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What are the big ideas shaping our world now?Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ science and philosophy shaping society • psychology and neuroscience of behavior, emotions, sleep, memory • economics of fairness, inequality, development, cities, big data • politics, trust, discrimination, violence • technology, AI, climate, pandemicsThis podcast explores “big ideas” shaping contemporary life by interviewing leading researchers and thinkers across disciplines including epidemiology, psychology, neuroscience, economics, philosophy, criminology, anthropology, and political science. The episodes focus on how scientific findings and social-scientific methods can illuminate everyday experience and major public challenges, often emphasizing what is uncertain, counterintuitive, or misunderstood.
A recurring theme is human behavior and decision-making: why people crave addictive substances despite diminished pleasure, how emotions arise from brain–body signals, why disgust exists and how it can be redirected, what laughter is for, and why personal beliefs and preferences may be less stable than we assume. Several topics examine learning and development, from infant cognition and adolescent risk-taking to educational ideas about talent and “growth mindset,” alongside questions about memory reliability and unconscious bias.
Another set of episodes addresses institutions and social outcomes: what makes nations prosper, how democracy affects famine prevention, how fairness and inequality influence wellbeing, and how discrimination can be analyzed through overlapping forms of disadvantage. The show also looks at trust, misinformation, and outrage in digitally mediated public life, as well as strategies for reducing intergroup hostility.
Public policy and future-oriented issues appear frequently, including pandemic preparedness, AI’s impact on medicine and work, forecasting accuracy, and data-driven “social physics” in cities. Urban life is examined through regulation, creativity, happiness, and the ways technology platforms generate insights from large-scale data. Environmental and ethical questions also arise, such as climate impacts of livestock and human dependence on long-term species survival.
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Fighting pandemics2020-Dec-19 11 minutes |
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The science of addiction 2020-Dec-12 11 minutes |
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The new normal 2020-Dec-05 11 minutes |
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Do cities need rules? 2020-Nov-28 9 minutes |
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The science of sleep 2020-Nov-21 14 minutes |
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The importance of fairness 2020-Nov-14 12 minutes |
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How do we spot rogue cops? 2020-Nov-07 11 minutes |
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Understanding emotions: Should we follow our hearts? 2020-Oct-31 12 minutes |
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Ubernomics 2020-Oct-24 15 minutes |
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Why living in the city could make you happier 2020-Oct-17 13 minutes |
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Why do we find things disgusting? 2020-Oct-10 13 minutes |
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The fragility of choice 2020-Oct-03 9 minutes |
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The truth about marriage 2020-Sep-26 10 minutes |
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How to topple a dictator 2020-Sep-19 9 minutes |
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Why do we laugh? 2020-Sep-12 10 minutes |
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The Afterlife 2018-Sep-23 9 minutes |
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Why Are Some Nations Rich? 2018-Sep-16 9 minutes |
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How does language work? 2018-Sep-09 10 minutes |
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A Future Without Doctors? 2018-Sep-02 8 minutes |
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The Intelligent Tree 2018-Aug-26 9 minutes |
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Consciousness: A Strange Theory 2018-Aug-19 10 minutes |
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The Teenage Brain 2018-Aug-12 10 minutes |
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How To Stop Murder 2018-Aug-05 9 minutes |
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Democracy and Famine 2018-Jul-29 9 minutes |
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Dimensions of Discrimination 2018-Jul-22 11 minutes |
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Inequality Makes Us Anxious 2018-Jul-15 10 minutes |
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Are We All Racist? 2018-Jul-08 11 minutes |
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The New Distrust 2018-Jul-01 10 minutes |
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Contact Theory 2018-Jun-24 9 minutes |
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Economics and Mosquito Nets 2018-Jun-17 10 minutes |
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Memory Wars 2018-Jun-10 10 minutes |
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A World Without Livestock? 2018-Jun-03 9 minutes |
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Outrage and Moral Conscience 2018-May-27 9 minutes |
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Friends 2018-May-20 9 minutes |
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Baby Boffins 2018-May-19 9 minutes |
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Super-Intelligence 2018-May-17 9 minutes |
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Social Physics 2018-May-16 9 minutes |
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The Growth Mindset 2018-May-15 9 minutes |
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Epigenetics 2018-May-14 9 minutes |
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Future Gazing 2018-May-13 9 minutes |
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Monkey Money 2018-May-12 10 minutes |
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The Big Preview: The Big Idea 2018-May-11 2 minutes |