Big Brains
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Big Brains
Big Brains explores the groundbreaking research and discoveries that are changing our world. In each episode, we talk to leading experts and unpack their work in straightforward terms. Interesting conversations that cover a gamut of topics from how music affects our brains to what happens after we d...
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203 Episoden
Why We Haven’t Solved Brain Disorders—And How To Fix It, with Nicole Rust
For decades, neuroscience has promised breakthroughs in treating conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s. Yet despite powerful tech...
Life On Mars: Is It Possible For Humans? with Edwin Kite
Billions of years ago, Mars may have looked less like the barren red desert we know today and more like Earth—with a blue sky, flowing rivers, and eve...
How To Use Nature To Restore Your Focus, with Marc Berman
We’re living in an attention economy—and most of us are broke. But what if the secret to restoring your focus, improving your mental health, and even...
Could Plants Unlock Quantum Medicine’s Potential? with Greg Engel
We’ve long marveled at how efficiently plants convert sunlight into energy—but no one guessed they were using quantum mechanics to do it.
In thi...
How Microplastics Are Invading Our Bodies, with Matthew Campen
You’ve heard of plastic polluting oceans. But what if it’s polluting you—your brain, your reproductive system, even your unborn children?
In thi...
Why We Get Stuck—And How to Finally Move Forward
Hello listeners…we're re-releasing one of our favorite Big Brains episodes—an incredibly insightful conversation with psychologist Adam Alter. If you'...
Inside the AI Debate: Hope, Hype, Or Harm? A Big Brains Panel Weighs In
One of the benefits of producing this podcast at the University of Chicago is that there are often events on campus that bring in not just one Big Bra...
Are Your Medications Safe And Effective?, with Jerry Avorn
For a more than a century, the Food and Drug Administration has worked to protect public health. In his research, Harvard University physician-researc...
Are We Making AI Too Human?, with James Evans
Prof. James Evans, a University of Chicago sociologist and data scientist, believes we’re training AI to think too much like humans—and it’s holding s...
Inside The Disease That Changes Your Personality, with Bruce Miller
When someone we know or love starts to develop psychological issues, we don't often associate it with a form of dementia. However, this trait is one o...
Meet The ‘Planet Hunter’ Searching For Alien Life, with Jacob Bean
The search for life beyond Earth is no longer science fiction—it takes a lot of data, powerful telescopes and a bit of cosmic detective work. And at t...
How To Stop Gun Violence Before It Starts, with Jens Ludwig
Despite decades of policy ideas, pouring millions of dollars into the problem, and a slow pace of gun control measures, the United States hasn’t made...
Can Your DNA Predict Your Future?, with Dalton Conley
What if a single number, derived from your DNA, could predict your income, education level or even who you're likely to marry? In his new book “The So...
Can You Really Die of a Broken Heart? The Hidden Dangers of Grief, with Mary Frances O'Connor
When we lose someone, we love, we often say we have a broken heart—but what if that’s not just a metaphor?
In her new book “The Grieving Body: H...
The Science Behind Raising Successful Kids, with Ariel Kalil
New federal data paints a stark picture: American children are falling behind in reading and test scores, with the gap between advantaged and disadvan...
Do Animals Understand Death?, with Susana Monsó
What does it mean to understand death? For centuries, philosophers have argued that only humans can truly comprehend mortality. But what if they’re wr...
Why Measles Is Resurging—And The Rise Of Vaccine Hesitancy, with Adam Ratner
In 2000, the United States declared that measles had been eliminated. But just 15 years later, the disease made a comeback—and it hasn’t gone away sin...
The Little-Known Secrets To A Good Life, with Shigehiro Oishi
What makes a good life? For decades, psychologists have debated whether true fulfillment comes from happiness—a life of comfort and joy—or meaning—a l...
How Bioelectronics Could Heal Our Bodies And Minds, with Bozhi Tian
Imagine a future in which Band-Aids talk to your cells, pacemakers are powered by light and your gut microbiome gets a tune-up—all thanks to tiny bioe...
