Latest Academic podcast Podcast Episodes
How We Could Regrow Limbs And Organs, with Michael Levin
Big Brains - April 27, 2023 12:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsIn the near future, birth defects, traumatic injuries, limb loss and perhaps even cancer could be cured through bioelectricity—electrical signals that communicate to our cells how to rebuild themselves. This innovative idea has been tested on flatworms and frogs by biologist Michael Levin, whose...
A Nobelist’s Controversial Approach To Solving Inequality, With James Heckman
Big Brains - April 13, 2023 12:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsOver his distinguished career, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has dedicated his research to understanding and solving the problem of inequality. He has closely studied how investing in early childhood development is linked to better outcomes—from higher earnings, to violence reducti...
How The Food Industry Created Today’s Obesity Crisis, With Marion Nestle
Big Brains - March 30, 2023 12:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsIn today's grocery stores, you can find more sugary snacks, artificial ingredients, and ultra-processed packaged foods. At the same time, the United States has seen an increase in obesity, which is costing our healthcare system, too. Nutritionist Marion Nestle says the problem today isn't that A...
Why Your Gut Health Is So Important, With Cathryn Nagler And Eric Pamer
Big Brains - March 16, 2023 12:00 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsLink to the advertised Chicago Booth Review podcast: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podcast?source=cbr-sn-cap-camp:podcast23-20230320
Why Mourning Is Essential To Our Well-Being, With Jonathan Lear
Big Brains - March 02, 2023 13:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsMourning is an inevitable part of our human existence. But what exactly does it mean to mourn, and why is it an essential part of our well-being and survival? These questions have long fascinated Prof. Jonathan Lear, a philosopher at the University of Chicago. In his new book, Imagining the End:...
The History of Black Cinema Re-examined, With Jacqueline Stewart
Big Brains - February 16, 2023 13:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsTranslating groundbreaking research into digestible brain food. Big Brains, little bites. Produced by the University of Chicago Podcast Network & Winner of CASE "Grand Gold" award in 2022, Gold award in 2021, and named Adweek's "Best Branded Podcast" in 2020.
The Scientific Secret To A Happy Life, With Marc Schulz
Big Brains - February 02, 2023 13:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWhat is the key to living a happy and fulfilling life? The answer is actually quite simple, according to the two scholars behind the longest scientific study of happiness every conducted. Beginning in 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development tracked three generations of families to uncover ...
Unraveling Sleep’s Greatest Mysteries: The Day Tomorrow Began
Big Brains - January 19, 2023 13:00 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsAlmost a century ago, the origins of sleep science research began at the University of Chicago with the opening of the world's first sleep laboratory. Since then, sleep science has evolved into a multi-disciplinary field — with scientists focusing on diagnosing the causes of sleep disorders, to h...
Is The U.S. Headed Toward Another Civil War? Feat. William Howell
Big Brains - January 05, 2023 13:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsAs we approach the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, we wanted to reflect on a few questions that many Americans are asking these days: Is democracy on the brink of the collapse? Why are U.S. politics so polarized? And are we headed for another civil war? These question...
Follow Through On Next Year's Resolutions Using Science With Katy Milkman
Big Brains - December 22, 2022 13:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsAs we head into 2023, many of us are setting our new year's resolutions and new goals for the year. It can be hard to stick to these resolutions or accomplish these goals, but there's a technique we can use to help us. We wanted to re-release our episode with Katy Milkman, a behavior scientist w...
Why Quantum Tech Will Change Our Future: The Day Tomorrow Began
Big Brains - December 08, 2022 13:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsIn the last few years, we’ve witnessed the birth of an entirely new field of science: quantum technology. With the power to create unbreakable encryption, supercharge the development of AI, and radically expedite the development of drug treatments, quantum technology will revolutionize our worl...
Fighting Global Hunger Through Genetics With Chuan He
Big Brains - November 24, 2022 13:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWe’re taking the week off to spend the holidays with our families, but we think this is a perfect moment to re-release one of our most important episodes. As we all dig into our delicious Thanksgiving dinners, we need to remember that not everyone is so lucky. Global hunger is still a massive pro...
The Origins Of Civilization And The Future Of Archaeology: The Day Tomorrow Began
Big Brains - November 10, 2022 13:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWhen you name your special series The Day Tomorrow Began, you inevitably have to ask yourself: just how far back are we going to go? If there’s one group of scholars who could tell us what the earliest possible day that “tomorrow” began is, it’s archaeologists. On this episode, we go back in ti...
Can We Predict Your Capacity To Focus? With Monica Rosenberg
Big Brains - October 28, 2022 12:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsIt can seem like our culture is obsessed with our ability to focus. Why can’t we focus, how we can focus better, why is our lack of focus ruining society? There are best-selling books and apps that promise to teach us the secrets of paying attention. But what do we really know about what’s happen...
