This week we take a look back at some of our favorite episodes from 2020 and talk about what’s next for the podcast.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to cosmologist and writer Katie Mack about her new book The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking).Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to historian of medieval science Seb Falk about his new book The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to journalist Kermit Pattison about his new book Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to orthopedic surgeon Roy A. Meals about his new book Bones: Inside and Out.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett about why the idea that you have a lizard brain and a rational brain is completely wrong, how you can fight against implicit biases by swamping your brain with new data, why your brain’s most important job isn’t actually to think or be rational, and about one time Carl Sagan was very wrong about how brains work. Her most recent books are How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week we explore the implications of there being much more water on the moon than we previously thought; a new study that looked at the possibility that our brains have an underlying propensity to understand words; and a quick look at a paper about Tennessee bicycle crashes.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

A special drop of the first episode of the new season of Indre’s other podcast, Cadence—which is about what music can tell us about our minds. This new season explores how music influences us, and the first episode is all about politics. Indre talks to musicians, academics, and politicians to find out what role music plays in the political machine—how it’s used to sway minds and gather votes. If you’re interested in hearing more, check out the earlier seasons of Cadence wherever you get your podcasts.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Columbia professor of mechanical engineering P. James Schuck about the released film Tesla, starring Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla, for which he was the science advisor.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: new research on how climate change is affecting autumn wildfires; a study that attempts to use a biologically inspired and technically enhanced enzymatic solution to break down plastics, and a study showing that whether blue whales are foraging or migrating affects what time of day they sing songs.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds