All Episodes

#1215 Mauricio Suárez - Inference and Representation: A Study in Modeling Science

Feb 13, 2026

Dr. Mauricio Suárez is Full Professor (catedrático) in Logic and Philosophy of Science at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is also a life member at Clare Hall at Cambridge University. His main research interests lie in the philosophy of probability and causality, the history and philosophy of science (mainly physics, chemistry and biology), modeling and idealization, the aesthetics of scientific representation, and general epistemology and methodology of science. He is the author of Inference and Representation: A Study in Modeling Science. More»
#1214 Paul Eastwick: The Science of Love and Connection

Feb 12, 2026

Dr. Paul Eastwick is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Eastwick’s research investigates how people initiate romantic relationships and the psychological mechanisms that help romantic partners to remain committed and attached. One of his research programs examines how the qualities that people say are critically important to them in a romantic partner—their ideal partner preferences—direct romantic partner selection and retention. He is the author of Bonded by Evolution: The New Science of Love and Connection. More»
#1213 Nathan Lents - The Sexual Evolution: Sex, Gender, and Mating

Feb 9, 2026

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#1212 Marina Dubova: The Cognitive Foundations of Science

Feb 6, 2026

Dr. Marina Dubova is an Omidyar postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Her research aims to reveal and inform the cognitive mechanisms of discovery. She develops formal (e.g., computational models) and empirical methods (e.g., cognitive experiments with scientists) to put the foundations of scientific method to rigorous tests. She uses insights from cognitive science to learn how theories and data can be integrated and lead to better understandings of the world. More»
#1211 Coleen Murphy - How We Age: The Science of Longevity

Feb 5, 2026

Dr. Coleen Murphy is James A. Elkins Jr. Professor in the Life Sciences, and Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. She is the author of How We Age: The Science of Longevity. More»
#1210 Cristina Bicchieri: What Are Social Norms, and How do They Change?

Feb 2, 2026

Dr. Cristina Bicchieri is S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research focus is on judgment and decision making with special interest in decisions about fairness, trust, and cooperation, and how expectations affect behavior. A second research focus examines the nature and evolution of social norms, how to measure norms and what strategies to adopt to foster social change. A third, earlier research focus has been the epistemic foundations of game theory and how changes in information affects rational choices and solutions. More»
#1209 Patrick Foote - Immigrant Tongues: Exploring How Languages Moved, Evolved, and Defined Us

Jan 30, 2026

Patrick Foote is the creator of the YouTube channel Name Explain (@NameExplain), where he uncovers the origins of names and highlights many other aspects of language. He founded the channel in 2015 whilst working in retail, as a creative outlet and as a means to share his love of all things language. Since then, Name Explain has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views. The channel’s success led Patrick to write his first book, The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between, in 2018. His latest book is Immigrant Tongues: Exploring How Languages Moved, Evolved, and Defined Us. More»
#1208 Eleanor Scerri: Homo sapiens in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and Malta

Jan 29, 2026

Dr. Eleanor Scerri is Professor at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, where she is the Head of the independent Max Planck Human Palaeosystems Research Group. She is an archaeological scientist interested in exploring the articulation between material culture, genetics, and biogeography to further theoretical, methodological and scientific advances in the field of human evolution. Her group is exploring the pan-African evolution of our species, Homo sapiens through a number of diverse projects. More»
#1207 Alberto Acerbi: Digital Media, Between Reasonable Caution and Unjustified Fears

Jan 26, 2026

Dr. Alberto Acerbi is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Trento. He is a cognitive/evolutionary anthropologist with a particular interest in computational science. He is the author of “Tecnopanico. Media digitali, tra ragionevoli cautele e paure ingiustificate” (“Technopanic: Digital Media, Between Reasonable Caution and Unjustified Fears”). More»
#1206 Victoria Dougherty: On Fictional Adaptations

Jan 23, 2026

Victoria Dougherty is the author of The Bone Church, Welcome to the Hotel Yalta, and Cold. She writes fiction, drama, and essays that revolve around lovers, killers, curses, and destinies. Her work has been published or profiled in the New York Times, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. Earlier in her career, while living in Prague, she co-founded Black Box Theater, translating, producing, and acting in several Czech plays. Her blog – COLD – features her short essays on faith, family, love, and writing. WordPress, the blogging platform that hosts some 70 million blogs worldwide, has singled out COLD as one of the Top 50 Recommended Blogs by writers or about writing. More»