BJKS Podcast

This is the final episode of our discussion of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics), in which we discuss the epilogue and have a more general discussion about the book.For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. 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=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

Pete Trimmer is a behavioural scientist who works as a senior teaching fellow at the University of Wawrick. His research, almost exclusively theoretical, focuses on the evolution of learning, decision-making, and physiological processes. In this conversation, we talk about a wide range of topics: how Pete became a world-class croquet player (former World No. 3), how he got into academia, how he overcame maths anxiety to become a mathematical biologist, and his work on ecological rationality.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.).Timestamps0:00:04: Pete Trimmer, former world-class croquet player0:15:01: Combining outside activities with work0:22:14: Pete's path from industry to academia0:30:30: How to reduce time marking exams by almost 50%0:36:41: How Pete overcame maths anxiety in school0:52:21: Start discussing ecological rationality1:00:17: Do we still need to argue against expected utility theory?1:07:33: Are we just adding lists of if-statements to theories?1:09:40: Tinbergen's 4 whys1:14:17: When is an evolutionary theory a useful theory?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastPete's linksWebsite: https://sites.google.com/site/petetrimmer/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=Iq9U2NkAAAAJBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesKipling, R. (1902/2011). Just so stories. Penguin Classics.Niven, J. E., Anderson, J. C., & Laughlin, S. B. (2007). Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energy-information trade-offs in neural coding. PLoS Biology.Strang, Gilbert's (free) course on linear algebra: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06sc-linear-algebra-fall-2011/Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie.Tinbergen's 4 whys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinbergen%27s_four_questionsTrimmer, P. C. (2013). Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.Trimmer, P. C. (2016). Optimistic and realistic perspectives on cognitive biases. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. Trimmer, Pete's blog post about beating better players at croquet: https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=members/players/tactics/BeatBetterTrimmer, Pete's cover of the thinking croquet player: https://bit.ly/3pXaFNq

In this episode, we discuss part 5 and then part 6 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. Timestamps0:00:05: Start part 50:49:45: Start part 6 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   

Giuliana Spadaro is a postdoc in the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab, directed by Daniel Balliet. Her research focuses on cooperation and prosociality. In this conversation, we talk about Giuliana's recent work on the Cooperation Databank (https://cooperationdatabank.org/), a database that contains around 2,600 studies on cooperation, coded by experts to facilitate meta-analyses and other tasks about cooperation research. 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: Giuliana's career before working on the Cooperation Databank (coda)0:13:09: What is coda and what can it do?0:18:58: Different payoff matrices in the Prisoner's Dilemma0:24:25: The benefits of annotating hundreds of studies0:28:57: Further uses of coda (e.g., search engine)0:33:28: How can people add their own studies to coda (including unpublished studies)?0:39:10: Coda in the long term0:45:15: What if I want a new feature added to coda?0:53:47: Learning to run and from a meta-analysis1:02:49: Working on coda1:11:38: What's next for Giuliana?1:15:03: Coda workshopsPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastGiuliana's linksWebsite: https://amsterdamcooperationlab.com/giuliana_spadaro/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ZuzhtPEAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/g_spadaro90Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesKuper-Smith, B. J., Doppelhofer, L. M., Oganian, Y., Rosenblau, G., Korn, C. W. Risk perception and optimism during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. PsyArXiv.McShane, B. B., & Böckenholt, U. (2017). Single-paper meta-analysis: Benefits for study summary, theory testing, and replicability. Journal of Consumer Research.Scaffidi Abbate, C., Boca, S., Spadaro, G., & Romano, A. (2014). Priming effects on commitment to help and on real helping behavior. Basic and Applied Social Psychology.Spadaro, G., d’Elia, S. R., & Mosso, C. O. (2018). Menstrual knowledge and taboo TV commercials: effects on self-objectification among Italian and Swedish women. Sex Roles.Spadaro, G., Tiddi, I., Columbus, S., Jin, S., ten Teije, A., & Balliet, D. (2020). The cooperation databank. PsyArXiv.Thielmann, I., Spadaro, G., & Balliet, D. (2020). Personality and prosocial behavior: A theoretical framework and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin.

In this episode, we discuss part 3 and then part 4 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics).For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. Timestamps0:00:05: Beginning discussing Part 30:56:00: Beginning discussing Part 4Podcast 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   

