Beyond Lab Walls | Salk Institute

Latest Episodes:

Janelle Ayres on immune resilience and the aging brain Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

In this special Beyond Lab Walls video podcast episode—part of the Salk Institute's 2026 Year of Brain Health—Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD, sits down with Janelle Ayres, PhD, an expert on how the immune system helps the body maintain balance, recover from stress, and stay resilient across a lifetime.

Kay Tye on social connection and FOMO Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

We've all heard that staying social is good for your health. But what's actually happening in the brain when you feel connected, or when you don't? In this special Beyond Lab Walls video podcast episode—part of the Salk Institute's 2026 Year of Brain Health—Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD, sits down with neuroscientist Kay Tye, PhD, whose lab studies the brain circuits that drive social behavior, emotion, and the deep human need for connection.

Salk's Year of Brain Health: Nicola Allen on brain inflammation and lifelong cognitive health Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

When we think about brain health, we tend to think about neurons. But some of the most important work of protecting the brain may depend on immune and other cell types, which make up a surprising 50% of the human brain. In this special Beyond Lab Walls video podcast episode—part of the Salk Institute's 2026 Year of Brain Health—Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD, speaks with Nicola Allen, PhD, a leading neuroscientist whose lab studies how non-neuronal brain cells shape brain function in health, aging, and disease.

Christian Metallo on metabolic health, aging, and Alzheimer's risk Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

In this special Beyond Lab Walls video podcast episode—part of the Salk Institute's 2026 Year of Brain Health—Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD, speaks with Christian Metallo, PhD, a leading expert in how nutrients power cells and tissues, and how subtle shifts in metabolism can shape long-term wellbeing. Together, they explore why the brain's energy demands make it especially sensitive to metabolic changes across the lifespan.

Salk's Year of Brain Health: Rusty Gage on exercise, cognition, and aging May 28, 2026

Show notes

What does it actually mean, biologically, when we say "exercise is good for your brain"? In this special Beyond Lab Walls video podcast episode—part of Salk's 2026 Year of Brain Health—Salk President Gerald Joyce sits down with renowned neuroscientist Rusty Gage to explore how movement shapes cognitive brain health across a lifetime. Together, they discuss: • What changes in the brain with exercise, and why it matters over time • Adult neurogenesis: how Gage's research helped overturn the belief that the adult brain can't generate new neurons • What the evidence suggests about exercise and the survival and integration of new neurons • The key biological signals that carry benefits from an active body to the brain • How exercise intersects with other pillars of brain health, including immune function, metabolism, and sleep • The biggest unanswered questions—and what it will take to solve them This conversation is a window into how foundational science turns familiar advice into real, evidence-based understanding.

Igniting the spark with Salk Innovation and Collaboration Grants Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

At Salk, we encourage our scientists to ask, what if? And when they do, our Innovation and Collaboration Grants program provides the seed funding they need to pursue their high-risk, high-reward questions. Hear how our Innovation and Collaboration Grant program got started, what discoveries it has enabled, and the what if questions Salk scientists Dannielle Engle and Axel Nimmerjahn are asking.

Emily Manoogian sleeps, eats, and thrives with circadian rhythms in mind Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

Emily Manoogian, PhD, has made a career out of asking when. Manoogian is a chronobiologist—a fancy word for someone who studies circadian rhythms. As we go about our daily lives, sleeping, eating, exercising, and more, our bodies respond by tuning internal biological clocks. Our habits can make or break these clocks, and Manoogian is finding out exactly what and when those habits are so we can optimize our circadian rhythms for long-term health.

Terrence Sejnowski chats chatbots and what we can learn at the intersection of AI and neuroscience Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

Terrence Sejnowski, PhD, is a professor, head of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, and holder of the Francis Crick Chair at Salk, and he's played a hand in two entirely new scientific fields emerging—first computational neuroscience, then NeuroAI. Hear what it was like creating the first text-to-speech program, best practices for using modern chatbots, and how computer models are helping neuroscientists understand the human brain.

What's next for GLP-1 weight loss drugs? Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

Salk scientist Christian Metallo, PhD, weighs in on the pros and cons of GLP-1 drugs and gives us a sneak peek into how metabolism research at Salk could inspire the next generation of obesity and weight management treatments.

Joseph Herdy talks zombie cells, selfish genes, and Alzheimer's disease Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

While you might not appreciate a shipment of live, wriggling lamprey, Joseph Herdy, PhD, will tell you the parasitic fish can actually teach us quite a bit about our own genomes. Studying lamprey set Herdy off on a genomic journey, as he continued over the years to study the organization, flexibility, and instability of genomes. Today, he's a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rusty Gage, PhD, where he researches how genomic plasticity influences Alzheimer's disease progression.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Beyond Lab Walls | Salk Institute

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected