BJKS Podcast

This is the first episode of the third edition of the book club. This time, we're reading Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss parts 1 and 2. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCody's linksWebsite: https://www.codykommers.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/codykommersNewsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesBerlin, I. (2013). The roots of romanticism. Princeton University Press.Fatland, E. (2020). Sovietistan. Simon and Schuster.Lévi-Strauss, C. (1955). Tristes Tropiques. Librairie Plon.Wulf, A. (2015). The invention of nature: Alexander von Humboldt's new world. Knopf.

Bryan Bruns is an independent consultant sociologist, working mainly on water irrigation systems in southeast Asia. He also publishes academic papers about game theory. In this conversation, we talk about how he became a consultant sociologist, what that even means, how to learn foreign languages, his work on 2x2 games, how to transform a social dilemma into a win-win situation, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: How Bryan became a consultant sociologist, working in southeast Asia on water management0:21:31: How to learn foreign languages0:31:35: But what does a consultant sociologist actually do? And what makes you good at it?0:49:36: Why not be a "regular" academic (instead of doing applied work)?0:54:32: Elinor Ostrom and the commons1:09:09: 2x2 games and the Prisoner's Dilemma1:16:34: Names for games1:38:30: From tragedy to win-win1:50:10: Asymmetric games1:58:06: Implementing game theoretic ideas in the real world with real people2:02:20: Reading recommendations for game theoryPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastBryan's linksWebsite: https://bryanbruns.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=lGVqCboAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bryanbrunsBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesBalliet, Parks & Joireman (2009). Social value orientation and cooperation in social dilemmas: A meta-analysis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.Binmore (2007). Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press.Bruns (2015). Names for games: locating 2×2 games. Games.Bruns (2018). From Tragedy to Win-Win Transforming Social Dilemmas in Commons. Georgetown Law Center, Washington DC, USA.Bruns & Meinzen-Dick (2000). Negotiating water rights.Hardin (1958). The tragedy of the commons. Science.Hare (2017). Survival of the friendliest: Homo sapiens evolved via selection for prosociality. Annual review of psychology.Munroe (2015). Thing explainer: complicated stuff in simple words. Hachette UK.Murphy, Ackermann & Handgraaf (2011). Measuring social value orientation. Judgment and Decision making.Nowak & Highfield (2011). Supercooperators: Altruism, evolution, and why we need each other to succeed. Simon and Schuster.Ostrom (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.Ostrom, Gardner & Walker (1994). Rules, games, and common-pool resources. University of Michigan Press.Rapoport, Guyer & Gordon (1976). The 2x2 game. University of Michigan Press.Robinson & Goforth (2005). The topology of the 2x2 games: a new periodic table (Vol. 3). Psychology Press.Tufte, E. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information."Mr condom": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya

In this episode, we discuss Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. Unlike the book club episodes (in which we read around 100 pages per week of the book), the book discussions will be one-off discussions of books that for one reason or another affected me.For this book discussion, I'm again joined by Antonia, who works in academic publishing and with whom I did a series on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment on this podcast.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   References for books mentioned in the episode:Huxley, A. (1932). Brave New World. Chatto & Windus.Huxley, A. (1959). Brave New World Revisited.  Chatto & Windus. Huxley, A., The Gioconda Smile; in: 50 Great Short Stories. Bantham Classics.Murray, N. (2009). Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual. Hachette UK.Wells, H.G. (1895). The Time Machine. Heinemann UK. Wells, H.G. (1923). Men Like Gods. Cassell UK. 

Stuart Ritchie is Lecturer at King's College London, where he studies behavioural genetics in relation to personality and cognitive ability. In this conversation, we don't talk about any of that though but instead focus on his book Science Fictions, a book about how science goes wrong, and the topics covered therein.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:41: Trying to replicate Bem (2011) Feeling the future0:09:58: Wy write Science Fictions?0:17:24: How to (get people to) adopt open science practices?0:36:31: Stuart will pay you if you find errors in Science Fictions0:46:44: Should scientific journals have an automatic way for reporting errors?0:56:52: Gorecki, Boulez, and cultural references1:01:45: Scientific fraud: Stapel, Macchiarini, and Hwang1:31:05: Will many small steps improve science sufficiently or do we need a revolution?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastGuest's linksWebsite: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/stuart-ritchieBook website: https://www.sciencefictions.org/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=9TsCy3IAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/stuartjritchieBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   References and further linksBem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.Leung, A. K. Y., Kim, S., Polman, E., Ong, L. S., Qiu, L., Goncalo, J. A., & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2012). Embodied metaphors and creative “acts”. Psychological Science.Nosek, B. A., Beck, E. D., Campbell, L., Flake, J. K., Hardwicke, T. E., Mellor, D. T., ... & Vazire, S. (2019). Preregistration is hard, and worthwhile. Trends in cognitive sciences.Quintana, D. S. (2020). A synthetic dataset primer for the biobehavioural sciences to promote reproducibility and hypothesis generation. Elife.Ritchie, S. J., Wiseman, R., & French, C. C. (2012). Failing the future: Three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's ‘Retroactive Facilitation of Recall’ Effect. PloS One.Ritchie, S. (2020). Science fictions: How fraud, bias, negligence, and hype undermine the search for truth. Metropolitan Books.The Halloween challenge at Goldsmiths I helped out with: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/31/halloween-challenge-psychics-scientific-trialStuart will pay you if you find errors in Science Fictions:  https://www.sciencefictions.org/corrections Pierre Boulez's notation for piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD2SwVZBI80

This is the third and final episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKoen's linksGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywCTwitter: https://twitter.com/koenfusedBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesJocko Willink's video 'GOOD': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8The Guardian article on not dating people who like Reacher: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/06/i-couldnt-be-with-someone-who-liked-jack-reacher-can-our-taste-in-books-help-us-find-love

Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist, currently finishing her MSc in cognitive science in Vienna. She is also founder of Effective Altruism Austria, and co-organiser of the Rationality Vienna Meetup. In this conversation, we talk about cognitive science, rationality, effective altruism, visualisation in science communication, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:04: Studying as a firstgen07:35: Anna's MSc in cognitive science20:01: What real-world problem is Anna trying to solve?26:46: When are you qualified to give a talk on a topic?35:20: Depth vs. breadth and fun vs. precision in science communication43:21: Visualisation in science (communication)Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastGuest's linksWebsite: https://www.riedlanna.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaLeptikonBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesBorner, K. (2015). Atlas of knowledge: anyone can map. MIT Press.Burton, R. A. (2009). On being certain: Believing you are right even when you're not. Macmillan.Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive science.Marr, D., & Poggio, T. (1977). From understanding computation to understanding neural circuitry. Neurosciences Research Program Bulletin. Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information.Links discussed 3blue1brown's YouTube channel with maths visualisations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAwAnna's interview on Future Fossils: https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils/episodes/166Anna's map of cognitive science: https://www.riedlanna.com/cognitivesciencemap.htmlAnna's prints (on T-shirt, blanket, shower curtain, etc.) of the map of cognitive science: https://www.redbubble.com/de/shop/ap/64207253Marie and Otto Neurath's Isotype collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotype_(picture_language)Medium article about Marie Neurath: https://medium.com/nightingale/the-missing-legacy-of-marie-neurath-f9800733d1fc

This is the second episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.Timestamps00:04: Beginning discussing chapters 15-2158:23: Beginning discussing chapters 22-26Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKoen's linksGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywCTwitter: https://twitter.com/koenfusedBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Nichola Raihani is a professor of evolution and behaviour at University College London. Her research focuses on the evolution of punishment and paranoia. In this conversation, we talk about the fieldwork she did for her PhD in the Kalahari desert, the evolution of punishment, proximate and ultimate explanations, cleaner fish, and Nichola's book The Social Instinct.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:05: Surnames in science03:33: Behavioural ecology or psychology?13:37: What's it like to do fieldwork in the Kalahari desert, habituating birds to humans?20:41: The evolution of punishment29:51: Proximate and ultimate explanations in evolution46:05: What can we learn about human cooperation by studying cleaner fish?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastNichola's linksWebsite: http://www.seb-lab.org/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=u6_SEO4AAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/nicholaraihaniBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesAndreoni, J. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glow giving. The economic journal.Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Parker, G. A. (1995). Punishment in animal societies. Nature.Laland, K., Uller, T., Feldman, M., Sterelny, K., Müller, G. B., Moczek, A., ... & Strassmann, J. E. (2014). Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?. Nature News.Laland, K. N., Sterelny, K., Odling-Smee, J., Hoppitt, W., & Uller, T. (2011). Cause and effect in biology revisited: is Mayr’s proximate-ultimate dichotomy still useful? Science.Raihani, N.J. (2021). The Social Instinct. Penguin. Raihani, N. J., & Bshary, R. (2019). Punishment: one tool, many uses. Evolutionary Human Sciences. Raihani, N. J., Thornton, A., & Bshary, R. (2012). Punishment and cooperation in nature. Trends in ecology & evolution.Raihani, N. J., & McAuliffe, K. (2012). Human punishment is motivated by inequity aversion, not a desire for reciprocity. Biology letters.Raihani, N. J., McAuliffe, K., Brosnan, S. F., & Bshary, R. (2012). Are cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, inequity averse?. Animal Behaviour.Raihani, N. J., Grutter, A. S., & Bshary, R. (2010). Punishers benefit from third-party punishment in fish. Science.Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie.

This is the first episode of our book club on Killing Floor by Lee Child, his first novel, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.Timestamps00:05: Beginning discussing chapters 1-752:30: Beginning discussing chapters 8-14Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKoen's linksGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywCTwitter: https://twitter.com/koenfusedBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Désirée Brucks is a postdoc at the University of Giessen and studies social cognition in animals, having worked with dogs, wolves, parrots, and a few more species. She is currently studying farm animals. In this conversation, we talk mainly about her work on inequty aversion in dogs and helping behaviour in parrots. Along the way, I get to ask all sorts of questions about animal cognition.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: How has COVID affected work with animals?0:02:52: What is Désirée currently studying with farm animals?0:16:02: Parrots in Heidelberg0:25:44: Curious cows0:34:29: Inequity aversion in dogs0:55:03: Ecologically realistic experimental settings1:06:47: What's it like to get lots of media attention for a study?1:11:37: Parrots help others obtain food rewards1:26:37: Fission-fusion dynamics1:36:55: What can we learn from studying animals about human cooperation?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastDésirée's linksWebsite: https://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/fb09/institute/ith/tierhaltung/team/brucksGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=_xHumxIAAAAJBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesBrosnan, S. F., & De Waal, F. B. (2003). Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature.Brucks, D., & von Bayern, A. M. (2020). Parrots voluntarily help each other to obtain food rewards. Current Biology.Brucks, D., Essler, J. L., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Range, F. (2016). Inequity aversion negatively affects tolerance and contact-seeking behaviours towards partner and experimenter. PLoS One.Brucks, D., Range, F., & Marshall-Pescini, S. (2017). Dogs’ reaction to inequity is affected by inhibitory control. Scientific Reports.Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD. Nature.McGetrick, J., Brucks, D., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Range, F. (2020). No evidence for a relationship between breed cooperativeness and inequity aversion in dogs. PloS One.Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat?. The philosophical review.The video of the African Greys exchanging tokens to help the other: https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1215658204866191361The green parrots that live in Heidelberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose-ringed_parakeet