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
  • 296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution

    296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution
    Nov 18 2024

    Biological evolution via natural selection is a simple idea that becomes enormously complicated in its realization. Populations of organisms are driven toward increased "fitness," a measure of how successfully we reproduce our genetic information. But fitness is a subtle concept, changing with time and environment and interactions with other organisms around us. We talk with biologist Brandon Ogbunu about the best mathematical and conceptual tools for thinking about the messy complexities of evolution, and how modern technology is changing our way of thinking about it.

    Support Mindscape on Patreon.

    Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/18/296-brandon-ogbunu-on-fitness-seascapes-and-the-course-of-evolution/

    Brandon Ogbunu received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Microbiology from Yale University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale, and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He has been awarded a Fullbright Fellowship and was the Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT. He has contributed to a number of publications, including Wired, Undark, and Quanta.

    • Lab web site
    • Yale web page
    • Google Scholar publications
    • Wikipedia
    • Public talk: What is Lyfe? Towards a Biology of Context & Complexity


    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 16 mins
  • 295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality

    295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality
    Nov 11 2024

    Emergence is a centrally important concept in science and philosophy. Indeed, the existence of higher-level emergent properties helps render the world intelligible to us -- we can sensibly understand the macroscopic world around us without a complete microscopic picture. But there are various different ways in which emergence might happen, and a tendency for definitions of emergence to rely on vague or subjective criteria. Recently Achyuth Parola and I wrote a paper trying to clear up some of these issues: What Emergence Can Possibly Mean. In this solo podcast I discuss the way we suggest to think about emergence, with examples from physics and elsewhere.

    Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/11/295-solo-emergence-and-layers-of-reality/

    Support Mindscape on Patreon.

    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 35 mins
  • AMA | November 2024

    AMA | November 2024
    Nov 4 2024

    Welcome to the November 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 AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/04/ama-november-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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    3 hrs and 50 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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