Why? with Emma Kennedy

Our bodies are astonishing in all their beautiful, biological complexity – but do you ever wonder if this is as far as the human form can develop? Millions of years of evolution have created a four-limbed, bipedal mammal with opposable thumbs and a powerful, versatile brain. But have we stopped evolving? Are we still subject to natural selection in the unnatural, man-made world we’ve created? And which genetic mutations will thrive, ensuring the continued survival of our species?Evolutionary biologist Dr. Nicholas Longrich joins Anna Machin to predict how and why humans will evolve in the future… and whether we will eventually transform into an entirely new species.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Anna Machin. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison.  WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every CSI fan knows that forensic analysis is crucial to criminal investigations. But it’s not just microscopic blood spatter or clothing fibres that can help nail a perpetrator. Botanical forensics – identifying how long a fungus has grown on a dead body, or which species of pollen a victim has inhaled – can blow a case wide open too. We’re stepping into True Crime territory today as Professor David Gibson, author of Planting Clues, shares gruesome details of incredible real life criminal cases where forensic botany has nailed the killer.Buy Planting Clues through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Does your cat meow in Geordie? Does your dog have a Yorkshire accent? Is “animal linguistics” a thing? Incredibly, it is – and the science of animal “voices” is revealing a wealth of information about how wild and domestic creatures think and communicate. Elodie Floriane Mandel-Briefer, Associate Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Copenhagen joins Emma Kennedy to explain the unique and startling world of animal linguistics… plus how dolphins give each other names… how we’re on the verge of translating what starlings sing about… and which accents Emma’s dogs have.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on an adventure to the edge of knowledge, asking the questions that puzzle and perplex us, from the inner workings of the universe to the far reaches of our dreams. Follow us on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the fantasy we revisit obsessively in movies and TV from Her to Humans to Blade Runner to, well, A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Could a thinking machine develop a personality sufficiently human-like that we could share a relationship with it? Could an A.I. become our friend or even our lover? We’re social animals, wired to understand the world through personal interactions. What does that mean when it comes to A.I.?Simple Chatbot apps can help people to cope with loneliness, but do the technical limitations mean it can only ever be a one-way relationship? Will Siri and Alexa ever evolve into something you want to share a pint and a laugh with?Dr Kate Devlin joins Luke Turner to share cutting-edge research on whether AI will ever be more than a digital diary to hold our innermost thoughts and feelings.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dads will often say that fatherhood changes you – but did you realise those changes happen at a physical, biological level as well as in fathers’ perspectives and values? We often assume that biologically mens’ bodies are unaffected by the arrival of a child. But huge hormonal changes take place at the point of the child’s birth, and research shows that when fathers interact with their children incredible neural activations take place. How do these changes prepare children for the world? And what is fatherhood doing to men’s brains?Dr Pascal Vrticka discusses astonishing research into paternal neural synchrony with Anna Machin and find out how fatherhood changes you more than you could ever imagine.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Anna Machin. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Multiverse theory inspired movie blockbusters like Marvel’s Dr Strange and Everything Everywhere All At Once – but the “Many Worlds” theory of multiple realities isn’t just science fiction. If the science is right, could there be another version of me out there somewhere? The Cosmological Inflating Multiverse, for instance, says that ours is but one universe among billions and no scenario, no matter how bizarre, can be ruled out. Can we prove that the Multiverse is science fact?Theoretical Physicist Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder joins us again on Why? to explain new areas of research in quantum physics – and ask if the Multiverse is real.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As YouTube videos of bopping parrots and breakdancing baboons show, humans aren’t the only species with rhythm and musicality built in. Even dogs wag their tails to a fixed tempo. But why, and what does it tell us? Plus, research shows us that a sense of rhythm isn’t the rule across the entire animal kingdom. Are different species born with it or can it be learned? Is music and rhythm a precursor to language? Professor Andrea Ravignani of Sapienza University of Rome introduces Ananyo Bhattacharya to the toe-tapping world of animal rhythm and the neurocognitive patterns that make it happen.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Ananyo Bhattacharya. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Science usually rejects the existence of the soul, or any conscious entity that’s separate from our biology. But there’s increasing evidence that plants, air and even inanimate matter exhibit some properties of consciousness. Could everything in the universe be linked by some invisible force, like Yoda taught Luke in Star Wars? This is not just science fiction but the study of panpsychism, the idea that everything in the universe is conscious and interacts.Today on Why? we’re stepping into the world between particles to discover how consciousness and the physical fit together beyond human experience. It seems absurd… but not too long ago philosophers and scientists were convinced that babies weren’t conscious beings. What else have we got wrong?Professor Philip Goff of Durham University blows Luke Turner’s mind as they explore whether science can find our souls.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on a wild adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Artificial Intelligence already controls complex systems that humans depend on, from keeping thousands of planes safe in the sky to autocorrect saving our blushes when we mis-spell ‘Wednesday’. But are we in danger of handing AI too much control? Could machine learning outgrow its human masters? Researchers recently had to turn off two AI chatbots when they invented their own language that humans couldn’t decipher – and that won’t be the last time AI runs ahead of us. Can we really trust Artificial Intelligence to look after us and not destroy us?Writer and futurologist  Alexandra Whittington explains it all to Emma Kennedy.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on an adventure to the edge of knowledge. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do we always remember the worst things that happened to us and never the best? Excruciating memories of past mistakes have a tendency to haunt us, popping up uninvited to make us cringe and sweat the way good memories just don’t. Why? If every new experience creates new neural pathways in our brain, could we disconnect the ones we don’t want to revisit? Neuroscientist Dr Dean Burnett joins Luke Turner to find out whether these toe-curling memories serve a biological purpose beyond basic survival.Every Monday and Thursday WHY? takes you on an adventure to the edge of knowledge, asking the questions that puzzle and perplex us, from the inner workings of the universe to the far reaches of our dreams. Follow on your favourite app so you never miss an episode.WHY? is written and presented by Luke Turner. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Music by DJ Food. Exec Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Lead Producer: Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. WHY? is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices