Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

By: Sean Carroll | Wondery
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  • Summary

  • Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you’ve come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.
    © Sean Carroll 2018
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Philosophy Physics Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • 292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

    292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience
    Oct 14 2024

    It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more to do with "sentience" -- the ability to perceive feelings and sensations. Philosopher Jonathan Birch has embarked on a careful study of the meaning of sentience and how it can be identified in different kinds of organisms, as he discusses in his new open-access book The Edge of Sentience. This is an example of a question at the boundary of philosophy and biology with potentially important implications for real-world policies.

    Support Mindscape on Patreon.

    Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/14/292-jonathan-birch-on-animal-sentience/

    Jonathan Birch received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Philosophy Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is one of the authors of the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, and has advised the British government on matters of animal cruelty and sentience.

    • Web site
    • LSE web page
    • Google scholar publications
    • PhilPeople profile
    • Wikipedia


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • AMA | October 2024

    AMA | October 2024
    Oct 7 2024

    Welcome to the October 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

    Support Mindscape on Patreon.

    Blog post with questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/07/ama-october-2024/

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    4 hrs and 30 mins
  • 291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

    291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging
    Sep 30 2024

    Aging and death happen to the best of us, but there are increasing efforts to do something about it. That effort requires that we have some reasonable understanding of why aging happens, and what processes are involved. You will be unsurprised to learn that it's complicated. Venki Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on the ribosome, investigates what we know about aging in his book Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality. We talk about aging and death, and manage to get some thoughts in about ribosomes. Venki and many other great communicators will be speaking at New Scientist Live, which takes place at ExCeL London between 12 - 14 October 2024, and is also streamed live as well as on-demand.

    Support Mindscape on Patreon.

    Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/09/30/291-venki-ramakrishnan-on-the-biology-of-death-and-aging/

    Venkatraman (Venki) Ramakrishnan received his Ph.D. in physics from Ohio University. He is currently Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, and is a Fellow of Trinity College. He previously served as President of the Royal Society of London. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work uncovering the structure of the ribosome.

    • Lab web page
    • Nobel citation
    • Google scholar publications
    • Wikipedia
    • Amazon author page


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr and 21 mins

What listeners say about Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

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Foundation of ideas

Sean Caroll is an amazing figure. He is a good moderator that is well-articulated with a sense of humor, humble that some popular science communicators lack (e.g. Neil deGrasse Tyson), not to mention his intelligence, and actively listens with a genuine sense of interest in ideas. Moreover, it seems that he can grasp the gist of ideas foreign to him in a short time, and, meanwhile, ask questions that audience a la laypeople egaer to know the answers thereof. A big bonus to me is that he loves philosophy and invites philosophers on the show. As for the content? The topic of each episode speaks for itself -interesting! No need to worry about the quality. But I don't recommend binge listening even though the series is arresting because rich and complex thoughts take time to sink in.

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The Ultimate Podcast for the Curious

Sean may not be widely popular perhaps because he dwells not in hypes and elusive ambitious statements - a trait most of his colleagues are known for. Here Professor Carroll leads the curious mind to explore many disciplines from "working" experts in the fields. No other science popularization and education podcast compares to Mindscape.

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Best Podcast

This is the best podcast In its space!

Sean has a brilliant mind and he does an amazing job of navigating conversations with those whom he didn doesn’t agree with.

Great for fans of Skeptics Guide or Sam Harris’ Making Sense (but w/out Sam’s particular set of biases). More science and philosophy, less pushing a set agenda.

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My favorite podcast

I've been following the podcast for a while on Spotify, and was thrilled to find it here on Audible while looking for his books. Sean Carroll's ability to walk a lay audience through a wide range of difficult ideas is truly Asimovian.

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Came here for Robert Sapolsky ...

Stayed for Sean Carroll. I’m enjoying more than 70% of these podcasts. 3 more words needed.

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The Very Best

The very best of academia interviewed by one of the deepest thinkers of our time.

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more sociology than game theory.. wonders

more sociology than game theory wonders from topic. should rel'llabel titlte or stick to subject not very good

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Loves to talk about himself

This guy is a bore in the true sense of the word. Spends more time than enough talking about himself, ego driven.

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