BJKS Podcast

Brandon Brown is a professor at University of California Riverside, where he studies global health and ethics. He also writes career columns for Nature and Science, which we talk about: negotiations in academia, his sabbatical, his life owning and working a farm, different types of grants and contributions in academia, and much moreBJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Brandon's path to becoming a scientist0:20:39: Start discussing Brandon's career columns in Nature0:32:17: Grant applications: small vs. big0:41:36: Postdoc-phase: is my plan crazy?0:55:32: Different types of contribution/recognition in academia1:09:22: Negotiation in academia1:22:47: Contributing to team science1:30:30: Sabbaticals1:39:19: Brandon's farm1:48:15: A book or paper more people should read1:49:33: Something Brandon wishes he'd learnt sooner1:51:43: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtBrandon's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/brown-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/brown-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/brown-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences and linksCAMP: https://www.campstatewide.org/truEvolution: https://www.truevolution.org/Brandon's columns (most of which we discussed):https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02390-whttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03184-8https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00381-5https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.364.6447.1306https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.372.6548.1358Coelho (1988). The Alchemist.

Soledad Gonzalo Cogno is a group leader at the Kavli Institute for Science Neuroscience in Trondheim. We talk about how she went from studying physics in Argentina to working on the brain in Norway, the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, why researchers should give their research animals a nice life, mentorship, and discuss her recent Nature paper on ultraslow oscillatory sequences in medial entorhinal cortex.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Studying physics in Argentina0:12:30: The advantages of a physics background - interdisciplinarity in neuroscience0:27:31: How Soledad ended up in Trondheim0:32:46: Rodent heaven in Norway0:36:19: Start discussing Soledad's paper on ultraslow oscillatory sequences1:03:12: So what do those ultraslow oscillatory sequences do?1:16:18: A book or paper more people should read1:22:30: Something Soledad wishes she'd learnt sooner1:30:51: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtSoledad's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/gonzalo_cogno-webTwitter: https://geni.us/gonzalo_cogno-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferencesEpisode about Ramon y Cajal: https://geni.us/bjks-ehrlichBrun, Solstad, Kjelstrup, Fyhn, Witter, Moser & Moser (2008). Progressive increase in grid scale from dorsal to ventral medial entorhinal cortex. Hippocampus.Constantinou, Gonzalo Cogno, Elijah, Kropff, Gigg, Samengo & Montemurro (2016). Bursting neurons in the hippocampal formation encode features of LFP rhythms. Frontiers in computational neuroscience.Dayan & Abbott (2005). Theoretical neuroscience: computational and mathematical modeling of neural systems.Gonzalo Cogno, Obenhaus, Lautrup, Jacobsen, Clopath, Andersson, ... & Moser (2024). Minute-scale oscillatory sequences in medial entorhinal cortex. Nature.Hastie, Tibshirani & Friedman (2009). The elements of statistical learning: data mining, inference, and prediction.Kropff, Carmichael, Moser & Moser (2015). Speed cells in the medial entorhinal cortex. Nature.MacKay (2003). Information theory, inference and learning algorithms.

Julie Old is as Associate Professor at Western Sydney University. We talk about her experiences and research with wombats, various aspects of wombat behavior, conservation efforts, challenges such as sarcoptic mange and roadkill, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat's critically endangered status and efforts to translocate them safely, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Julie got into working with wombats0:03:14: What are wombats?0:11:40: How Julie started researching wombats0:15:34: Sarcoptic mange in wombats0:25:22: Saving the critically endangered Northern hairy-nosed wombat0:36:00: How to prevent wombats from becoming roadkill0:41:46: How do I know a wombat was there without seeing the wombat directly?0:44:11: What research could I do on wombats and (social) decision-making?0:47:51: How do wombats navigate in burrows?0:52:42: How the Australian wildfires in 19/20 affected wombats0:55:41: WomSAT0:59:29: The Wombat Foundation1:01:06: How to translocate a population of wombats1:08:35: A book or paper more people should read1:10:53: Something Julie wishes she'd learnt sooner1:12:11: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtJulie's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/old-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/old-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/old-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksThe scientific park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epping_Forest_National_ParkThe Wombat Foundation: https://www.wombatfoundation.com.au/WomSAT: https://www.womsat.org.au/womsat/French & Whatley (2002). Diary of a Wombat.Mayadunnage, Stannard, West & Old (2024). Spatial and temporal patterns of sarcoptic mange in wombats using the citizen science tool, WomSAT. Integrative Zoology.Old, Hunter & Wolfenden (2018). Who utilises bare-nosed wombat burrows?. Australian Zoologist.Old, Sengupta, Naraya, & Wolfenden (2018). Sarcoptic mange in wombats—A review and future research directions. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.Old & Deane (2003). The detection of mature T‐and B‐cells during development of the lymphoid tissues of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii). Journal of Anatomy.Old & Deane (2000). Development of the immune system and immunological protection in marsupial pouch young. Developmental & Comparative Immunology.Park (1962). The Adventures of the Muddle-headed Wombat.Stannard, Wynan, Wynan, Dixon Mayadunnage & Old (2021). Can virtual fences reduce wombat road mortalities?. Ecological Engineering.Strahan's mammals of Australia (2023).Woodford (2002). The secret life of wombats.

Tom Chivers is a prominent science journalist and author, well-known for his expertise in applied statistics and Bayesian methods. He discusses his new book that explores the legacy of Thomas Bayes and the intricacies of Bayesian statistics. Chivers delves into how these concepts can help address the replication crisis in science. He shares insights from his journey into journalism, the philosophical debates around probability, and the evolution of scientific models, while emphasizing the critical thinking necessary for interpreting data.

Laura Luebbert just finished her PhD in computational biology and will soon be a postdoc with Pardis Sabeti, to hunt some viruses. We talk about how she got into biology, how she created a widely-used software project (gget) with no prior coding experience, her recent reports when she discovered questionable data in key papers about honeybee dances, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Laura studied biology in Leiden/the Netherlands (and the importance of early scientific training)0:13:41: How Laura ended up doing a PhD at Caltech with Lior Pachter (and how to choose one project if you're interested in many things)0:22:00: gget: Developing and maintaining a software tool with no prior programming experience0:54:07: Laura's future postdoc (with Pardis Sabeti): global virus-hunter0:59:34: Finding and reporting questionable data in published papers about honeybee dances1:36:43: A book or paper more people should read1:38:55: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner1:40:38: Advice for PhD students/postdocs1:44:02: Bonus: should I learn Catalan?Podcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtLaura's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/luebbert-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/luebbert-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/luebbert-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences and linksEpisode with Jessica Polka: https://geni.us/bjks-polkaEpisode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bikEpisode with Joe Hilgard: https://geni.us/bjks-hilgardPrototype fund Germany: https://prototypefund.de/en/PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/Aaronovitch (2014-). Rivers of London series.Frisch (1927). Aus dem Leben der Bienen.Luebbert, Sullivan, Carilli, Hjörleifsson, Winnett, Chari & Pachter (2023). Efficient and accurate detection of viral sequences at single-cell resolution reveals putative novel viruses perturbing host gene expression. bioRxiv.Luebbert & Pachter (2023). Efficient querying of genomic reference databases with gget. Bioinformatics.Luebbert & Pachter (2024). The miscalibration of the honeybee odometer. arXiv.https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/the-journal-of-scientific-integrity/