Erik Wengström is a Professor of Economics at Lund University where he studies how people behave in economic and financial situations.  In this conversation, we talk about his study about loss aversion when deciding for others and his recent study on prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, we also discuss the differences and similarities between economics and psychology. 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.).Timestamps0:00:04: What is loss aversion?0:05:45: Start discussing Erik's paper Deciding For Others Reduces Loss Aversion0:16:01: Generalising decision-making across different contexts0:20:28: The relationship between economics and psychology0:30:45: Peer-review and publishing in economics0:44:14: Start discussing Erik's study on prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic0:50:09: Deception in psychology and economics experiments0:53:39: The risk dictator game1:03:50: Comparing our COVID study with Erik's studyPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastErik's linksWebsite: https://sites.google.com/site/erikwengstrom/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=SRPZRHoAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/ErikWengstromBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesAndersson, O., Holm, H. J., Tyran, J. R., & Wengström, E. (2016). Deciding for others reduces loss aversion. Management Science.Andersson, O., Holm, H. J., Tyran, J. R., & Wengström, E. (2020). Risking Other People's Money: Experimental Evidence on the Role of Incentives and Personality Traits. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics.Andersson, O., Campos-Mercade, P., Meier, A., & Wengström, E. (2020). Anticipation of COVID-19 vaccines reduces social distancing. Available at SSRN 3765329.Campos-Mercade, P., Meier, A. N., Schneider, F. H., & Wengström, E. (2021). Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Public Economics.Kuper-Smith, B. J., Doppelhofer, L. M., Oganian, Y., Rosenblau, G., Korn, C. W. (2021. Risk perception and optimism during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. PsyArXiv.Smaldino: my conversation with Paul Smaldino about formal modelling: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/1390924/7048246-8-paul-smaldino-cubist-chickens-formal-models-and-the-psychology-curriculumTversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1991). Loss aversion in riskless choice: A reference-dependent model. The quarterly journal of economics.

This is a new kind of episode for this podcast: in addition to the interviews, I will now do a book club in which I and a friend read a long book (>500 pages) I've always wanted to read but haven't gotten around to.  We will read around 100 pages per week and sit down for an hour to chat about the book. To not clog up the podcast feed, I'll publish two discussions in one episode every other week. The first book in this book club is Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Oliver Ready's translation for Penguin Classics). In this episode, we introduce the series in general and discuss parts 1 and 2 of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.For this first book club series, I'm joined by Antonia. We did our Masters degree in Brain and Mind Sciences together at UCL. Since then, Antonia has gotten a PhD in psychology and now works in scientific publishing. Some important notes:1) Spoiler alert: we will discuss whatever happened in the book so far2) You can listen to the episodes without having read the book, but I'm not sure how much sense it wil make. We asume you've read as far as we have. There will be a brief summary at the beginning of each chat, but this is a brief reminder of what happened, not a complete retelling of the story3) We're using Oliver Ready's translation, published by Penguin Classic. You don't have to have the same version, but it might make it easier when mentioning  page numbers. Also, we really like this translation!4) This format is quite experimental and it took us 1-2 discussions to find our groove. After this episode, we've found our pattern and the quality of the discussion improves quite a bit5) Finally, at first I thought this was going to be published as a separate podcast, but I've now decided to make it part of the BJKS Podcast after all. So you can ignore the beginning where I say that this is a new and unnamed podcastTimestamps0:00:05: Introducing this new type of episode, and discussing the weird shape of Ben's physical copy0:07:36: Beginning Part 10:55:16: Beginning Part 21:04:05: End summary of Part 2, beginning of discussionLink to photo of my pentagonal copy: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast/status/1397595784200216577Podcast 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   

Bianca Trovò is a PhD student at Neurospin and Sorbonne Université, where she studies self-initiated movements. Recently, she is a developer of Ants-Review, a blockchain-based protocol for incentivising scientific peer review. In this conversation, we talk mainly about Ants-Review and I ask questions from the perspective of a scientist who isn't particularly familiar with blockchain and cryptography.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.).Timestamps0:00:10: How Ants-Review got started0:14:07: So what's wrong with peer review (in its current form)?0:26:14: Incentives in Ants-Review 0:40:02: Can people cheat on  Ants-Review?0:52:44: Will reviews on Ants-Review be many micro-reviews, rather than a few traditional reviews?0:59:47: Why does Ants-Review need to be done in blockchain?1:21:53: Academic articles as NFTs?1:24:40: The future of Ants-Review 1:35:11: How can people contribute to Ants-Review (incl. quadratic funding)?1:41:12: How easy is it to use Ants-Review?Ants-Review linkshttps://twitter.com/antsreviewhttps://antsreview.substack.com/Bianca's paper outlining  Ants-Review: Trovò, B., & Massari, N. (2021). Ants-Review: A Privacy-Oriented Protocol for Incentivized Open Peer Reviews on Ethereum. In Euro-Par 2020: Parallel Processing Workshops (Vol. 12480, p. 18). Nature Publishing Group. Video runthrough of Ants-Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXNpBpWQo60Gitcoin Grant: https://gitcoin.co/grants/1628/anPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastBianca's linksWebsite: https://umr-lams.academia.edu/BiancaTrov%C3%B2Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=hoCMB_kAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bianca_troveauxBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsAdditional references and links 3blue1brown video on bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4Bianca's questions to Alexandra Elbakyan:Q1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqcY0YBfIw&t=1075sQ2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqcY0YBfIw&t=11129sButerin, Vitalik's blog post about quadratic funding: https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.htmlGame theory introduction: here is the brief and fun introduction to game theory that Bianca mentions at around the 47-minute mark: https://ncase.me/trust/

