All Episodes

#724 Lucia Melloni: Consciousness, Language, and Neuroplasticity

Dec 30, 2022

Dr. Lucia Melloni is a Research Leader of the Neural Circuits, Consciousness and Cognition Group at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Her research areas include domain-general cortical computations, neural mechanisms by which the brain predictively controls sensory processing and perception, brain mechanism subserving language comprehension, and possibilities and limits of brain plasticity to restore cognitive functions. More»
#723 William Harris - Zero to Birth: How the Human Brain Is Built

Dec 29, 2022

Dr. William Harris is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy at Cambridge University and fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He was head of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience since its formation in 2006 until his retirement in 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2007, and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2012. In 2017, he was awarded the Waddington Medal by the British Society for Developmental Biology for his work on the development of the visual system. He is the author of Zero to Birth: How the Human Brain Is Built. More»
#722 Martin Lang: Rituals, Synchrony, Moralizing Gods, and the Study of Religion

Dec 26, 2022

Dr. Martin Lang is an Assistant Professor at Masaryk University investigating the evolution of ritual behavior and the relationship between anxiety and rituals. More»
#721 Bart Streumer: Metaethics, Moral Facts, Error Theory, and Moral (Anti)-Realism

Dec 23, 2022

Dr. Bart Streumer is Professor and Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Groningen. His expertise is in metaethics and ethics. He is the author of Unbelievable Errors: An Error Theory About All Normative Judgements. More»
#720 Patrick McNamara - The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience: Decentering and the Self

Dec 22, 2022

Dr. Patrick McNamara is an Associate Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at the BU School of Medicine and Professor of Psychology at National University, and Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Religion Project, along with Dr. Jordan Grafman. Upon graduating from the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Boston University in 1991, he trained at the Aphasia Research Center at the Boston VA Medical Center in neurolinguistics and brain-cognitive correlation techniques. He then began developing an evolutionary approach to problems of brain and behavior and currently is studying the evolution of the frontal lobes, the evolution of the two mammalian sleep states (REM and NREM) and the evolution of religion in human cultures. He is the author of The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience: Decentering and the Self. More»
#719 Dimitris Xygalatas - Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

Dec 19, 2022

Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Psychological Sciences and head of the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut. He has also served as President of the International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion. His interests include ritual, sports, cooperation, the interaction between cognition and culture, and the impact of cultural practices on psychophysiological wellbeing. He is the author of The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria, and, more recently, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. More»
#718 Moshe Hoffman & Erez Yoeli - Hidden Games; Game Theory and Irrational Human Behavior (Pt. 2)

Dec 16, 2022

Dr. Moshe Hoffman is a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Lecturer at Harvard's Department of Economics. He applies game theory, models of learning and evolution, and experimental methods, to try to decipher the (often subconscious and subtle) incentives that shape our social behavior, preferences, and ideologies. More»
#717 Allan Horwitz - DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible

Dec 15, 2022

Dr. Allan Horwitz is Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Rutgers University. He has also chaired the Mental Health and Medical Sociology Sections of the American Sociological Association, as well as the Psychiatric Sociology Section of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. His research has focused on the sociology of mental health and illness. In 2006, he received the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health from the American Sociological Association's Section on Sociology of Mental Health. In addition, he has published several books, the most recent one being DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible. More»
#716 Azar Gat - Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars

Dec 12, 2022

Dr. Azar Gat is the Ezer Weizman Professor of National Security at Tel Aviv University, in Israel. He is the founder and head of the University's International Program in Security and Diplomacy Executive Master’s Program in Diplomacy and Security. He’s also the author of books like A History of Military Thought, War in Human Civilization, and Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism. His most recent book is Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars. More»
#715 Lee Edelman - No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive

Dec 9, 2022

Dr. Lee Edelman is Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University. Dr. Edelman began his academic career as a scholar of twentieth-century American poetry. He has since become a central figure in the development, dissemination, and rethinking of queer theory. His current work explores the intersections of sexuality, rhetorical theory, cultural politics, and film. He is the author of books like No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive; and Sex, or the Unbearable. More»