Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you've come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.
412 episodes transcribedWith communication satellites, weather satellites, GPS, and much more, what happens in space is already important to our lives here on Earth. And the...
The detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling black holes by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations was rightly celebrated as a landmark achievemen...
My little pandemic-lockdown contribution to the world was a series of videos called The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. The idea was to explain physics...
What's the fastest way to get a human being around a racetrack, if we ignore all the rules of racing? How many pages would you have to read to absorb...
People throughout history have imagined ideal societies of various sorts. As the twentieth century dawned, advances in manufacturing and communication...
Welcome to the September 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones a...
There is no human endeavor that does not have a theory of it — a set of ideas about what makes it work and how to do it well. Music is no exception, p...
It's always a little humbling to think about what affects your words and actions might have on other people, not only right now but potentially well i...
Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But a...
Welcome to the August 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones aski...
The idea of an "interest rate" might seem mundane and practical, in comparison to our usual topics around here, but there is a profound philosophical...
Recent years have seen a revolution in the study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun (or don't orbit stars at all). After a few...
We describe the world using language — we can't help it. And we all know that ordinary language is an imperfect way of communicating rigorous scientif...
Welcome to the July 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking...
The United States is suffering from an epidemic of tragic gun violence. While a political debate rages around the topic of gun control, it remains imp...
All of us construct models of the world, and update them on the basis of evidence brought to us by our senses. Scientists try to be more rigorous abou...
Welcome to the June 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! We are inaugurating a slightly different publication schedule, in which these monthly A...
The 200th episode of Mindscape! Thanks to everyone for sticking around for this long. To celebrate, a solo episode discussing a set of issues naturall...
Time is everywhere, pervading each aspect of intellectual inquiry — from physics to philosophy to biology to psychology, and all the way up to politic...
The origin of life here on Earth was an important and fascinating event, but it was also a long time ago and hasn't left many pieces of direct evidenc...
