general science

#1325 Philip Ball - The Man Who Broke Reality: Niels Bohr and the Making of Modern Physics

Oct 29, 2026

Dr. Philip Ball is a freelance science writer, with a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol. He was an editor at Nature for over 20 years. He is the author of many popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, color in art, the science of social and political philosophy, and the cognition of music. His latest book is The Man Who Broke Reality: Niels Bohr and the Making of Modern Physics. More»
#1317 Samuel Arbesman - The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

Oct 9, 2026

Dr. Samuel Arbesman is a former Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital. He is also an Adjunct Professor and xLab senior fellow at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management; a Senior Fellow of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder; and a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation. He is the author of The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date. More»
#1291 Christopher Kavanagh & Matthew Browne: Decoding the Gurus

Aug 10, 2026

Dr. Christopher Kavanagh is an Associate Professor in the College of Contemporary Psychology at Rikkyo University and a researcher in cognitive anthropology at the Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology (ICEA) at the University of Oxford. His research interests include East Asian religions, ritual behavior, and the bonding effects of shared dysphoria. More»
#1285 Luke Kemp - Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse

Jul 27, 2026

Dr. Luke Kemp is Research Affiliate and former Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He looks at the past (civilization collapses) and future (climate change and emerging technologies) to guide policy in the present. He is an honorary lecturer in environmental policy at the Australian National University (ANU), holds a PhD in international relations from the ANU and was previously a senior economist at Vivid Economics. He is the author of Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. More»
#1273 Helen Pearson - Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works

Jun 29, 2026

Helen Pearson is a science journalist, author and Chief Magazine Editor for the journal Nature, where she oversees the journalism and opinion content. Her latest book is Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works. More»
#1248 Carles Lalueza-Fox - Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves

May 1, 2026

Dr. Carles Lalueza-Fox is Director of the Natural Science Museum in Barcelona. He participated in the Neanderthal Genome Project and led the first retrieval of the genome of an 8,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer. His latest book is Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves. More»
#1236 Paul Thagard - Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness

Apr 3, 2026

Dr. Paul Thagard is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science. The Canada Council awarded him a Molson Prize (2007) and a Killam Prize (2013). He is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and author of many interdisciplinary books, the latest one being Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness. More»
#1232 Michael Mann - Science Under Siege: The Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World

Mar 26, 2026

Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He is the author (together with Peter Hotez) of Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World. More»
#1229 Nandita Bajaj, Zachary Neal, and Jennifer Neal: Debunking Pronatalist Claims

Mar 19, 2026

Nandita Bajaj is the Executive Director of Population Balance, a US nonprofit that works to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University. More»
#1223 Sonia Contera: Six Problems That Science Cannot Solve

Mar 5, 2026

Dr. Sonia Contera is a Full Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford. She works on physics at the interface of biology, nanotechnology, and information processing. She is an expert in atomic force microscopy of biological systems and has a special interest in the role of mechanics in biology. She is the author of the book "Nano comes to life: How nanotechnology is transforming medicine and the future of biology", and her new book is “Seis problemas que la ciencia no puede resolver” ("Six problems that science cannot solve"). More»