Inquiring Minds

Theresa MacPhail, medical anthropologist and science writer, discusses the rise of allergies, confusion with respiratory symptoms, challenges of allergy testing, hygiene hypothesis, different treatments for allergies, and the impacts of precision medicine on allergies.

Journalist and sustainable fashion expert Alden Wicker discusses the potential toxicity of clothing and its impact on health. They explore the health issues faced by Delta Airlines employees due to their uniforms. The chapter emphasizes the need for more scientific studies, regulation, and consumer awareness to ensure the safety of clothing.

Writer Cody Cassidy discusses his new book on surviving historical disasters, including the black death, Pompeii's eruption, and the Titanic sinking. He also explores the advantages of being on a pirate ship, the causes of ice ages, ancient hunting techniques for mammoths, and the theory of early cultures eating oysters.

This week we talk to psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris about their new book Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It.

This week we talk to social psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery about his new book Selfless: The Social Creation of “You”. In it, he proposes that what you think of as “you” is actually a social construct created by your relationships and affected by every interaction you have.

This week we talk to Hugh Howey, author of the bestselling Silo series of books and executive producer of the new Apple TV+ series of the same name. 

This week we talk to accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy about her most recent book The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World.

On the show this week we talk to Nita A. Farahany, distinguished professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and the founding director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, about her new book, "The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology."Many people choose to give up unprecedented levels of privacy in exchange for convenience. So why not give up your brain data too? Is it really that different? While the proposition may seem analogous, and despite how it’s often presented, says Farahany, what could get decoded from your brain is a very different thing.“Everybody has something to hide when it comes to what’s in their brain. Not in the sense of like, you’re thinking about committing some horrible crime. But it is the space where you work out everything. And if you don’t have that space to work out everything, suddenly what it means to be human is fundamentally different.”https://inquiring.show/episodes/400-the-perilous-combination-of-brain-wave-data-and-generative-ai

Researchers Sabrina Nagel and Matthias Hohenberger discuss the recent fusion breakthrough, explaining the fusion experiment process, the energy source for fusion reactors, challenges faced in achieving fusion breakthrough, and the relevance of fusion in the sun.

This week we talk to pioneering art & science researcher Susan Magsamen along with vice president of design for hardware products at Google, Ivy Ross, about their new book Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.While sometimes considered opposites, art and science are unequivocally linked in ways we’re still figuring out. Not only does our way of thinking and living impact our art, but art also has an impact on how we think and live.