Here We Are

Helena Miton is a cognitive anthropologist and complexity postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. She investigates how culture is maintained through time and what determines the shapes traditions take. She holds her Ph.D. in cognitive science from Central European University and previously was a member of the Minds & Traditions research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Follow her on Twitter @HelenaMiton. Helena and I discuss cultural evolution, the balance between biological and societal influences on culture, and how history and ideas embellish across time, similar to a game of telephone.  Enroll in Helena's Introductory course to Open Science here: https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/125-open-science-tutorial

Today I'm speaking with Dr. Christopher Kavanagh, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology. Chris is also the cohost of the Decoding the Gurus Podcast. We talk about the effect that internet gurus and thought leaders have on public perception of science and politics.  Chris’ research focuses broadly on collective rituals and their impact on social identity and group orientated behaviors, using a combination of field and lab based experiments, online surveys, and traditional ethnographic methods. Check out the Decoding the Gurus podcast: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/ Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/c_kavanagh Learn more about Chris' work: https://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-chris-kavanagh

Today I am speaking with Cecilea Mun, who is a Visiting Assistant Professor of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program, with the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Louisville, KY, and the founding director of the Society for Philosophy of Emotion, and the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Philosophy of Emotion. We talk about how money shifts the way we think about our ethical principles, Realism emotional theory and Instrumentalism emotional theory, how people on the autism spectrum process emotions, and much more! Check out Ceclia's book "Interdisciplinary Foundations for the Science of Emotion" here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-71194-8 Also check out her website here: https://sites.google.com/site/muncecilea Thank you for watching and being an inquisitive being.

This week I’m talking with Dave Ader, an interdisciplinary scholar in the fields of sustainable agriculture and rural development. He currently works as the Assistant Director and Research Assistant Professor in the Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Tennessee.   Joining me as a part of the One Health Initiative, we discuss how agricultural issues in one area can end up affecting communities on the other side of the globe and how very niche scientific research can be used to solve much larger issues. https://onehealth.tennessee.edu/

This week I am talking with Itai Yanai, Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU.  We discuss Richard Dawkin’s book: The Selfish Gene, Darwin’s work with Evolution and Itai’s Podcast: The Night Science Podcast. Throughout the conversation we dive into extended phenotypes, spandrels in genetics, and evolution of things like facial hair and tails.  Thank you for watching and being an inquisitive being. https://night-science.org/ https://mindunderpod.com/pages/festival 

This week I’m talking all about science communication with Susanna L Harris. Susanna earned her PhD in microbiology at UNC-Chapel Hill and is now working to build better communication in Biotech.  We chat about how to more effectively communicate scientific information by guiding conversations, getting other people’s individual contexts, and the best way to present new information.  We also explore ideas like celebrating being wrong, enjoying boredom and how covid has affected scientific thinking. Thank you for watching and being an inquisitive being.

My biggest hero Robert Sapolsky returns to the show for an exceptionally important conversation about stress during a time where many of us have experienced the most in our life. This is an important conversation about how lack of predictability and control can lead to learned helplessness. This recipient of the MacArthur Foundation genius grant is a Professor at Stanford University holding joint appointments in several departments, including Biological Sciences, Neurology & Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery. In addition to everything else, he spent summers in Kenya study baboons which you can read about in his amazing book ‘A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons’ As someone who has spent years interviewing scientists, taking classes, watching talks, and reading science books, I believe Robert Sapolsky is the greatest science communicator alive. I hope you enjoy this episode. His Human Behavioral Biology class changed my life and is probably the most useful and interesting 25 hours of my life. It’s free online and I hope you have a chance to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA His books are amazing: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers  The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Here is a link to the first time I was on my show: https://www.herewearepodcast.com/episodes/578adw5viwkc1bdqqv1uz0iv40usxg?rq=sapolsky And here is a really fun episode of my comedy/philosophy podcast Mind Under Matter where we dug into some of his work: https://mindunderpod.com/blogs/episodes/episode-42-behaviors-past If you want to support this show and my mission to build appreciation for science and scientists in a fun and casual way, please consider joining my lovely little Patreon community https://www.patreon.com/shanemauss Thank you for watching and being an inquisitive being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I am talking with Sophia Rokhlin, co-author of the book “When Plants Dream”. Sophia Rokhlin is an author, speaker and nonprofit organizer dedicated to supporting the conservation of Indigenous wisdom and territories. She currently serves as Technical Secretariat of the Amazon Emergency Fund We discuss ayahuasca, work in the amazon rainforest, and the role of indigenous peoples in our environmental future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I’m talking with Matthew Gray, associate director of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Center for Wildlife Health about amphibians. He is also a part of the One Health Initiative. Dr. Gray specializes in disease ecology. His interests include transmission dynamics of emerging infectious disease and identifying management strategies that can thwart or eradicate outbreaks. We discuss the amphibian trade, reproductive strategies across the species and the spread of disease. Matt also tells me about unique evolutionary traits like warning colorations, producing chemicals, and regenerating limbs. Pharmaceutical attributes of amphibian skin:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037887411632373X?via%3Dihub  Video on limb regeneration: https://youtu.be/byLDgtSMI0w Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Shane is talking with Graham Walker, an Emergency Room Physician in San Francisco, CA. They discuss how Covid has effected hospitals and staff over the last 2 years. Graham runs down hospital checklists, decision making in the ER setting, and what he’s seen while working. They also go into the spread of misinformation through the media, and what could possibly be done in the future. References https://twitter.com/grahamwalker/status/1489429245520580608 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02741-x Thank you for watching and being an inquisitive being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices