Brains for Dinner Episode 5

I think it’s fair to say that Episode 5 of B4D reaches new highs and lows of sophistication (and that’s saying something). From lessons in how to interpret statistics, to laughing fits spawned by burping dogs, this hour of content contains something for everyone.

Our musings were sparked by an article Andrea read about how reviews of books, movies, and the like have increasingly disappeared from newspapers and been outsourced to social media. Noting this, Andrea surveyed the contents of some of his “go to” news sources and found other content changes worth talking about.

In the conversation that unfolds, we discuss the supply and demand for various “news” content, and the roles that curiosity, belonging, and intellectual humility play in driving our brains’ choices about what to consume.

In that space, we also discuss the role of storytelling in science communication, noting that for the vast majority of human existence, stories were the data our brains consumed!

And as Andrea and I get more and more experience with this podcasting thing under our belts, our dogs are getting increasingly skilled at disruption. In this episode alone, we have “thunderous toy drop” moments, an epic burp from the frat boy of our family, Kinzu, and much panting and drinking. Since we aren’t going to be renting a dog-free, sound-proof recording studio any time soon, I’m afraid this is part of our “charm.” Perhaps I will create a “Dog Sounds Bingo” card to go with the next episode of B4D. Please drop a comment if you were able to hear the three I mentioned here for an honorary prize.

(I’m sorry, my dog’s been drinking again).

And now a few show notes:

At the beginning of the episode, Andrea asks me to name a book people were crazy about that I thought was meh. I couldn’t retrieve the name of: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. I think “meh” is too strong for me (I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads). There were many things I liked about the book: kids from disadvantaged economic and cultural backgrounds, cross-generational relationships, and lots of good brain happenings including a woman with dementia and neurodiverse youth. But I think there were too many of those things going on to spend enough time on any one of them, and other books I read that stayed in one or two of those lanes just hit me a bit deeper. They include: Stay, All the Colors of the Dark, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Demon Copperhead.

I do love a good coming of age book, and perhaps I’ve saturated my brain!

Last but not least, I’ll leave you with a link to the article on Collective Intellectual Humility that we read in the lab. I hope you enjoy this episode, with all its added bells and whistles.

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