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 transcribedIt's a truism that what we see about the world is a small fraction of all that exists. At the simplest level of physics and biology, our senses are dr...
Here is a special bonus punishment treat for Mindscape listeners: an interview of me, by David Zierler of the American Institute of Physics's Oral His...
As a semi-outsider, it's fun for me to watch as a new era dawns in biology: one that adds ideas from physics, big data, computer science, and informat...
The possible existence of technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations — not just alien microbes, but cultures as advanced (or much more) t...
What is the world made of? How does it behave? These questions, aimed at the most basic level of reality, are the subject of fundamental physics. What...
The first full week of 2021 has been action-packed for those of us in the United States of America, for reasons you're probably aware of, including a...
We all know stereotypes about people from different countries; but we also recognize that there really are broad cultural differences between people w...
Welcome to the third annual Mindscape Holiday Message! Just a chance for me to be a little more chatty and informal than usual, although as it turned...
Many characteristics go into making human beings special — brain size, opposable thumbs, etc. Surely one of the most important is language, and in par...
Getting into the swing of things here with monthly Ask Me Anything episodes. If you missed the explanation last month, there is a Patreon page for peo...
Those of us living in democracies tend to take the idea for granted. We forget what an audacious, radical idea it is to put government power into the...
Aristotle conceived of the world in terms of teleological "final causes"; Darwin, or so the story goes, erased purpose and meaning from the world, rep...
Time! It doesn't stop, psychological effects of being under lockdown notwithstanding. How we experience time depends on our situation, but time itself...
As you have likely heard me mention before, I have an account on Patreon, where people can sign up to donate a dollar or two per episode of Mindscape....
Emotions are at the same time utterly central to who we are — where would we be without them? — and also seemingly peripheral to the "real" work our b...
Imagine you were locked in a sealed room, with no way to access the outside world but a few screens showing a view of what's outside. Seems scary and...
This episode is published on November 2, 2020, the day before an historic election in the United States. An election that comes amidst growing worries...
Erwin Schrödinger's famous book What Is Life? highlighted the connections between physics, and thermodynamics in particular, and the nature of living...
In the service of seeking truth, there would seem to be value in intellectual diversity, both in keeping ourselves honest and in the possibility of ne...
Astronomers rocked the cosmological world with the 1998 discovery that the universe is accelerating. Well-deserved Nobel Prizes were awarded to Saul P...
