Hold That Thought
228 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★ - 12 ratingsHold That Thought brings you research and ideas from Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Throughout the year we select a few topics to explore and then bring together thoughtful commentary on those topics from a variety of experts and sources. Be sure to subscribe!
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Episodes
The Amazing Brain Carnival
April 27, 2016 19:26 - 10 minutes - 14.1 MBTwice a year, the St. Louis Science Center hosts a carnival - but you won't find a carousel or a performer doing magic tricks. Instead, at the Amazing Brain Carnival, kids of all ages get to learn about the real-life magic happening inside their own bodies. Graduate students Dov Lerman-Sinkoff and Tyler Schlichenmeyer walk us through the carnival and share why, as neuroscience researchers, they want to reach out and inspire more people to get excited about the brain.
How to Create a Neuroscience Pipeline
April 21, 2016 15:05 - 14 minutes - 20.3 MBBack when his kids were in elementary school, biology professor Erik Herzog remembers taking a human brain into their classroom and watching the kids' faces light up with curiosity. Yet somewhere along the way, he knew, many kids get discouraged from pursuing careers in science - and this can be especially true for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Herzog, a neuroscientist who studies circadian rhythms, now manages many efforts across Washington University to support and encourage y...
The Many Lives of Michelangelo
April 13, 2016 19:31 - 16 minutes - 22.4 MBWhat can a single sheet of paper reveal about the complex life of an artistic genius like Michelangelo Buonarroti? William Wallace, an art historian and author of Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and his Times, reveals how documents - including one extremely rare document in Washington University's own library - provide a window into Michelangelo's life and art.
"The Quality of Mercy": A Shakespearean Theme
April 06, 2016 19:02 - 15 minutes - 20.9 MBFour hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare, theater enthusiasts around the world are celebrating the famous playwright's legacy. To learn more about Shakespeare, his works, and the times in which he lived, we invite you to tune in to our 2015 series Summer with the Bard. In the following episode from that series, Robert Wiltenburg takes us through Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and romances to reveal how a quintessential Shakespearean theme - mercy - evolves in each genre,...
Religion and Comic Books: A Tangled Web
March 30, 2016 17:00 - 13 minutes - 18.8 MBMost people don't normally associate comic books and superheroes with religion. However, Roshan Abraham, a comics studies scholar and assistant professor of religious studies and classics at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals how religion is actually in the DNA of comics. He traces the many ways religion influences, shapes, and appears in comics, and how scholars in both religious and comics studies face very similar problems.
Recovering from Stroke
March 23, 2016 21:47 - 10 minutes - 14.3 MBAccording to the American Stroke Association, on average, someone in the United States experiences a stroke every 40 seconds. It's the leading cause of adult disability in the United States. Catherine Lang, director of the Neurorehabilitation Research Laboratory and professor of physical therapy, neurology, and occupational therapy at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, wants to improve the ways that doctors and physical therapists help people recover from stroke. In...
Claude Monet and the Science Of Style
March 16, 2016 19:45 - 11 minutes - 15.3 MBWhen you look at a painting by Claude Monet or Pablo Picasso, what do you really see? Mark Rollins, professor of philosophy and director of the performing arts department at Washington University in St. Louis, shares his fascination with both cognitive science and visual art. As Rollins explains, art can be viewed as a game between two brains. Here, he gives us a glimpse into one of Monet's hidden strategies.
Success, Motivation, and the Brain
March 10, 2016 17:50 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MBWhen you form a goal in your mind, and then manage to avoid distractions and carry out that goal, what's going on in your brain? Todd Braver, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis, shares some of his past and upcoming research into cognitive control.
Mapping the Brain
March 02, 2016 19:51 - 12 minutes - 17.8 MBThrough the groundbreaking Human Connectome Project, researchers like Deanna Barch have spent years mapping the complex wiring of the human brain. Barch, who chairs the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, provides a behind-the-scenes look into the project and helps us understand the links between brain connectivity and human behavior.
Your Brain on Movies, Pt. 2
February 24, 2016 21:00 - 11 minutes - 16.2 MBImagine a scene in a movie in which two people are having a conversation. First you see one person talking, and then the other. You see a close-up of some detail, and then a far-away view of the whole room. These rapid shifts in perspective don't happen in real life, yet our eyes and brains seem to have no problem keeping up. How can this be true? Jeff Zacks, author of Flicker: Your Brain on Movies, again joins Hold That Thought to discuss how our brains react to film.
Understanding Alzheimer's
February 17, 2016 19:15 - 11 minutes - 15.6 MBAccording to the National Institute on Aging, experts estimate that more than five million people in the United States have Alzheimer's disease, a condition that damages memory and cognitive function. David Holtzman - professor and chair of the neurology department at the Washington University School of Medicine, and associate director of the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center - explains what is happening in the brain of someone with Alzheimer's. He also describe...
The New Anthropology of Love
February 10, 2016 17:36 - 15 minutes - 22.1 MBLove and desire are deeply personal, right? And when we fall in love with someone, it's because there's something unique and innate in them that matches with something unique and innate in us, right? Actually, neither of these things are as true as you think, according to Dredge Byung'chu Kang, a cultural anthropologist and a post-doctoral fellow in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He discusses some national and global relationship trends, including ...
Your Brain on Movies, Pt. 1
February 03, 2016 14:36 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MBEver find yourself crying at a cheesy movie that you don't even like very much? Or catch yourself ducking and flinching during an action flick, even though you're perfectly safe in a movie theater, munching popcorn? Jeffrey Zacks, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, shares some of the reasons why. Zacks is author of the book Flicker: Your Brain on Movies.
Violence and Memory
January 27, 2016 22:44 - 28 minutes - 65.8 MBHow should we remember historical moments of violence and loss? What are the links between terrible events like the Holocaust, the mass casualties of World War I, the Armenian Genocide, and crises around the world today? What challenges do historians face as they examine and interpret death and war? Anika Walke and Jay Winter both face such questions and issues in their research. Here, the two historians candidly discuss the process of seeking meaning in history, as well as the personal moti...
How to Control Your Emotions
January 21, 2016 16:37 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MBAre you a "think on the bright side" person, who always has a positive outlook? Or do you sometimes find it hard to control what you feel and how you express those feelings? Tammy English, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences and director of the Emotion and Relationships Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis, studies emotion regulation. Here she discusses some common successful strategies for managing emotions and working toward long-term happiness.
How to Strengthen Your Willpower
January 13, 2016 21:43 - 11 minutes - 27.4 MBIt's mid-January, that time of year when a person's zeal to start fresh in the new year might be starting to fade. But don't give up on your resolutions quite yet! Psychologist Tim Bono has some research-proven tips for how to successfully build willpower. Bono, an assistant dean in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, teaches the popular course Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness.
Remembering Baghdad
December 10, 2015 21:04 - 11 minutes - 16.4 MBHow do you remember home? Nancy Berg, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, examines this question as it relates to Jewish writers from Iraq. In the mid-twentieth century, the thriving Jewish community in modern-day Baghdad quickly came to an end. Years later, those who experienced life in Baghdad - and also the children of those exiled - turn to literature to share their memories. Berg shares some of these authors and stories and describes th...
Exploring Antarctica
December 02, 2015 21:25 - 7 minutes - 9.78 MBJoin Doug Wiens, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, as he describes his explorations of Antarctica. For some fifteen years, Wiens and his colleagues have been studying the physics behind ice movement and examining questions about where and how ice in the the western Antarctic ice sheet is melting.
Pilgrim Fathers: How the Thanksgiving We Know and Love Was Manufactured
November 18, 2015 19:45 - 14 minutes - 20.5 MBThanksgiving is a day most Americans look forward to, a day of watching parades and feasting on delicious food with friends and family. However, the rosy picture we have in our minds of our Pilgrim forefathers sitting down to eat with the local Native American tribes is, frankly, a myth. In honor of the holiday, American religious historian Mark Valeri shares the true and harrowing tales of the Pilgrim immigrants, and how and why their story came to national prominence in the post-Civil War e...
Islam, Immigration, and What It Means to Be French
November 11, 2015 20:41 - 9 minutes - 13.2 MBIn 2015 alone, hundreds of thousands of migrants have fled war-torn Syria and elsewhere and made their way to Europe. While many Europeans have welcomed the refugees, some countries have expressed reluctance to accept Muslim asylum seekers. When thinking about the ongoing crisis, anthropologist John Bowen, from Washington University in St. Louis, sees a discouraging consistency with the larger history of Islam and immigration in Europe. Here he talks about that history and and how Europe, and...
The Witches' Hammer: Magic and Law in Early Modern Europe
October 28, 2015 15:53 - 29 minutes - 40.7 MBIn 1487, when the witch trials were just starting to take root in Europe, a Dominican priest published the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witches' Hammer, a treatise on the prosecution of witches in a court of law. This text would be used over the next three centuries as the authority on the trial and torture of witches, laying out why women in particular were so susceptible to witchcraft. By the end of the witch craze in the 1720s, an estimated 80,000 had been tried and executed. In this extend...
When Countries Cheat
October 22, 2015 16:17 - 11 minutes - 16 MBAs our world becomes increasingly interconnected, countries enter into more and more international agreements. Tens of thousands of such agreements help form common rules about everything from trade relations to environmental policy to immigration rights. But what happens when countries break the rules? In his latest book, International Courts and the Performance of International Agreements, political scientist Matt Gabel, from Washington University in St. Louis, examines how international co...
The Human Problem Facing Global Cities
October 14, 2015 21:42 - 10 minutes - 13.9 MBIn an increasingly global and interconnected world, cities from Chicago to Rio de Janeiro confront similar issues. Where and how will people live as urban centers become both larger and more dense? What are the effects of urban renewal on lower-income populations? Carol Camp Yeakey, director of the Center on Urban Research & Public Policy and Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, shares her perspectives on urban studies in a global context.
In A Global Economy, What Happens To Elections?
October 08, 2015 20:58 - 8 minutes - 11.7 MBWhen battling for votes and popular support, political parties across the globe have often chosen to focus on economic issues. But as countries become more and more integrated into a larger, global economy, does this remain true? Or, do non-economic issues like immigration, the environment, and social justice become more prominent? In a recent paper, graduate student Dalston Ward, along with two of his classmates and political scientist Margit Tavits from Washington University in St. Louis, e...
The Physics of Baseball
September 30, 2015 15:32 - 13 minutes - 19.3 MBEver wonder why some hits feel good when the bat connects with the pitch, while others leave your hands ringing? Or exactly how a pitcher throws a ball that seems to curve just as the batter swings? Physicist Dr. Kasey Wagoner says, like most things in our universe, it all comes back to physics. Just in time for MLB playoff season, he talks about the forces involved in different pitches and how the "sweet spot" of the bat works.
Migration and Change in the Himalayan Highlands
September 23, 2015 22:07 - 12 minutes - 17.7 MBHigh in the rugged mountains of Nepal, communities in the valley of Nubri are confronting rapid changes. In recent years, the majority of school-age children from Nubri leave their villages to be educated in boarding schools or monasteries outside the valley. What opportunities do these children have once they finish school, and what happens to these ethnically Tibetan communities if the children never come home? Geoff Childs, an anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis, has bee...
Natural Gas in the New Bolivia
September 16, 2015 22:01 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MBModern debates over energy and natural gas often center on environmental issues and global warming. Yet in places like Bolivia, where many citizens still use firewood as their main energy source, the conversation can sound much different. There, the desire for convenience and progress often overrides environmental concerns, and in some cases, also the rights and safety of indigenous people. Anthropologist Bret Gustafson is working on a book about gas and power in Bolivia. Here, he discusses t...
An Adult Choice? Corporate Responsibility and the Global Face of Tobacco
September 09, 2015 18:30 - 13 minutes - 18.9 MBTobacco has been a global industry for more than a century. But in the era of corporate social responsibility, how do tobacco companies justify their push to sell even more cigarettes around the world? Trade agreements like the currently proposed Trans Pacific Partnership make it easier for tobacco corporations to flood markets in low- and middle-income countries, where 80% of the world's billion tobacco users live. Peter Benson, an anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis and a...
A Few Dollars Can Help Girls Stay In School. Here's How.
September 02, 2015 21:22 - 10 minutes - 14.2 MBIn the United States, a woman's monthly period is rarely more than a slight inconvenience. In places like the Tigray region of Ethiopia, however, the story is much different. There, many girls face adolescence without information and without basic materials like sanitary pads or tampons. Confused and embarrassed, menstruating young women often stay home from school. With the help of Dr. Lewis Wall from Washington University in St. Louis, one Ethiopian woman is attempting to create a local, su...
"The Quality of Mercy": A Shakespearean theme
July 21, 2015 14:43 - 15 minutes - 20.9 MBMost authors have a "signature moment," a theme or scene that reoccurs in their work as if they're exploring it from every angle, and Robert Wiltenburg believes that the quintessential Shakespearean theme is mercy. Wiltenburg, the former dean of University College and an adjunct associate professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, takes us through Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and romances to show how mercy evolves in each genre, highlighting great triumphs--and disaster...
Battle of the Sexes: The Women of Shakespeare
July 14, 2015 19:50 - 15 minutes - 21 MBShakespeare wrote a number of strong and memorable female characters like Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Cleopatra of Antony and Cleopatra, but would it be fair to call him a feminist? Not really, says our guest Jami Ake, assistant dean and senior lecturer in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She explains why questions of gender and power were prominent in early modern England society and theate...
Commedia dell'Arte & the Tragicomedy: Shakespeare's Italian Influences
July 07, 2015 18:01 - 12 minutes - 17.2 MBBy now it's clear that Shakespeare drew inspiration from a variety of sources. Robert Henke, a professor of drama and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, studies the Bard in the European context and particularly his Italian sources and influences. He reveals the fingerprints of the famous Italian theater troupe, the Commedia dell'Arte, in Shakespeare's comedies and discusses the Italian plays and novellas at the heart of Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew.
Friends and Rivals: Shakespeare and the Competition
June 30, 2015 17:05 - 14 minutes - 19.5 MBThe early modern English theater scene of was fairly small and highly competitive. Playwrights like Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Edmund Spenser were friends, but also rivals. They collaborated, imitated, and satirized each other equally as they jostled for success. Joe Loewenstein, a professor of English and director of the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities and the Humanities Digital Workshop at Washington University in St. Louis, returns to share stories about these relationships a...
The Upstart Crow: Shakespeare's feud with Robert Greene
June 24, 2015 15:48 - 16 minutes - 23 MBIn 1592, the writer and critic Robert Greene accused the budding playwright William Shakespeare of plagiarism, and this stung the Bard deeply. Joe Loewenstein, professor of English and director of the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities and the Digital Humanities Workshop, shares Shakespeares initial response to the critique and explains how, even decades later, the Bard was still responding to Greene--though not in the way you might expect. He also discusses the culture of imitation ...
Getting Lost With Radiolab: A Conversation with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich
June 17, 2015 20:48 - 33 minutes - 46.2 MBCuriosity. Obsessions. Serial. Hermaphroditic snails. The “shape” of a radio show. When you sit down with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, creators and cohosts of the innovative, hugely popular podcast Radiolab, you never know where the conversation will lead. As millions of listeners know, Abumrad and Krulwich regularly blur the boundaries between storytelling, science, and philosophy in their sound-rich show, which airs on more than 450 NPR stations around the country. Hold That Thought’s...
The Birth of Theater As We Know It
June 09, 2015 15:49 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBWhile Shakespeare wrote his plays, English theater itself was changing. The first actual theaters like the Globe were built, so companies could perform in places built soley for performance rather than marketplaces, pubs, or inns. Instead of religious and morality plays, writers brought politics, race, and class issues to the stage for the first time in London, which made authorities wary. Musa Gurnis, an associate professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, explains what earl...
Why Shakespeare?
June 01, 2015 19:13 - 16 minutes - 23.3 MBAlmost 500 years after William Shakespeare lived and wrote, students are still studying his work, and actors are performing his plays to packed theaters around the world. What keeps us coming back to his texts? Why has Shakespeare's work lived on when so many other great writers have been abandoned? As a sneak peak of the series to come, all of the participants of "Summer with the Bard" share their answers and perspectives on this tricky question.
The Real Antony and Cleopatra
May 25, 2015 16:04 - 14 minutes - 20.7 MBAfter talking with Shakespeare Festival St. Louis about their current production of Antony and Cleopatra, I decided to meet up with Roman historian Karen Acton at Washington University in St. Louis to get a sense of the real people behind the legend. Together, we look back at Plutarch's The Life of Antony, which William Shakespeare used to write his play, and the texts that survive about the lovers from their contemporaries, rivals, and ancient Roman writers.
Shakespeare: In the Park & in the Streets
May 18, 2015 16:31 - 13 minutes - 18.9 MBShakespeare is not just in the theater and the classroom anymore. In St. Louis at least, you can find performances of the Bard's work in Forest Park and in the streets of your own neighborhood, thanks to the efforts of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. Bruce Longworth, the organization's associate artistic director, and Mike Donahue, the director of this year's Shakespeare in the Park performance, come together to talk about the Shakespeare Festival's many projects and to share their insights i...
Horses and Jockeys: The Practical Side of Innovation
May 14, 2015 19:07 - 24 minutes - 33.5 MBAs managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Emre Toker has encountered many innovative ideas for products and businesses - some of which succeed, most of which do not. In addition to running the Skandalaris Center, Toker himself has founded or co-founded five companies. Here, he discusses his own experiences as an investor and entrepreneur and explains some of the common pitfalls that keep innovators from bringing their ideas to life.
