Inquiring Minds
462 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★ - 821 ratingsEach week we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science and society collide. We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We want to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters.
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Episodes
12 Joshua Greene – The New Science of Morality
December 13, 2013 00:58 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBIt's an old distinction: Science tells us what the world is like, but it can never tell us how we ought to behave in such a world. That's the realm of morality, and here we consult ethicists or perhaps priests—but something other than just data. It's pretty tough to keep science hemmed in, though; and in the past decade a group of researchers have begun to transform how we think about morality. They've put our sense of right and wrong in lab, and even in the fMRI machine. And while their fin...
11 Maryn McKenna - Our Scary Post-Antibiotic Future
December 06, 2013 01:05 - 55 minutes - 50.9 MBIt's flu season. And we're all about to crisscross the country to exchange hugs, kisses and germs. We're going to get sick. And when we do, many of us will run to our doctors and, hoping to get better, demand antibiotics. And that's the problem: Antibiotics don't cure the flu (which is viral, not bacterial), but the over-prescription of antibiotics imperils us all by driving antibiotic resistance. This threat is growing, so much so that in a recent widely read Medium article, Wired science b...
10 Simon Singh - How the Simpsons Have Secretly Been Teaching You Math
November 22, 2013 00:27 - 45 minutes - 42.1 MBSimon Singh isn't exactly your average fan of Fox's The Simpsons. He has a Ph.D. in particle physics from Cambridge, and made an award-winning documentary about Fermat's Last Theorem. Let's be frank: He's a math geek. But then, so are a surprisingly large number of the show's writers. You may not have realized it, but as Singh shows in his new book, The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, a seemingly endless supply of mathematical jokes and references are crammed into each Simpsons epis...
9 Michael Mann - From Computer Geek to Political Giant Slayer
November 15, 2013 02:12 - 45 minutes - 41.4 MBOn the show this week we talk to climate researcher Michael Mann about how he, as a self-described math and computer nerd working in an esoteric field known as paleoclimatology, wound up front and center in a nationally watched political campaign. His situation traces back to the world famous "hockey stick" graph, originally published by Mann and his colleagues in a 1998 scientific paper, and then prominently displayed by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2...
8 Alison Gopnik - We All Start Out as Scientists, But Some of Us Forget
November 07, 2013 22:33 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBThis week we feature a conversation with psychologist Alison Gopnik, recorded live at the 2013 Bay Area Science Festival. Gopnik talks about her latest book, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life. She explains that babies are natural explorers, and way smarter than we used to think. But along the way, we lose that cognitive flexibility and openness—some of us more than others. This episode also features a discussion about a recent st...
7 George Johnson - Why Most of What You've Heard About Cancer is Wrong
November 01, 2013 04:19 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBThis week, we speak with veteran science journalist George Johnson, whose new book The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery helps turn much traditional thinking about cancer on its head. It's a provocative and also a personal exploration of the myths and misunderstandings that surround this most formidable enemy to our health and well being. This episode also features a discussion of the science of hangovers (timed just for Halloween weekend, we know) and new findings abou...
6 Jonathan Haidt - This is Why Your Political Opponents Hate You
October 25, 2013 15:49 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBWhy is America so polarized? Why are our politicians so dysfunctional? Why do they sometimes even seem to downright hate each other? In this episode of Inquiring Minds, moral psychologist and bestselling The Righteous Mind author Jonathan Haidt explains that our differences are, at root, the result of sharply contrasting moral systems and the emotions that underlie them. These emotions differ from left to right. And in politics, we feel first and think later. As a result, even though politic...
5 Dan Kahan and Stephan Lewandowsky - How Do You Make People Give a Damn About Climate Change?
October 18, 2013 16:07 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBAs two top researchers studying the science of science communication—a hot new field that combines psychology with public opinion research—Dan Kahan and Stephan Lewandowsky agree about most things. There's just one problem. The little thing that they disagree on—whether it actually works to tell people, and especially political conservatives, that there's a "scientific consensus" on climate change—has huge practical significance. In this episode, Kahan and Lewandowsky debate the issue. It al...
4 Randy Schekman - This 2013 Nobel Laureate Says College Is Way Too Expensive
October 11, 2013 13:37 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBThis week we talk to Randy Schekman, the University of California-Berkeley cell biologist who was just awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on how cells regulate the protein “traffic” that is at the core of their communication with other cells. In the interview with co-host Indre Viskontas, Schekman not only explains his scientific breakthroughs—he also tells us why he wants to take a stand about the steeply rising cost of public higher education, which is driving huge stude...
3 Sylvia Earle - Why the Oceans Are Not Too Big to Fail
October 04, 2013 09:19 - 50 minutes - 46.7 MBThis week we talk to scientist and explorer Sylvia Earle, a woman who has spent almost a year of her life under water. She explains why the oceans are "not too big to fail." But she also says that just maybe, we're growing wise enough to save them. Earle is the National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, and former chief scientist at NOAA—plus she's a TED Prize winner who used that award to form Mission Blue, an ocean conservation initiative. Her unofficial titles go further: Time cal...
2 Alan Weisman - Can We Finally Have a Serious Talk About Population?
September 27, 2013 11:44 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBThis week, Chris Mooney talks to environmental journalist Alan Weisman, who explains why, following on his 2007 New York Times bestseller The World Without Us, he decided to centrally take on the issue of human population. For his just-published book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Weisman traveled to 21 countries—from Israel to Mexico, and from Pakistan to Niger—to report on how different cultures are responding to booming populations and the strain this is putting on...
1 Marsha Ivins - What It's Like To Spend 55 Days in Space
September 20, 2013 11:40 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBThere aren't many people on Earth who have spent more of their life in space than Marsha Ivins. A veteran of five space shuttle missions, Ivins has spent a total of 55 days in orbit, on missions devoted to such diverse tasks as deploying satellites, conducting scientific research, and docking with Mir and the International Space Station. This episode features an interview with Ivins, where she relates some of her in-orbit experiences—such as how your body and brain slowly adapt to the fact...