surprising Science of What Motivates Us
Mar 27 2017
34mins
Rank #9: 6 Jonathan Haidt - This is Why Your Political Opponents Hate You
In this episode of Inquiring Minds, moral psychologist and bestselling The Righteous Mind author Jonathan Haidt explains that our differences are, at root, the result of sharply contrasting moral systems and the emotions that underlie them. These emotions differ from left to right. And in politics, we feel first and think later.
As a result, even though political partisans today tend to think their adversaries are wrong and immoral, the truth is actually that they are too moral, albeit in a far more visceral than intellectual sense.
This episode also contains a discussion of Glenn Beck's recent flubbing of basic statistics, and of why a primate species—the marmoset—may in some ways be better at communicating than today's Democrats and Republicans.
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Oct 25 2013
39mins
Rank #10: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
We talk to neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, author of the new book The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains.
Nov 19 2019
39mins
Rank #11: 43 Naomi Oreskes - The Collapse of Western Civilization
Such is the premise of a thought-provoking new work of "science-based fiction" by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, two historians of science best known for their classic 2010 book, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. In a surprising move, they have now followed up that expose of the roots of modern science denialism with a work of "cli-fi," or climate science fiction, entitled The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future. In it, Oreskes and Conway write from the perspective of a historian, living in China (the country that fared the best in facing the ravages of climate change) in the year 2393. The historian seeks to analyze the biggest paradox imaginable: Why humans who saw the climate disaster coming, who were thoroughly and repeatedly warned, did nothing about it.
So why did two historians turn to sci-fi? On the show this week we talked to one of them—Naomi Orekes—to find out exactly that.
This episode also features a discussion of questionable claims about "drinkable" sunscreen, and a new study finding that less than 1 percent of scientists are responsible for a huge bulk of the most influential research.
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943
RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds
Stitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
Jul 18 2014
54mins
Rank #12: 162 Paul Bloom - Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
Jan 09 2017
40mins
Rank #13: 55 Daniel Levitin - The Organized Mind
We also talk to microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles about the Ebola virus—what the risks really are, and why many people might be overreacting.
Also, Chris has a huge announcement.
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943
RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds
Stitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
Oct 10 2014
1hr 9mins
Rank #14: How Intuition and Reason Divide Our Politics
We talk to political scientist Eric Oliver about the surprisingly high percentage of people who believe in conspiracy theories and the reasons behind those beliefs. His forthcoming book is Enchanted America: How Intuition and Reason Divide Our Politics.
Aug 28 2018
31mins
Rank #15: 130 Bill Nye - Fighting Climate Denial
Apr 22 2016
41mins
Rank #16: 134 Anders Ericsson - How to Do Everything Better
We talk to psychologist Anders Ericsson about his new book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.
May 20 2016
55mins
Rank #17: 54 Steven Pinker - The Science Behind Writing Well
http://www.bayareascience.org/event/im-story-collider/
On the show this week we talk to celebrated Harvard cognitive scientist and psycholinguist Steven Pinker about his new book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.
Pinker explains how to write in clear, "classic" prose that shares valuable information with clarity (but never condescension). He also tells us why so many of the tut-tutting grammar "rules" that we all think we're supposed to follow—don't split infinitives, don't use the passive voice, don't end a sentence with a preposition—are just nonsense.
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943
RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds
Stitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
Oct 02 2014
48mins
Rank #18: 83 Traci Mann - The Science of Weight Loss
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943
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Stitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
Tumblr: inquiringshow.tumblr.com
Apr 24 2015
1hr 8mins
Rank #19: 108 Adam Galinsky & Maurice Schweitzer - The Science of Sex, Power, and Competition
“A lot of what we call gender differences are really just power differences in disguise. The big irony is that women and men get affected by power in very similar ways yet because women have less power in society, there’s a constraint on their ability to act with that power.”
http://patreon.com/inquiringminds
Oct 30 2015
49mins
Rank #20: How Language Shapes Thought
We talk to cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsk about how language can influence the way we think.
Nov 12 2019
47mins
Why things spread and why they stop
We talk to mathematician and epidemiologist Adam Kucharski about his recent book The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread—And Why They Stop.