Laura Wesseldijk works at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt at the Behavioral Genetics unit in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. We talk about her research on the genetics of music and mental health, methods in behavioural genetics, the role of large samples, the importance of twins for behavioural genetics, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Did Beethoven have bad genetics for music - or are there problems with applying (some) genetic methods to individuals?0:11:51: Different methods in behavioural genetics0:24:20: Gene x environment interactions and the difficulty of disentangling them0:30:30: 23andMe in genetics research0:37:26: Can you ask an interesting question if you need millions of people to have done a measurement?0:42:08: How to measure musicality (at scale)0:47:56: Geneticists really love twins0:50:41: Do critical periods in music exist?1:03:30: How Laura got interested in the genetics of music1:12:07: A book or paper more people should read1:16:17: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner1:17:49: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtLaura's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferencesBegg, ... & Krause (2023). Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven. Current Biology.Harden (2021). The genetic lottery: Why DNA matters for social equality.Hjelmborg, ... & Kaprio, J. (2017). Lung cancer, genetic predisposition and smoking: the Nordic Twin Study of Cancer. Thorax.Rutherford (2020). How to argue with a racist: History, science, race and reality.Rutherford (2022). Control: the dark history and troubling present of eugenics.Ullén, Mosing, Holm, Eriksson & Madison (2014). Psychometric properties and heritability of a new online test for musicality, the Swedish Musical Discrimination Test. Personality and Individual Differences.Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2019). The effects of playing music on mental health outcomes. Scientific reports.Wesseldijk, Mosing & Ullén (2021). Why is an early start of training related to musical skills in adulthood? A genetically informative study. Psychological Science.Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2023). Music and genetics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.Wesseldijk, Abdellaoui, Gordon, Ullén & Mosing (2022). Using a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality. Scientific reports.Wesseldijk, ... & Fisher (2024). Notes from Beethoven’s genome. Current Biology.

Arne Ekstrom is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where he studies spatial navigation and memory. We talk about how he got into psychology, his unusual path to getting a PhD, his work on using single-cells recordings from people, the relationship between memory and spatial navigation, why he uses multiple methods, and much more.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Arne ended up studying psychology and neuroscience0:06:23: Arne's route to a PhD recording single-cells in humans (via political activism in Central America)0:20:18: The state of using VR-like tasks in the early 2000s0:24:32: The status of spatial navigation research in the early 2000s0:29:45: Collecting data from unusual populations0:33:59: Why record from amygdala for a spatial navigation task?0:41:35: Combining memory and navigation in hippocampus1:02:04: Should I use one method or many?1:11:29: A book or paper more people should read1:13:51: Something Arne wishes he'd learnt sooner1:14:51: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtArne's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/ekstrom-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/ekstrom-scholarBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksEpisode with Lynn Nadel: https://geni.us/bjks-nadelEpisode with Nanthia Suthana: https://geni.us/bjks-suthana Episode with Nikolai Axmacher: https://geni.us/bjks-axmacherEpisode with Nachum Ulanovsky: https://geni.us/bjks-ulanovskyArgyropoulos ... & Butler (2019). Network-wide abnormalities explain memory variability in hippocampal amnesia. Elife.Ekstrom, .. & Fried (2003). Cellular networks underlying human spatial navigation. Nature.Ekstrom ... & Kahana (2005). Human hippocampal theta activity during virtual navigation. Hippocampus.Ekstrom ... & Bookheimer (2009). Correlation between BOLD fMRI and theta-band local field potentials in the human hippocampal area. J neurophys.Ekstrom ... & Starrett (2017). Interacting networks of brain regions underlie human spatial navigation: a review and novel synthesis of the literature. J neurophys.Ekstrom & Ranganath (2018). Space, time, and episodic memory: The hippocampus is all over the cognitive map. Hippocampus.Hassabis ... & Maguire (2009). Decoding neuronal ensembles in the human hippocampus. Current Biology.Iaria & Burles (2016). Developmental topographical disorientation. TiCS.Kunz ... & Axmacher (2015). Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science.Logothetis ... & Oeltermann (2001). Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal. Nature.Watrous ... & Ekstrom (2013). Frequency-specific network connectivity increases underlie accurate spatiotemporal memory retrieval. Nat Neuro.Zhang & Ekstrom (2013). Human neural systems underlying rigid and flexible forms of allocentric spatial representation. Human brain mapping.

Benjamin Ehrlich is the author of the recent biography of Santiago Ramon y Cajal (The brain in search of itself), and The Dreams of Santiago Ramon y Cajal. We talk about Cajal's life and work, Cajal's unlikely beginnings in a rural Spain, how he discovered that neurons were separate from each other, leading to the neutron doctrine, how Cajal became famous seemingly overnight, Cajal's rivalry with Camillo Golgi, the relationship between art and science, how to write a biography of someone whose autobiographical writings were heavily influenced by picaresque novels, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Cajal is worth talking about0:01:42: Cajal's father 0:04:48: Cajal's childhood0:17:22: Cajal's early work on the brain, and the status of neuroscience in the 1880s0:23:45: The conference that made Cajal famous0:29:42: Cajal's years as a famous scientist0:35:33: Cajal's personality0:41:14: Cajal & Golgi's rivalry0:45:48: del Rio and the discovery of glia cells0:49:13: Picaresque novels and the difficulty of trusting Cajal's stories of himself1:02:52: A book or paper more people should read1:04:14: Something Ben wishes he'd learnt sooner1:04:57: Advice for PhD students/postdocs - people in a transitory periodPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtBen (Ehrlich)'s linksWebsite: http://www.benehrlich.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/benehrlich11Ben (Kuper-Smith)'s linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksKölliker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_von_K%C3%B6llikerGolgi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Golgidel Rio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%ADo_del_R%C3%ADo_HortegaCalvino (1972). Invisible cities.Ehrlich (2017). The Dreams of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.Ehrlich (2022). The brain in search of itself: Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the story of the neuron.Pitlor & Lee (editors). The Best American Short Stories 2023 .

Discover the concept of 'neural fingerprinting' and using naturalistic stimuli in neuroimaging. Listen to insights on writing good scientific articles, taking time off before starting a PhD, and advice for PhD students. Explore the impact of unconventional research paths, juggling work-life balance, and transitioning from PhD to postdoc.

David Van Essen is an Alumni Endowed Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about David's path to becoming a neuroscientist, the Human Connectome project, hierarhical processing in the cerebral cortex, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: David's childhood: ravens, rockets, and radios0:05:00: From physics to neuroscience (via chemistry)0:13:55: Quantitative and qualitative approaches to science0:19:17: Model species in neuroscience0:31:35: Hierarchical processing in the cortex0:46:54: The Human Connectome Project0:55:00: A book or paper more people should read0:58:01: Something David wishes he'd learnt sooner1:00:31: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtDavid's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/VanEssen-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/VanEssen-scholarBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksDavid's autobiographical sketch for the Society for Neuroscience (in Volume 9): https://www.sfn.org/about/history-of-neuroscience/autobiographical-chaptersFelleman & Van Essen (1991). Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex.Glasser, Coalson, Robinson, Hacker, Harwell, Yacoub, ... & Van Essen (2016). A multi-modal parcellation of human cerebral cortex. Nature.Hubel & Wiesel (1962). Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. The Journal of physiology.Maunsell & Van Essen (1983). The connections of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and their relationship to a cortical hierarchy in the macaque monkey. Journal of Neuroscience.Sheldrake (2021). Entangled life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds & shape our futures.Van Essen & Kelly (1973). Morphological identification of simple, complex and hypercomplex cells in the visual cortex of the cat. In Intracellular Staining in Neurobiology (pp. 189-198).Van Essen & Maunsell (1980). Two‐dimensional maps of the cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology.Van Essen (2012). Cortical cartography and Caret software. Neuroimage.Van Essen, Smith, Barch, Behrens, Yacoub, Ugurbil & WU-Minn HCP Consortium. (2013). The WU-Minn human connectome project: an overview. Neuroimage.Wooldridge (1963). The machinery of the brain.