Twitter: @bethfisher_1 • @avamadesousa (@bethfisher_1 followed by 6 philosophers)
Site: www.mindsmatterpodcast.com
27 episodes
2022 to present
Average episode: 58 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: Two Hosts
Podcaster's summary: Minds Matter is a conversational podcast about psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science, hosted by Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa. | | On Minds Matter, we discuss a range of subjects, from conspiracy theories to falling in love, to nostalgia. We explore the neuroscientific and psychological research behind these issues while talking through our own personal experiences.
| Episodes |
| 2023-Mar-19 • 53 minutes Minds Matter Bonus Episode: Questions for a Literary Theorist on Consciousness Research with Dr. Mette Høeg This week we sat down to chat with Dr. Mette Leonard Høeg who is a literary theorist and philosopher studying theories of consciousness. Dr. Høeg speaks about how we can use works of literature in the field consciousness research. We discuss everything from free will to what future societies might be imagined from different theories of consciousness! |
| 2023-Mar-05 • 63 minutes Your Mind on Changing Prejudices & Stereotypes, with Dr. Tessa Charlesworth Have racism, sexism, and homophobia reduced over time? What about ableism? Dr. Tessa Charlesworth joins us to discuss her research using big data and word embeddings to track shifting attitudes about marginalized groups over the years and decades. We explore the implications of her research on prejudice reduction strategies. Beth and Ava discuss their own experiences with stereotypes of women in STEM. |
| 2023-Feb-19 • 71 minutes Your Mind on First Nations Methodologies, with Dr. Cammi Murrup-Stewart How does a researcher's positionality affect their research? Why do we use the scientific methods that we do? And how do we even measure success in science? This week on the podcast we speak to Dr. Cammi Murrup-Stewart about her research on well-being for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island youth. Speaking about the First Nations Methodologies she uses, we address the big questions around the structure of scientific inquiry. Ava and Beth reflect on these questions with relation to their own research. ... |
| 2023-Feb-05 • 54 minutes Your Mind on Dance, with Dr. Emily Cross Why do we love to dance? What makes dance different from other movements? This week on the podcast we speak to Dr. Emily Cross about her research on the neuroscience of dance. Dr. Cross explains why we prefer to watch certain dances over others and how emotion is central to dancing. Ava and Beth discuss their aesthetic experiences with art in general, leading to very different opinions! |
| 2023-Jan-22 • 57 minutes Your Mind on Meditation & Mindfulness, with Dr. Sarah Strohmaier Is more of a good thing always better? We know this isn't the case with exercise and eating, but does the same idea apply to meditation and mindfulness? This week on the podcast Dr. Sarah Strohmaier talks about her research on 'dose' meditation. Her research found that more mindfulness isn't always the best approach. We discuss how mindfulness and meditation help reduce anxiety and stress and what brain regions are involved in these processes. Ava and Beth share their own experiences with meditation practic... |
| 2023-Jan-08 • 62 minutes Your Mind On Moral Curiosity, with Dr. Jordan Wylie Have you ever wondered why we are drawn to characters like Tony Soprano, even though he carries out morally bad actions? One possible explanation is our moral curiosity. This week on the podcast Dr. Jordan Wylie helps us understand what moral curiosity is and why we are allured by morally ambiguous characters. Dr. Wylie also speaks to us about her research on ‘phantom rules’, rules such as jay-walking that are rarely enforced, as well as how our moral values influence what we believe about harm-reduction po... |
| 2022-Dec-11 • 62 minutes Minds Matter Bonus Episode: Questions for a Buddhist Monk A Minds Matter bonus episode! This week we step away from the research questions and have a chat with a Buddhist monk. Bhikkhu Sadaro (Kevin Berryman) is a Buddhist monk from the Ajahn Chah forest meditation tradition who has been practising for the last 17 years. We speak to him about everything from enlightenment, love, loss, and the self. |
| 2022-Nov-27 • 68 minutes Your Mind on Hierarchy, with Dr. Sa-Kiera Hudson How do you feel about hierarchies? Dr. Sa-Kiera Hudson joins us to discuss how the answer may influence empathy and intergroup conflict. Support for hierarchies can lead not only to reduced empathy, but to increased counter-empathy for competitive groups. We further discuss what happens when hierarchies intersect and how psychology can study multiple identities (race, gender, sexual orientation) simultaneously. |
| 2022-Nov-13 • 69 minutes You Mind On Modeling & Active Inference, with Noor Sajid Have you ever wondered why some days you order your same favourite meal whereas others you decide to try something new? How do we know when we should exploit previous choices or explore new possibilities? In this episode, Noor Sajid discusses her work on active inference, a framework that can answer this problem. Noor uses active inference to investigate many properties of our brain and behaviour, including why two brain lesions can be better than one. Ava & Beth talk through the basics of modeling and ... |
| 2022-Oct-30 • 67 minutes Your Mind on Good & Bad Sleep, with Dr. Lauren Whitehurst What actually makes for good sleep? Dr. Lauren Whitehurst joins us to discuss how the brain, and crucially, the rest of the body, interact to support cognitive functions like memory consolidation and insight. Dr. Whitehurst shares how vital sleep is to overall health, and what happens when some communities systematically get less sleep than others. Beth & Ava discuss their own experiences with sleep spilling over into other facets of life. |