Brock Bastian is a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne whose research focuses on pain, happiness, and morality.  In this conversation, we talk about Brock's work on how and why pain is meaningful. We talk about Brock's work on pain and cooperation, reproducibility in social psychology, his books The Other Side of Happiness, the value of doing shit jobs, Brave New World, 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.).  Timestamps  0:00:05: Pain and cooperation  0:18:22: When is a paper ready?  0:22:37: Reproducibility: when can you trust a paper?  0:28:44: Discussing the making of Brock's book The Other Side of Happiness  0:42:39: When should something be easy and when is it good for something to be difficult?  0:52:59: Brock's dog adds a valuable comment  0:54:01: The value of doing shit jobs  0:57:23: What's dystopian about Huxley's Brave New World?  1:03:23: Is something like Soma possible and would people use it?  Podcast links  Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast  Brock's links  Website: http://www.brockbastian.com/  Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=WudErsQAAAAJ  Twitter: https://twitter.com/drbrockbastian/  Ben's links  Website: www.bjks.blog/  Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ   Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets  References   Bastian, B. (2018). The other side of happiness: Embracing a more fearless approach to living. Penguin UK.   Brock's debate with David Pearce: https://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b5578a55839c4218a03c2a43e83f4076  Bastian, B., Jetten, J., & Ferris, L. J. (2014). Pain as social glue: Shared pain increases cooperation. Psychological Science.  Bastian, B., Jetten, J., Thai, H. A., & Steffens, N. K. (2018). Shared adversity increases team creativity through fostering supportive interaction. Frontiers in Psychology.  Huxley, A. (1932). Brave New World.  Leknes, S., & Bastian, B. (2014). The benefits of pain. Review of Philosophy and Psychology.  Wiltermuth, S. S., & Heath, C. (2009). Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological Science.  Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Fischer, R., Reddish, P., Skewes, J., Geertz, A. W., ... & Bulbulia, J. (2013). Extreme rituals promote prosociality. Psychological Science.  

Kate Jeffery is a professor of behavioural neuroscience at University College London, where she works on spatial navigation. In this conversation, we talk about the history of spatial navigation, Kate's work on grid cells and place cells in 3D, and her recent work on entropy and brain evolution.  Timestamps0:00:05: Kate's journey from medicine to neuroscience 0:10:57: A brief history of spatial navigation0:30:43: PhD applications now and in 19900:34:38: Kate recorded grid cells 10 years before their discovery, without realising it0:52:00: Prizes in science1:05:20: A brief interlude as Kate gives her cat a treat 1:05:48: Lessons from working with Richard Morris and John O'Keefe1:09:28: Spatial navigation in 3D1:34:54: How many dimensions can the hippocampal formation track?1:40:50: Kate's collaboration with Carlo Rovelli  Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKate's linksWebsite: https://jefferylab.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=l1VlIFAAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/drkjjefferyBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ  ReferencesAronov et al 2017. Mapping of a non-spatial dimension by the hippocampal–entorhinal circuit. Nature  Bliss & Lømo 1973. Long‐lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. J Physiol  Burgess 2014. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: a spatial model for cognitive neuroscience. Neuron  Casali et al 2019. Altered neural odometry in the vertical dimension. PNAS  Fyhn et al 2004. Spatial representation in the entorhinal cortex. Science  Grieves et al 2020. The place-cell representation of volumetric space in rats. Nat Commun  Grieves et al 2020. Grid cell firing fields in a volumetric space. bioRxiv Hafting et al 2005. Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. NatureJeffery et al 1997. Directional control of hippocampal place fields. Exp Brain ResJeffery & Morris 1993. Cumulative long-term potentiation in the rat dentate gyrus correlates with, but does not modify, performance in the water maze. HippocampusJeffery & O’Keefe 1999. Learned interaction of visual and idiothetic cues in the control of place field orientation. Exp Brain ResJeffery et al 2019. On the statistical mechanics of life: Schrödinger revisited. EntropyJeffery & Rovelli 2020. Transitions in brain evolution: space, time and entropy. Trends NeurosciMorris et al 1982. Place navigation impaired in rats with hippocampal lesions. NatureO'Keefe & Dostrovsky 1971. The hippocampus as a spatial map: Preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain ResRanck 1984. Head direction cells in the deep layer of dorsal presubiculum in freely moving rats. In Society of Neurosci AbstractRovelli 2016. Seven brief lessons on physicsShannon 1948. The mathematical theory of communicationStensola et al 2012. The entorhinal grid map is discretized. NatureYartsev et al 2011. Grid cells without theta oscillations in the entorhinal cortex of bats. Nature