Latest Cognitive science Podcast Episodes
'Putinophilia' - how America's radical right fell for a Kremlin strongman, a conversation with Anne Applebaum
Politics on the Couch - February 14, 2023 09:58 - 31 minutesOne year on from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, host Rafael Behr talks to Anne Applebaum about why so many US Republicans and conservatives are still seduced by Putin’s anti-West rhetoric and tropes. Anne, a Pullitzer-prize winning historian, is particularly well positioned to discuss this, and ...
'Bregret' - how is Britain coping with a Brexit that nobody loves?
Politics on the Couch - February 07, 2023 08:51 - 1 hourIn this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Prof Anand Menon about what the latest polling on 'bregret' means for identity politics, Starmer's strategy on future EU relations, and the economic and democratic health of the UK. Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at ...
Consciousness - a deep dive into the politics of brain science with Anil Seth
Politics on the Couch - December 22, 2022 06:07 - 59 minutesAnil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex alongside other eminent roles in the field of advanced research into the nature of consciousness and perception. His bestselling book ‘Being You: A New Science of Consciousness’ is a masterpiece of mak...
The authoritarian personality - why some voters feel drawn to populism and how to lure them away
Politics on the Couch - July 14, 2022 09:23 - 1 hourIn this episode host Rafael Behr talks to Dr Karen Stenner, the political psychologist & behavioral economist best known for long ago predicting the rise of Trump-like figures uner the kinds of conditions we now confront. Her research on authoritarianism and 'Far Right' politics uses psychologi...
The authenticity gap - can Labour seize the post-Boris moment? (recorded the day he resigned)
Politics on the Couch - July 07, 2022 15:14 - 1 hourRafael Behr talks to pollster and political strategist James Johnson about what's next for Labour, a matter of minutes after PM Johnson announced his resignation.
The authenticity gap - can Labour seize the post-Boris moment?
Politics on the Couch - July 07, 2022 15:14 - 1 hourThis podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
The Megacrisis - how the world's problems piled up - a conversation with Helen Thompson
Politics on the Couch - May 05, 2022 16:44 - 1 hourThis week, Rafael Behr and Professor Helen Thompson discuss her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century. The book, which was released on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western ...
Can Japanese psychoanalysis cure us all?
Not Daily Podcast - January 11, 2022 14:54 - 49 minutesWe've been preparing this episode for quite a while and this time we have sources! We confront our knowledge of Japanese language and lacanian psychoanalysis to try and understand the Japanese psyche! We start off by Lacan's famous statements about the fact that Japanese people have no need for...
Conversations: How I cheated at twitter.
Not Daily Podcast - December 01, 2021 20:04 - 42 minutesWelcome back to the conversation! This time, we didn't have many listeners' messages, but we know why that is! We come back to our adventure on twitter hacking, by first wondering about the position of twitter in the ever changing landscape of technology with the good old question: was it bett...
Is Democracy Rational? A conversation with Steven Pinker
Politics on the Couch - October 29, 2021 19:48 - 1 hourHuman beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things. How does this paradox work? And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us. In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the c...
How to use data science and hack twitter for maximal engagement?
Not Daily Podcast - October 27, 2021 21:54 - 40 minutesIn this episode, we open the doors to the behind the scenes of podcast production. We disclose without taboo or secret everything about how we measure our number of listeners and how trustworthy those tools are. But …we also talk money! We decided to do a little contest: with the same amount of...
Conversations: Synesthesia and brain plasticity
Not Daily Podcast - September 30, 2021 15:51 - 42 minutesIn this informal episode, we continue talking with our good friend Geraldine who shares her experience of synesthesia, telling us what it is like to see letters as colors! Then we talk a bit about brain plasticity and memory encoding, trying to take a very pragmatic approach and giving you tips...
How to unlock new abilities in your brain?
Not Daily Podcast - September 08, 2021 21:57 - 43 minutesThere’s a lot of different ways for imagination to work. Some people can imagine clear pictures, while some others can’t. Vlad recently switched from one group to the other. To understand what happened, we dive into an investigation where we’re joined by our good friend Geraldine, a researcher ...
Conversations: I changed my mind about machine learning
Not Daily Podcast - August 03, 2021 17:55 - 34 minutesWe respond to listener's comments about the previous episode: we discuss the most recent project of artist Sam Lavigne, and catch up on what we missed about special attacks in mangas. We go over legendary swords to try and understand why some objects get special names, and invoke Baudrillard t...
Order and chaos - why the left keeps losing
Politics on the Couch - July 30, 2021 12:24 - 1 hourIn this episode Rafael Behr talks to Cambridge University political psychologist Dr Lee de-Wit about the problem with progressive arguments over patriotism, and Labour's constant struggle to connect with socially conservative voters. Links mentioned in this episode: Dr Lee de-Wit's Cambridge U...
Why do manga characters scream the name of their attacks?
Not Daily Podcast - July 11, 2021 21:07 - 36 minutesFrom Naruto's Rasengan to Dragon Ball's Kamehameha, attack names are an iconic part of mangas and animes (especially shounen). So much so that they appear in stories about food or sports. But why? Where do they come from? What are they for? And why on earth do they need to be yelled? Our journe...
Empire State of Mind, with Sathnam Sanghera
Politics on the Couch - July 08, 2021 20:29 - 1 hourBritain's vast colonial project, amassed over centuries and covering a quarter of the world at its height, is unavoidable in any discussion of race and identity in modern Britain. Or, at least, it should be, but the nation has, until recently, done a remarkable job of avoiding the subject. In ...
Conversations: The work of Sam Lavigne
Not Daily Podcast - June 16, 2021 11:04 - 34 minutesIn this episode of conversations, we followup on homestuck^2 by seeing how the new work from Andrew Hussie, Psycholonials, adds another layer of metanarrative on this already pretty big cake ^^ We then revisit the question of contemporary pantheon, trying to give more concrete examples and deci...
What does a modern pantheon look like?
Not Daily Podcast - May 16, 2021 12:21 - 41 minutesThe premise of the episode is simple: is there anything in our current life that could be considered as the evolution of the rich pantheons and mythologies that the greek and roman people had. We expected to fight about who to include or not, but the discussion actually went straight to “What i...
Radicalisation - how minds go to extremes, and how to turn them back
Politics on the Couch - May 09, 2021 18:49 - 1 hourRafael Behr talks to Cognitive Scientist of Political Violence, Nafees Hamid, about what makes extremists tick and how to change their minds. Nafees discusses the conditions that push people towards extremist ideologies and whether a martyr's mind is wired differently to the rest of us. Al...
Conversations: Let me tell you about Homestuck^2
Not Daily Podcast - April 19, 2021 16:50 - 35 minutesThis is our second episode of conversations, and we start by explaining the why and how of this change, before following up on previous episodes: We come back on the difference between cats and dogs highlighted in telephone drawing games, before coming back to NFT. The fact that some NFT have ...
Does NFT create a new ontological reality?
Not Daily Podcast - March 30, 2021 11:28 - 34 minutesThis is our first episode where we deep dive into one serious topic, and what better choice than the NFTs that everyone is talking about! We briefly explain what NFTs are, and take case study to figure out what it is that people are buying. If you don't have any right on the digital art that th...
Fear of Change - Matt d'Ancona on fixing a broken politics
Politics on the Couch - March 13, 2021 16:46 - 57 minutesRafael Behr talks to Matt d'Ancona about his new book: 'Identity, Ignorance, Innovation: Why the Old Politics is Useless - and what to do about it.' https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Identity-Ignorance-Innovation-by-Matthew-DAncona-author/9781529303995 They discuss why the 'liberal lef...
Conversations: I became an Ai in a telephone game
Not Daily Podcast - March 08, 2021 22:28 - 36 minutesWe're trying something new with our podcast: to keep the episodes more focused, we'll release the conversational part where we answer to the listeners, address followups, and discuss less heavy questions separate from our main episodes! This is the first of such episodes, where we discuss every...
Conversations : I became an Ai in a telephone game
Not Daily Podcast - March 08, 2021 22:28 - 36 minutesWe're trying something new with our podcast: to keep the episodes more focused, we'll release the conversational part where we answer to the listeners, address followups, and discuss less heavy questions separate from our main episodes! This is the first of such episodes, where we discuss everyt...
Optimism - how we're drawn to the bright side, even in a pandemic
Politics on the Couch - February 23, 2021 21:59 - 59 minutesRafael Behr talks to neuroscientist and author Tali Sharot about the optimism hard-wired into our thought processes, how it affects the way we look at the world – and what it means for politics. The conversation also covers the relationship between emotion and reason, how we should respect som...
Identity – David Baddiel on Jewishness, antisemitism (and a bit about football)
Politics on the Couch - February 04, 2021 18:14 - 1 hourRafael Behr talks to author and comedian David Baddiel about his book “Jews Don't Count” – a closely argued polemic about the failure of progressive-left politics to treat antisemitism with the same moral rigour as is applied to other kinds of racism. The frank and at times raw conversation dea...
[NDP21] - Cyranoids and How to make the perfect reading environment?
Not Daily Podcast - January 31, 2021 19:42 - 44 minutesWe discover that at the end of his life, Stanley Milgram was working on a little known Cyranoid experiment. He showed that if you put a child into an adult body, nobody will notice something is off. In the main part, we try to make the perfect environment to read more. We briefly go over pretty...
Cyranoids and How to make the perfect reading environment?
Not Daily Podcast - January 31, 2021 19:42 - 44 minutesWe discover that at the end of his life, Stanley Milgram was working on a little known Cyranoid experiment. He showed that if you put a child into an adult body, nobody will notice something is off. In the main part, we try to make the perfect environment to read more. We briefly go over pretty...
Anti-vaxxers – fear, anxiety and the psychology of misinformation
Politics on the Couch - January 23, 2021 14:44 - 49 minutesRafael Behr explores the causes of resistance to vaccine science and its links with far-right propaganda with Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The chat ranges from the emotional vulnerabilities that lead people to take comfort from conspiracy theories to the poli...
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