Could A Fungal Pandemic Be “The Last of Us?", with Arturo Casadevall
Five years after COVID became a global pandemic, could another health crisis be on our horizon? According to scientists who study diseases, the possib...
The "Magic Words" That Turn Resolutions Into Reality
As we step into 2025, many of us are thinking about how to turn our New Year's resolutions into lasting changes. But what if the secret to success lie...
What’s The Truth About Alcohol’s Benefits And Risks? with Tim Stockwell
We have long heard the claims that a glass of red wine is good for your heart, but it turns out that the research that fueled this wisdom was actually...
What Happens When We Die? with Sam Parnia
For centuries, death has been seen as a final, inescapable line—a moment when the heart stops and the brain ceases to function. But revolutionary rese...
The Illusion of Moral Decline
This year’s election might have been the most contentious in modern memory. It's not just that politics have changed, but it seems that people have to...
Can We Predict The Unpredictable? with J. Doyne Farmer
What if we could predict the economy the way we predict the weather? What if governments could run simulations to forecast the effects of new policies...
Unlocking The Secrets Of ‘SuperAgers’, with Emily Rogalski
https://haarc.center.uchicago.edu/We used to think aging inevitably led to memory loss, but a small group of people—known as SuperAgers—are defying th...
2024 Nobel Laureate Explains What Makes Countries Fail Or Succeed, with James A. Robinson
On Big Brains, we get to speak to a lot of groundbreaking scholars and experts, but some conversations we walk away knowing we’ve just heard from some...
Why Can’t Scientists Agree On The Age Of The Universe? with Wendy Freedman
How old is the universe—and how fast is it expanding? These are part of one of the biggest—and most contested—questions in science, and the answers co...
What Are We Getting Wrong About Young Voters?, with Cathy Cohen
One of the biggest questions of every election is: What’s going on with young voters? There is endless speculation on the news about what young people...
Why Are More Women Saying No To Having Kids? With Peggy O'Donnell Heffington
More and more women in the United States are saying no to motherhood. Alarmingly, in 2023, the U.S. fertility rate reached the lowest number on record...
How Homeownership Shaped Race In America, with Adrienne Brown
Race has played a huge role in the creation of mass homeownership in the United States. Discriminatory housing practices including redlining, exclusio...
Fighting Back Against AI Piracy, with Ben Zhao and Heather Zheng
If you’ve spent any time playing with modern AI image generators, it can seem like an almost magical experience; but the truth is these programs are m...
The Bioelectric Future of Regenerative Medicine
In the near future, birth defects, traumatic injuries, limb loss and perhaps even cancer could be cured through bioelectricity—electrical signals that...
Is Mindfulness The Secret To Health?
Can you heal faster just by tricking your brain? Could you lose weight with only a change of mindset? Could you think yourself into being younger? If...
Feeling Stuck? Here’s How To Achieve a Breakthrough, with Adam Alter
We've all been stuck at some point in our lives — whether we've been stuck at a job and wanting to make a career change, stuck in a location and wanti...
What Makes Something Memorable (or Forgettable?) with Wilma Bainbridge
There is a science to what we remember and what we don't. For instance, why do we remember certain pieces of artwork, some brands’ logos, or even peop...
Learning To Speak To Whales Using AI, with David Gruber
If aliens landed on Earth tomorrow, how would we talk with them? Well, we already have a kind of creature on this planet we could attempt to talk to f...
Storm Warning: Why Hurricanes Are Growing Beyond Measure, with Michael Wehner
We all know that extreme weather events like hurricanes are getting worse due to climate change, but what scientists would really like to know is: By...
How To Manifest Your Future Using Neuroscience, with James Doty
We've all heard the phrase "Manifest Your Destiny" when it comes to wanting that new promotion, figuring out a new career path or just trying to achie...
Why We Die—And How We Can Live Longer, with Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan
They’re perhaps the oldest questions in the science: Why do we die? And could we find a way to live forever? But for decades, anti-aging research was...