Science and Technology Archives | Page 2 of 3 | How To Academy

Science and Technology Podcasts

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Philip Ball – How to Make Sense of Inhuman Minds

Understanding the human mind has challenged scientists and philosophers for centuries. How do we even begin to think about ‘minds’ that are not human?

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Daniel Pick – A New History of Thought Control

Psychoanalyst and historian Daniel Pick reveals the murky and pernicious story of ‘brainwashing’, taking us from the first days of the Cold War through to modern-day conspiracy theories.

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Suzie Sheehy – The Matter of Everything

Physicist Suzie Sheehy joins science filmmaker David Malone for a thrilling new history of particle physics, told through the discoveries that have shaped our lives – often without us knowing it.

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Ken Liu – Storytelling is Our Most Important Technology

The award-winning novelist explores why speculative fiction is so bad at predicting the future — and so good as revealing hidden aspects of the present.

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Jane McGonigal – How to See the Future Coming

Game designer, futurist and TED superstar Jane McGonigal explains how imagining the future can help us to adapt to change – and be ready for anything.

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Alice Roberts – Buried

Combining archaeological evidence with cutting edge DNA research, the bestselling anthropologist joins us with a bold new account of death in the so-called Dark Ages.

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Sam Knight – The Premonitions Bureau

Join legendary journalist Sam Knight for the true story of a strange experiment – a journey into the oddest corners of 60s Britain and the outer edges of science and reason.

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John Cleese Meets Iain McGilchrist – On Consciousness, Culture, and Creativity

John Cleese meets preeminent neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist to explore the science of human consciousness and creativity.

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Robin Ince Meets Neal Stephenson – Termination Shock

‘Sometimes when you’re reading Neal Stephenson, he doesn’t just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now; he seems like the only one.’ – TIME magazine

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The Metaverse – Hype or Hyperreality?

Take a trip into the Metaverse in the latest episode of Found in Conversation, the monthly ideas show we co-produce with Pictet.

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Robin Ince Meets Richard Dawkins

“My eyes are constantly wide open to the extraordinary fact of existence… That’s never far from my thoughts, that sense of amazement.” – Richard Dawkins

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Paul Craddock – The Surprising History of Organ Transplants

We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world. But the true history of transplants is more ancient, and far stranger, than we could ever imagine.

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Suzanne Simard – Finding the Mother Tree

World-leading scientist of plant communication and intelligence Suzanne Simard reveals how she discovered the secrets of the forest.

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Adam Rutherford – The Troubling History of Eugenics

Eugenics remains one of the most destructive ideas of the 20th century. Today, politicians and scientists alike threaten to build on the legacy of this dangerous ideology.

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Marcus du Sautoy Meets Steven Pinker – Why Rationality Matters

In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding – and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that discovered vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorising?

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Paul Bloom – The Surprising Secret of Happiness

‘Paul Bloom can always be counted on to take your confident assumptions about humanity and turn them upside down’ (SUSAN CAIN, author of Quiet).

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Philip Pullman Meets Iain McGilchrist – The Matter With Things

The award-winning novelist and acclaimed neuroscientist join us with a profound new story of what the world is and who we are.

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Stephen Fry Meets Steven Pinker – The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

In anticipation of Steven Pinker’s return to How To Academy later this month, this episode of the podcast revisits his conversation with Stephen Fry on stage in London in 2018.

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James Nestor – the Art and Science of Breathing

Sunday Times bestselling author James Nestor joins us with a guide that will forever change the way you think about health and wellbeing.

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Bonus Episode: With Reason – Learning from our Ancestors, with Alice Roberts

In this special bonus episode by our friends at New Humanist magazine and the Rationalist Association, Professor Alice Roberts takes us through important archaeological discoveries to help us better understand life today.

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Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green – The Inside Story of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine

Robin Ince meets two of the leading scientists behind the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, marking this historic moment for science and humanity.

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Daniel Kahneman – Why We Make Bad Judgments

Why are humans so bad at making good judgements? Join ground-breaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman, strategist Olivier Sibony, and Nudge co-author Cass Sunstein for a guide to a little-known but profoundly important phenomenon: noise.

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Ginny Smith – The Neuroscience of Everyday Life

How do we learn? Why we do sleep, or fall in love? Can we trust our memories? In this week’s podcast Ginny Smith explores the latest science of the mind and brain to answer the big questions about human behaviour.

