Author Jonah Lehrer joins us to discuss the psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology of why we love solving puzzles, finding patterns and discovering the unknown.
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What If Sugar Had All The Sweetness Without The Calories?
Journalist Nicola Twilley joins us to talk about the food science that focused not on sugar replacements but instead on actually making sugar better.
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Did Texas Learn Anything From The Power Grid Failure?
Mose Buchele, a reporter and host at Austin public radio station KUT, joins us to discuss the worst blackout in the state’s history and how our drive to operate on a grid separate from the rest of the country contributed to the problem.
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She Went To Med School At 18. Now She Fights For Your Health
Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner. She joins us to discuss her work in the area of public health on everything from opioid addiction to disease outbreaks to infant mortality.
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Could An Algorithm Predict A Suicide?
Harper’s magazine senior editor Will Stephenson joins us to discuss the emerging field of suicidology, which hopes to explain the act and its precursors, while gaining a deeper understanding of its complexity.
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Why Do We Judge Women Over How They Give Birth?
Leslie Jamison teaches in Columbia University’s MFA program, and she joins us to talk about the rise of the Cesarean section and the backlash against it, pitting the procedure against the idea of a “natural birth” and a woman’s worth as a mother.
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What It’s Like To Gain A Sense
Dr. Susan R. Barry, professor emeritus of biology and neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, joins us to discuss three case histories, including her own, of people gaining a new way of seeing or hearing at an older age.
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Quarantines Aren’t Going Anywhere
Journalist Nicola Twilley joins us to talk about how and why quarantines have been used throughout history – and about how the technique has been updated to fight modern threats.
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The Military Loves Positive Psychology, But Does It Work?
Jesse Singal is a contributing writer at New York magazine, and he joins us to talk about a U.S. military move to adopt new methods for addressing PTSD and resiliency without the science to back it up.
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The Buzz On Flies
Jonathan Balcombe is a biologist and an associate editor for the journal Animal Sentience, and he joins us to discuss the misunderstood insects that make up what we know as flies.
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An Illusionist Reveals His Secrets
Derek DelGaudio joins us to talk about his autobiography, a deep dive into how illusion and identity shaped his life.
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What Your Voice Says About You
New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto joins us to talk about the experience of losing his voice and how it led him to look into how the sounds we create are so integral to our identity.
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