Inquiring Minds

Latest Episodes:

The Neuroscience of What Makes You You Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

This week we talk to cognitive neuroscientist Chantel Prat about her new book The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours. The book is the result of Prat’s decades of work on the biological basis of individual differences in cognition—what makes you you.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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What do animals dream about? Jul 17, 2022

Show notes

This week we talk to philosopher and animal ethicist David Peña-Guzmán about his new book When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness. David explores the idea that there really is a subjective world—a dream world—that lights up when animals sleep, what that actually looks like, and its moral implications.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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The Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion Jul 05, 2022

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This week we’re joined by podcaster, journalist, and author David McRaney to discuss his latest book How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. It’s a deep look at what we know about what it takes to change someone’s mind and why it’s more complicated than you might think.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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The language of food, science, and critical thinking with J. Kenji López-Alt Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

This week we welcome back James Beard award winning food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt. He talks about growing up around science, studying architecture at MIT, and how, strangely enough, both subjects pertain to cooking. Kenji is the author of the bestselling The Food Lab and the recently released The Wok: Recipes and Techniques.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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Derek Gow Is Turning His Farm Into an Ark for Lost Species Jun 01, 2022

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You might not be aware of it, but the UK is experiencing a wildlife crisis. Ecologist Derek Gow joins us this week to talk about what we ought to do about it and how he’s trying to rewild the country with his farm-turned-wildlife breeding center. Gow wrote the bestselling Bringing Back the Beaver and will soon release his latest book Birds, Beasts and Bedlam: Turning My Farm into an Ark for Lost Species.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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Wild but Delicate: What Hawks Can Teach Us About Nature, Life, and Love May 24, 2022

Show notes

On the show this week we’re joined by naturalist, author, and returning guest Sy Montgomery. Throughout her career, Montgomery has repeatedly shown an incredible ability to understand, befriend, and interact with animals. We last heard from her in episode #128 where she talked about her 2016 book The Soul of an Octopus, but she’s written about everything from tigers to snakes to hummingbirds. In this episode we explore her latest book, where she covers her perhaps most challenging animal yet, The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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Can Fish Count? What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds May 17, 2022

Show notes

On the show this week we’re joined by Brian Butterworth, emeritus professor of cognitive neuropsychology and author of the new book Can Fish Count? What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds. He’s spent his career looking at the genetics and neuroscience of mathematical ability—and not just in humans.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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The Science of Creativity and How It Can Help You May 03, 2022

Show notes

How do you feel fear and be creative anyway? How is letting your mind wander key to coming up with, and following through on, creative ideas? Returning to the show this week is journalist Matt Richtel, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series on distracted driving, and author of numerous books. His latest book, Inspired: Understanding Creativity: A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul, is devoted to a deeper understanding of creativity and he joins us this week to talk about it.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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The Misunderstood Nature of Pain with Haider Warraich Apr 19, 2022

Show notes

How do you define how painful something is? On the show this week we welcome back physician, writer, and clinical researcher Haider Warraich to talk about his new book The Song of Our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain. Warraich explores the idea that far from being something objective and easily defined, pain is complex, misunderstood, and culturally influenced. The book delves into the history of pain and explains how our understanding of it has been “shaped not just by science but by politics and power, by whose suffering mattered and whose didn’t.”

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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The Untold Story of the Neuron with Benjamin Ehrlich Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

This week we’re joined by Benjamin Ehrlich, author of The Brain in Search of Itself: Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Story of the Neuron.

It’s a book about the discoveries and life of Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who has been called the ‘father of modern neuroscience.’

While today relatively unknown outside of his field, Cajal’s discoveries about the brain changed the field of neuroscience forever. In 1906 he won a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on neurons, which he called “the mysterious butterflies of the soul … whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.”

https://inquiring.show/episodes/378-the-untold-story-of-the-neuron

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

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