The 'Legendary' Discovery Of Black Holes: The Day Tomorrow Began
Big Brains - October 13, 2022 12:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsSometimes the biggest moments in scientific history happen in the most unlikely places. There’s no better example than the story of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a longtime University of Chicago scholar whose pioneering research paved the way to the discovery of black ...
Celebrating Our 100th Episode
Big Brains - September 29, 2022 12:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsThis episode marks the official 100th episode of the Big Brains podcast. To celebrate this milestone, our Senior Producer Matt Hodapp joins host Paul M. Rand for a behind-the-scenes conversation about the philosophy behind the program, their favorite moments, as well as where the podcast has been...
The Science Of Speech & Identity With Katherine Kinzler
Big Brains - September 22, 2022 12:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsHello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highlighting a different world-changing idea or discovery each week. The way we talk is not something we...
Life’s Mysterious Origins With Jack Szostak
Big Brains - September 15, 2022 12:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsHello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highlighting a different world-changing idea or discovery each week. What are the biggest questions in sc...
The Afterlife Of Mass Incarceration With Reuben Jonathan Miller
Big Brains - September 08, 2022 11:35 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsHello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highlighting a different world-changing idea or discovery each week. For the more than 20 million people ...
The Imbalance In Our Society With Raghuram Rajan
Big Brains - September 01, 2022 12:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsHello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highlighting a different world-changing idea or discovery each week. This week, we look back at our episo...
Does Welfare Reduce Crime? With Manasi Deshpande
Big Brains - August 18, 2022 12:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsThere have been myths and tropes about welfare since it was created. We often hear critics say that welfare discourages people from working — but are these claims really true? This debate often plays out through theory and anecdotes, yet it’s rare to get good data about the true effects of welfar...
The Crucial Race To Build A Better Battery With Shirley Meng
Big Brains - August 04, 2022 12:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsBatteries have revolutionized our lives, especially the invention of rechargeable batteries, which have enabled us to have cellphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But as we transition to more forms of green energy, we're facing a serious dilemma: Will our current lithium-ion batteries be able...
Do Animals Dream? With David M. Peña-Guzmán
Big Brains - July 21, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsDo animals dream? If you’re a pet owner, it may seem obvious that your furry friends dream. Most of us have seen dogs running in their sleep or cats meowing during a nap. But this is an academic podcast and really proving that animals dream isn’t so simple. In his new book, When Animals Dream: T...
Extreme Heat Waves: Why Are They Surging? with Noboru Nakamura
Big Brains - July 07, 2022 12:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsIt’s not your imagination, summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in advance to give people time to prepare? In June of 2021, an unprecedented heatwave shocked the Pac...
Why Air Pollution Is Cutting Years Off Our Lives, With Christa Hasenkopf And Anant Sudarshan
Big Brains - June 23, 2022 12:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWe can’t always see the consequences of air pollution around us, but it’s costing us years off our lives. According to a new Air Quality Life Index report from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), air pollution is taking 2.2 years off the average global life expectancy...
How Tax Dodging And Corporate Secrecy Found A Home In Delaware, With Hal Weitzman
Big Brains - June 09, 2022 12:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWhen you think about corporate secrecy, nefarious shell companies and conspiratorial tax dodging, the state of Delaware probably doesn’t come to mind. We often think of exotic places like Panama or Bermuda, but the research of University of Chicago Adjunct Professor Hal Weitzman shows how it’s al...
Why Countries Choose War Over Peace, With Chris Blattman
Big Brains - May 26, 2022 12:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWar is costly, deadly and destructive. So, why do we do it? In his new book Why We Fight: The Roots of War and The Paths to Peace, Prof. Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago lays out the five main reasons why countries go to war—and why building peace is actually a lot easier than we may t...
How Death In America Is Changing With Shannon Lee Dawdy
Big Brains - May 12, 2022 12:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWhat does our relationship with the dead tell us about the living? Anthropologists learn about ancient cultures by studying their burial sites, but could we do the same with contemporary America? Those are the questions that University of Chicago anthropologist and historian Shannon Lee Dawdy set...
From Green Burials To DIY Funerals, How Death In America Is Changing With Shannon Lee Dawdy
Big Brains - May 12, 2022 12:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsWhat does our relationship with the dead tell us about the living? Anthropologists learn about ancient cultures by studying their burial sites, but could we do the same with contemporary America? Those are the questions that University of Chicago anthropologist and historian Shannon Lee Dawdy set...
Why We Need To Invest In Parents During A Child's Earliest Years, With Dana Suskind
Big Brains - April 28, 2022 12:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 358 ratingsThe United States is an outlier when it comes to parents. Compared to similar countries, the U.S. has the largest happiness gap between the 63 million parents and the child-free. This statistic is not shocking when you consider how other societies support parents with things like paid parental le...
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