Why? with Emma Kennedy

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When will humans go extinct? Feb 29, 2024

Show notes

Everything goes extinct eventually. When will it be our turn? And will humans disappear because of shifting tectonic plates, catastrophic natural disasters, the earth being engulfed by the sun… or our own ruinous activities? Basically, how long have we got?

Dr. Henry Gee, senior editor at Nature and author of A Very Short History of Life on Earth, tells Olly Mann that it isn’t so much a question of if we will go extinct, but when and why.

• “My feeling is that humans will become extinct within the next 10,000 years or so.” – Dr. Henry Gee

• “For most of human history, people have been living at a subsistence level. Populations of humans would become extinct quite regularly. Near-extinction is a feature of human evolution." – Dr. Henry Gee

Buy A Very Short History of Life on Earth through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

WHY? is written and presented by Olly Mann. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Am I living in a hallucination? Feb 22, 2024

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You can trust what’s in front of your eyes, right? Turns out… not really. Everything we see is processed through a filter of our prior expectations. Our brains fill the gaps in the data they receive to create a “reality” that we can understand. If everything we see and hear is just a construct, are we all living in our own hallucinations?

Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, explains our world of illusions to Olly Mann.

• “There is a real world out there – but we experience it as a construction. We never experience things as they really are. We experience the world as WE are, not as IT is.” – Anil Seth

• “We think our brains are ‘reading out’ the world but it is totally the other way around… The brain is continually making predictions about what is out there.” – Anil Seth

Buy Being You: A New Science of Consciousness through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/13277/9781399804516

WHY? is written and presented by Olly Mann. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff and Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Why does music make us emotional? Feb 19, 2024

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Music is a universal language, a connecting force during all of life’s highs and lows. But why does music make us emotional? From feelings of elation and melancholy, to unease and motivation - why and how does music play with not only our emotions, but our brains themselves?

Catherine Loveday, Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Westminster, joins Luke Turner to discuss the psychology of music, its impact on our memory and why our teenage music loves stay with us forever.

• "Music is in masses of different areas of the brain, and when we look in brain scanners when people are improvising, performing, or listening to music we see huge amounts of activation” - Prof Catherine Loveday

• “There is research that shows longer-term musical memories are robust, and are less likely to be impacted by conditions such as dementia than other memories” - Prof Catherine Loveday

• "There is a theory that music was our communication tool from before we developed language” - Prof Catherine Loveday

• "There is no consistency in what people choose as their favourite genre of music, everyone develops their own taste and love of particular types of music” - Prof Catherine Loveday

WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Produced by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters production.

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The secret life of pets: How does my dog’s mind work? Feb 15, 2024

Show notes

Your dog is really clever, right? You understand one another. Every pet owner thinks this. But can our pets really communicate with us beyond the basic demands for food, walks and play? How is its mind constructed? What’s going on inside that furry head?

Dr Juliane Kaminski, Associate Professor in Comparative Psychology and director of the Dog Cognition Centre at the University of Portsmouth, tells Emma Kennedy how we’re only just beginning to understand how dogs see and understand the world they’re living in.

• “Dogs have a huge motivation to look into our eyes, to maintain eye contact, which is not a trivial thing, because in the wild, a wolf would perceive this as a threat.”- Dr Juliane Kaminski

• “We’ve created a creature that understands us in ways that no other animal does. Dogs are really good at making sense of our communication.” - Dr Juliane Kaminski

WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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What is the most powerful thing in the universe? Feb 12, 2024

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They shine as brightly as a trillion stars, they’re powered by supermassive black holes… and until 2023 we had no idea how they came into existence. These are quasars, awesomely powerful cosmic objects at the centre of some of the most violent events in the universe. What exactly are quasars, and just how powerful can they be? Dr Vicky Fawcett, Research Associate in Astrophysics at Newcastle University, explains the power of the quasar to amazed space cadet Luke Turner.

•“A Quasar can be about a thousand times more powerful than the Milky Way Galaxy itself.” - Dr Vicky Fawcett

•“Quasar stands for quasi stellar radio source, because back in the 1960s when they were first discovered, they thought they were radio bright stars.” - Dr Vicky Fawcett

•"The central point of a quasar is so bright that they outshine all the stars in the galaxy.” - Dr Vicky Fawcett

WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Produced by Anne-Marie Luff with Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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How can I control my dreams? Feb 08, 2024

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If you could control your dreams, what would you do while you slept? Fly? Get romantic with some unattainable object of desire? Or embark on a fantasy odyssey with no equivalent in reality? Lucid dreams – where we know we’re dreaming and we can control what we do – come to many of us at some point in our lives. But can we learn how to do it? And does lucid dreaming have real-world benefits beyond just being loads of fun?

Olly Mann talks to Mark Blagrove, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sleep Lab at Swansea University, all about the science of lucid dreaming.

• “Lucid dreaming gives you something quite extraordinary to think about. It can increase your level of awe at what is possible in the world.” - Mark Blagrove

• "People who frequently lucid dream have an ‘internal locus of control’, meaning that they feel in charge of their own life, as opposed to feeling that their life is under the control of chance.” - Mark Blagrove

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Why am I addicted to spicy food? Feb 05, 2024

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You’ve probably eaten something so spicy it hurt before. But, across the globe, people still love eating spicy food – despite the discomfort. Why?

Bob Holmes, author of FLAVOR: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense, tells Olly Mann what attracts us to this taste sensation.

Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.

WHY? is written and presented by Olly Mann Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Why can't we predict earthquakes? Feb 01, 2024

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Without warning a 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook Japan on New Year’s Day, raising the sea floor above the water and causing devastating damage and death. Even with all humanity’s deep scientific knowledge and discoveries, we still cannot predict when an earthquake will strike. Why is that? What mysteries do the earth’s tectonic plates hold, and are we getting closer to solving them?

Professor Tim Wright tells Emma Kennedy how scientists are working to relieve the seismic strain on the earth’s mantle – and new discoveries about the shifting world beneath our feet.

Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.

WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Can I outrun a T.Rex? Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

If you’ve ever watched Jurassic Park, you’ve probably wondered how you’d fare against a dinosaur. If these prehistoric beasts did exist alongside us, would we really stand a chance?

Today on Why? Dr. David Hone separates dinosaur fact from fiction with Emma Kennedy, including the secrets held in dino-dandruff.

Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow us on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.

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Can I trust my own eyes? Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

Your eyes are your window to the world – but is what they’re seeing actually happening?

When you’re driving at speed, being alert to the traffic around you will save your life. When a truck in front brakes sharply you have milliseconds to respond, but what if you’re seeing the past? Can your brain process the information it’s receiving quickly enough to avoid catastrophe? Or does it do something completely different and take a leap of faith to predict reality?

Professor Hinze Hogendoorn tells Anna Machin how real-time perception is an illusion and how our brains compensate for living in the past.

Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.

WHY? is written and presented by Anna Machin. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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