All Episodes

#394 Chiara Marletto: Quantum Mechanics, Constructor Theory, Free Will, and Reality

Nov 20, 2020

Dr. Chiara Marletto is Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Physics at Oxford University. Her research interests include Quantum Theory of Computation, Foundations of Physics, Condensed-Matter Physics and Quantum Biology. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the "Graduate Prize Scholarship" at Merton College, 2012; "Optime" Award for Academic Excellence, offered by Unione Industriale di Torino, 2011; and the "Ing. Vittorino Pollo e Dott.Ssa Zita Pollo" Award for Academic Excellence, offered by Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, 2010. More»
#393 Paul Bloom: Moral Development, Empathy, Pleasure and/in Pain

Nov 19, 2020

Dr. Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is the author of books like How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (2000), How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (2010), Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (2013), and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (2016). More»
#392 Christopher Ferguson: Violent Media and Its Effects, and How Madness Shaped History

Nov 16, 2020

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson is professor of psychology at Stetson University. He is interested in media violence and, in particular, video games. He has been invited to speak at Vice President Biden's task force and a 2013 Institute of Medicine/CDC panel on the subject and in summer 2018 testified at the School Safety Commission. His research has generally indicated that exposure to media violence has little effect on societal violence. Dr. Ferguson has emphasized the idea that media effects must be studied independently rather than taking a "one size fits all" approach. Thus, advertising may get us to switch from one product to another even if video games don't turn kids into mass killers. Dr. Ferguson is also interested in the sociology of media research itself...how political pressure, social moral panics and culture war can distort media effects research into "opinions with numbers.". He’s the author of How Madness Shaped History: An Eccentric Array of Maniacal Rulers, Raving Narcissists, and Psychotic Visionaries. More»
#391 Matthew Cobb: The Idea of the Brain

Nov 13, 2020

Dr. Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester, where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behavior and the history of science. He is also a historian of the French Resistance. He’s the author of several books, including The Idea of the Brain: A History. More»
#390 Justin Tosi - Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk

Nov 12, 2020

Dr. Justin Tosi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas Tech University. He works in social, political, legal, and moral philosophy, and especially on state legitimacy, special obligations, and social morality. He’s the author of Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (co-authored with Brandon Warmke). More»
#389 Robert Atkinson - Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business

Nov 9, 2020

Dr. Robert Atkinson is a Canadian-American economist. He is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., that promotes policies based on innovation economics. He was previously Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute. He’s the author of four books, including Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business. More»
#388 Warren Brown: Neuroscience, Dualism, Emergentism, Science and Religion

Nov 6, 2020

Dr. Warren Brown is Director of the Lee Edwards Travis Research Institute and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Doctoral Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. Currently, he is most actively involved in neuroscience research in two areas: (1) the cognitive and psychosocial disabilities in a congenital brain malformation called agenesis of the corpus callosum, and (2) the consequences in adults of a childhood hemispherectomy for the control of seizures. Brown has also studied functioning of the corpus callosum in dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, and he has done research on brain wave changes associated with aging and dementia, language comprehension, dialysis treatment for kidney disease, and attention deficits in schizophrenia. Dr. Brown has authored or coauthored over 75 scholarly articles in such peer-reviewed scientific journals as Neuropsychologia, Psychophysiology, Biological Psychiatry, Developmental Neuropsychology, Cortex, Nature Review Neuroscience, and Science; 15 chapters in edited scholarly books; and over 150 presentations at scientific meetings. More»
#387 Greg Eghigian: The History of Mental Illness and Psychiatry

Nov 5, 2020

Dr. Greg Eghigian is Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. A historian of both the human sciences and modern Europe, he is particularly interested in how societies grapple with the questions and problems associated with modernity through the vehicles of science, technology, and medicine. His research has largely focused on the nature of power and the relationship between the state, science, and medicine in understanding and managing things such as disability, deviance, criminality, mental illness, and security. And he regularly writes articles and present papers on the general history of madness and psychiatry. In recent years, his interests have moved into studying the history of supernatural and paranormal phenomena. More»
#386 Shawn Smith: The APA Guidelines for Practice with Boys and Men

Nov 2, 2020

Dr. Shawn Smith is a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colorado and the author of five psychology books. He also writes a blog at docsmith.co. And he has a YouTube channel - Dr. Shawn T. Smith. More»
#385 Russell Warne - In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths about Human Intelligence

Oct 30, 2020

Dr. Russell T. Warne is Associate Professor of Psychology at Utah Valley University. His new book is In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence. More»