Aug 06 2020
40mins
Up To Date | Mosquitoes, robots, pupils, beavers, and Earth’s crust
This week: A new study showing how you can, as a way to control their population, change blood-drinking female mosquitoes to male, non-biting mosquitoes by changing just one gene; research into new ways for robots to grab things; a study showing the ways in which the pupils of people who have PTSD react differently than others, even in emotionally-neutral situations; beavers in Alaska are working overtime in the Arctic tundra as a result of climate change and possibly damaging the ecosystem; and research examining how the Earth’s crust cracked in the first place.
Jul 28 2020
26mins
A Story about Forests, People, and the Future
We talk to science reporter Zach St. George about his new book The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future.
Jul 23 2020
39mins
From the slave trade to climate change—why corporations defend the indefensible
We talk to environmental attorney Barbara Freese about her new book Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change.
Jul 16 2020
40mins
The Language of Butterflies
We talk to science writer Wendy Williams about her new book The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World's Favorite Insect.
Jul 08 2020
39mins
Up To Date | The Drake equation 2.0; Nanotech yeast; Why are plants green?; Wasp boxing
This week: New astrophysics research on the likelihood of there being intelligent life on other planets in our solar system; a study in which atomic force microscopy was used to study the biology of yeast; research into why the chlorophyll in plants doesn’t absorb peak (green) sunlight; and a look at a study that involves watching wasps fight each other in front of a crowd.
Jun 30 2020
21mins
Where educators go wrong
We talk to Tony Wagner, a globally recognized expert in education and senior research fellow at the Learning Policy Institute, about his new book Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education.
Jun 23 2020
39mins
The history of structural racism in medicine
We talk to Robert Rosencrans, an MD/PhD student at the The University of Alabama at Birmingham about the history of structural racism in medicine and the problems with race-based medicine.
Jun 16 2020
45mins
How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
In her book, The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another, materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez explores how eight inventions—clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips—shaped human society. In this episode, we explore the importance of materials and learn about the unsung heroes who crafted them into tools we use every day.
Jun 09 2020
35mins
Galileo’s fight is still relevant today
We talk to astrophysicist Mario Livio about his new book Galileo: And the Science Deniers.
A note before today’s episode:
We have all been watching the escalation of police violence against protesters and Black people and if you consider yourself someone who cares about the injustices and racism being levied against Black communities, I want to ask you to do something about it.
If you have a platform, use it. If you have money to spare, donate it. At the very least you have your voice and your time.
There is a deep anti-Blackness in America and this is an inflection point. When white silence equals violence, there’s no defending complacency. We support Black voices, we support protesters, and we’re horrified by the actions of police. Please consider taking action.
Find a local bail fund to support here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bail_funds_george_floyd
More anti-racism resources here: http://bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
— Adam Isaak, Inquiring Minds producer
Jun 02 2020
38mins
A History of the Afterlife
We talk to noted historian Bart Ehrman about his new book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife.
May 26 2020
36mins
A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
We talk to Lulu Miller, cofounder of NPR's Invisibilia, about her new book Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life.
May 06 2020
37mins
The behavioral economics of baseball
We talk to writer Keith Law about the behavioral economics of baseball and his new book The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves.
Apr 25 2020
38mins
Up To Date | Plastic-eating enzymes; 5,000-year-old egg decorating; why you still can’t buy love; and the neural basis of creativity
This week: New research on a biological enzyme that can break down the plastic we use for water bottles; a brief look into the history of egg decorating; a new study on the social consequences of a financially contingent self-worth; and a summary of new research involving jazz guitarists improvising while wearing EEGs on their heads.
Apr 14 2020
28mins
Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You
We talk to journalist and founder of the Neurodiversity Project Jenara Nerenberg about her new book Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You.
Apr 07 2020
34mins
Revisiting the Dunning-Kruger Effect with David Dunning
We talk to social psychologist David Dunning about his well-known 1999 study on why people are so bad at knowing how smart they are. He explains what people get wrong about it today, and what he’s learned since then.
Mar 31 2020
32mins
How the internet is changing the English language
We talk to linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her new book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.
Mar 24 2020
37mins
The science of streaks and the hot hand
We talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen about his new book The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks.
Mar 17 2020
38mins
The neuroscience of how we learn
We talk to French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene about his new book How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine … for Now.
Mar 10 2020
36mins
A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story
We talk to Jessica Powell, a writer and former VP of Communications for Google, about her new book The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story.
Feb 25 2020
39mins