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Michio Kaku – The Quest for a Theory of Everything

Michio Kaku takes Robin Ince on the mind-bending ride through the twists and turns of an epic scientific journey: the quest to find a Theory of Everything.

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Anna Ploszajski – Finding Meaning Through Making

Sitting at the intersection of art, science, and history, this week’s podcast reveals fresh perspectives and fascinating insights into our material world.

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Rowan Hooper – How to Spend a Trillion Dollars

If you had a trillion dollars and a year to spend it for the good of the world and the advancement of science, what would you do?

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Tim Harford Meets Adam Grant – The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom. One of the world’s most influential business professors, psychologist Adam Grant is here to teach us how to think again.

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Ethan Kross – How to Harness the Voice Inside Your Head

Turn your ‘inner critic’ into a supportive coach with award-winning psychologist Ethan Kross, one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind.

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Toby Ord – Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity

We live during the most important era of human history. In the twentieth century, we developed the means to destroy ourselves – without developing the moral framework to ensure we won’t.

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Iain McGilchrist – The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning

A tour de force of neuroscience and philosophy, Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary speaks to everyone searching for happiness, meaning and understanding in the modern world.

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Richard Dawkins – The Meaning of Life

Richard Dawkins has done more than any other scientist to promote and celebrate the origins of life on Earth.

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Len Mlodinow and Robin Ince – The Life of Stephen Hawking

Not since Einstein has a scientific figure held such a place in popular consciousness. Leonard Mlodinow tells Robin Ince the story of his friend and collaborator, Stephen Hawking.

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Brian Cox Meets Rebecca Wragg Sykes – The Lost World of Neanderthals

In conversation with particle physicist Brian Cox, archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes reveals the Neanderthals as curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable.

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Sid Meier – The Rise of Civilization

As the inventor of an entirely new genre of entertainment, legendary video-game designer Sid Meier is a true creative pioneer, and godfather to a multi-billion dollar industry.

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Anthony David – Mental Health After COVID

From anxiety to PTSD, the consequences of the pandemic for global mental health are profound. Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David explores what we know so far – and what we can do about it.

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Maria Konnikova – The Biggest Bluff

When bestselling author Maria Konnikova set out to investigate the science of decision-making, she never expected to become a world-class poker player under the wing of a legend of the game.

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Owen O’Kane – How To Manage Anxiety and Stress

Owen O’Kane was the NHS Clinical Lead for Mental Health. He joined Matthew Stadlen to explore evidence-based techniques for developing a healthier perspective.

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Rahul Jandial – How to Rewire Your Brain

It’s time to turn the tide against mental decline. Learn how to make your mind fitter, healthier and stronger using the insights of cutting-edge neuroscience in this week’s podcast.

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John Browne – How to Engineer the Future

Fans of Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari ought not to miss this eloquent blueprint for building a brighter future from engineer, John Browne.

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Brian Greene – How to Find Meaning in an Evolving Universe

The bestselling author of The Elegant Universe joins the How To Academy Podcast to explore humankind’s search for purpose in the vastness of the cosmos.

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Anil Seth – How to Make Sense of Consciousness

How do our brains produce the magic show of conscious experience?

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BONUS EPISODE – Global GoalsCast

The How To Academy Podcast presents an episode of one of our favourite shows: the Global GoalsCast.

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William Gibson – How to Create the Future

He coined the word ‘Cyberspace’ and envisioned the Internet and Virtual Reality before they ever existed. Now William Gibson turns his prophetic eye to the 21st century.

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BJ Fogg – How to Hack Your Habits

Never make a New Year’s Resolution again after hearing this podcast from the world’s most renowned expert in forming new habits –Stanford behavioural scientist, BJ Fogg.

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Eric Schmidt – How to Make a Trillion Dollars

In this week’s episode, Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, VP Jonathan Rosenberg and Director of Executive Communications Alan Eagle present a blueprint for farsighted leadership.

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Reflections From an Astrophysicist

Neil deGrasse Tyson joins the How To Academy Podcast to ask: what is our place in the universe?

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Roger McNamee – How to Stop Facebook From Destroying Democracy

Roger NcNamee was Mark Zuckerberg’s mentor in the first days of Facebook. He explains why he’s now devoted to stopping the behemoth he helped to create.

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When the Body Says No: The Costs of Hidden Stress

Learn how to prevent and heal illnesses related to hidden stress with the help of acclaimed physician Dr. Gabor Maté.

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Melinda Gates – How To Empower Women

In this week’s podcast, Melinda Gates makes a timely and necessary call to action for women’s empowerment.