Beyond the Medical Breakthrough: How Partnerships Can Improve Global Health
May 06, 2015 21:32 - 28 minutes - 39 MBAs director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University, William Powderly believes that in order to be innovative and find useful solutions to global health challenges, effective partnerships are key. But how do these partnerships form, and what types of partnerships are most effective? To continue our collaboration with the graduate student group ProSPER, graduate student Kuan-lin Huang interviews Powderly about the importance of working with teams both around the world and a...
Stress and Competition: Does the Research "Lifestyle" Inhibit Innovation?
April 30, 2015 19:17 - 22 minutes - 31.1 MBBarak Cohen has some words of wisdom for the future biologists of the world: "If you’re doing this to get rich, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re doing this to get famous, you’re going to be doubly disappointed. The reason to do a PhD in biology is because you’re fascinated by biology." As Cohen and graduate students like Shelina Ramnarine know, being a professional scientist is typically not glamorous. It involves hard work and stress - often over funding. To continue our Where's ...
How to Rethink Innovation and Bridge Divides
April 23, 2015 20:56 - 21 minutes - 30.4 MBPsychology graduate student Lameese Eldesouky has noticed a trend in research. In some cases, scientists in fields like genetics or biology have an easier time getting funding than researchers who study topics that are less easy to put into numbers, like relationships. In this episode, Eldesouky interviews professor Sarah Gehlert about her thoughts and experiences bridging the divide between the social sciences and the life or physical sciences. Gehlert, who has led cross-disciplinary researc...
Graduate Students Ask: Why Does Innovation Take So Long?
April 16, 2015 21:48 - 17 minutes - 23.7 MBEver wonder why innovations in areas like health care and energy always seem just over the horizon, instead of already here? You're not alone. At Washington University in St. Louis, graduate students wrestling with this question created the "Where's My Jetpack?" speaker series to shed light on barriers to innovation. Rebecca Lowdon, cofounder of the graduate student group ProSPER, and Kimberly Curtis, assistant dean for graduate student affairs, discuss the creation of ProSPER, the "Where's M...
A Meeting of the Sciences, from Geochemistry to Geobiology
April 09, 2015 20:58 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MBThroughout our series "Into the Earth," we've heard how Earth science topics cross between different disciplines like geology, physics, and chemistry. This has been true for postdoctoral research associate Steven Chemtob, whose recent research looks closely at a type of rock called banded iron formations. These rocks were created some 2.5 billion years ago, before there was oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. To understand how rocks like these formed, researchers like Chemtob have to app...
The Politics of Teaching Climate Change
April 02, 2015 19:40 - 9 minutes - 13.3 MBMichael Wysession, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences and contributor to the Next Generation Science Standards, continues his commentary from last week's podcast about science education. When the NGSS were released in 2013, state governments reacted to lessons about climate change in varying - and sometimes surprising - ways. In the second of two episodes featuring Wysession, he discusses the intersection of politics, education, and what scientists understand about Earth's cl...
High-School Students Should Study Earth Science. Here's Why.
March 26, 2015 17:53Ever wonder why some subjects are taught in high school while others are not, or why students spend so much time memorizing facts? According to geophysicist Michael Wysession, science curricula in the US are based on standards that are more than 120 years old, and being stuck in the past has had serious consequences. Wysession, the Earth and space science writing team leader for the Next Generation Science Standards, believes in a new approach to science education.
High-School Students Should Study Earth Science. Here's Why.
March 26, 2015 17:53 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBEver wonder why some subjects are taught in high school while others are not, or why students spend so much time memorizing facts? According to geophysicist Michael Wysession, science curricula in the US are based on standards that are more than 120 years old, and being stuck in the past has had serious consequences. Wysession, the Earth and space science writing team leader for the Next Generation Science Standards, believes in a new approach to science education.
A Volcanic Mystery
March 20, 2015 18:31 - 12 minutes - 18 MBAubreya Adams, a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, describes the Cameroon Volcanic Line as "one of the most interesting features in Africa that most people have never heard of." These volcanoes are something of a mystery, even to geologists - nobody knows exactly how they were created. However, Adams' research is shedding light on the puzzle. Here she discusses her findings and shares some of the process behind seismology fieldwork.
Discovery in the Lau Basin
March 06, 2015 18:35 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MBDeep under the ocean, enormous tectonic plates push against one another and spread apart. Shawn Wei, a doctoral student and McDonnell Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis, wants to understand what's really going on down there. Deep in the Pacific Ocean, how do rock, magma, and water interact? To find out, Wei analyzed data collected at the famous Lau Basin, one of the most geologically active places on Earth - and his results surprised all the experts. Here, Shawn describes his disco...