| 2022-Oct-16 • 67 minutes Your Mind on Resilience & Grief, with Dr. Lucy Hone Resilience is a word we hear all the time, but what does it actually mean to be resilient? In this episode, Dr. Lucy Hone discusses her work on resilience and well-being. Sharing her own lived experience with grief, Dr. Hone explains resilience doesn’t mean being fine all the time. We discuss how we can improve our resilience along with the science behind the ideas of gratitude and learned helplessness. |
| 2022-Oct-02 • 50 minutes Your Mind on Motivation, Perception & Biases, with Dr. Yuan Chang Leong Do we see things the way they really are or do our biases and motivations influence our perception? Dr Yuan Chang Leong discusses his research on how our motivations influence how we see the world. If we are biased to see the world differently to others, can we ever really understand someone with different political beliefs? We discuss why we have these biases at all and how they may help us live better lives. |
| 2022-Sep-18 • 70 minutes Your Mind on History, Guns & Racism, with Dr. Gerald Higginbotham One of the first and strictest gun laws passed in the United States was the Mulford act of 1967, sparked by lawmakers perceived threat of the Black Panthers. Thus, the launch of the gun restriction movement was a targeted effort to limit Black Americans' gun access. How does this history influence attitudes about guns in the U.S. today? Dr. Gerald Higginbotham discusses the importance of history as a context in which to consider present-day attitudes, and how our own perceptions of history, like how long ag... |
| 2022-Sep-04 • 56 minutes Your Mind on Loneliness & Social Connection, with Dr. Elisa Baek Why do some people amass have friends effortlessly while others remain isolated? Dr. Elisa Baek tells us about her work using social network analysis to examine the differences between the brains of well-connected and lonely people. Dr. Baek also shares why those with the most friends might not be the most magnetic or charismatic, but might rather be those with the strongest need to belong. |
| 2022-Aug-21 • 56 minutes Your Mind on Language & Emotion with Dr. Ajay Satpute What comes first, language, or emotion? In this episode, Dr. Ajay Satpute shares his work examining how the brain and mind interact with language to create and process emotion. Is jumping when seeing a spider the same as worrying about a loved one passing away? Why do we call so many different experiences 'fear'? We discuss how we can apply this knowledge to our everyday lives, including mental health. |
| 2022-Aug-08 • 41 minutes Your Mind on the Self with Dr. Kelsey Perrykkad To kick off season 2, we are joined by Dr. Kelsey Perrykkad, a post-doc at Monash University. Dr. Perrykkad tells us about her work on understanding the self, in the framework of predictive processing. We discuss what predictive processing actually is, whether people can change, and why the self feels the way it does... and more! |
| 2022-May-16 • 45 minutes Your Mind on Boredom Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa bring you a Minds Matter episode on a very exciting topic: boredom. We promise it's more interesting than it seems! Boredom has been linked to creativity and imagination, but also to depression and self-destructive behaviors. In this episode, we examine what boredom is, and whether we should lean into it or run from it. |
| 2022-May-16 • 53 minutes Your Mind on Art & Beauty Does abstract art leave you feeling in awe or annoyed? Art can provoke powerful experiences, making one feel overcome by the experience of beauty. Are there beauty universals based in evolution and biology, or is beauty in the eye of a culturally conditioned beholder?In this episode of Minds Matter, Beth and Ava enter the fray to examine what neuroscience and psychology can add to the debate on aesthetics. |
| 2022-May-16 • 51 minutes Your Mind on Curiosity Do you consider yourself to be a curious person? If you are, you might have better relationships, be less aggressive, and less affected by rejection. Sounds nice right? On this episode of Minds Matter, Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa discuss curiosity, and whether this is a trait that can be trained.Tune in for a deep dive into the brain on curiosity, how it helps memory, and why so many people are fascinated by morbid content, like car crashes and true crime. |
| 2022-May-16 • 48 minutes Your Mind on Empathy Empathy has been touted as the answer to the world's crises, while also been pointed to as a potential hindrance to morality. How can researchers be so divided? In this episode of Minds Matter, Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa explore empathy's various definitions, its possible grounding in 'mirror neurons', and whether the empathy lives up to its hype or notoriety. |
| 2022-May-16 • 59 minutes Your Mind on Dreams The elusive nature of dreams has led some to believe that they serve as a tool to uncover our unconscious desires, solve problems, and maybe help us catch a stroke of genius. While most of us barely remember our dreams in the morning, some lucid dreamers can control all aspects of their night-time hallucinations. In this episode of Minds Matter, Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa discuss the science behind what we dream, why we dream, and whether lucid dreams could be a promising form of therapy. |
| 2022-May-16 • 59 minutes Your Mind on Conspiracy Theories Conspiracy theories have always existed, but with the global pandemic keeping us locked inside and glued to the internet, it seems that these beliefs are becoming more and more common. But are conspiracy theories really on the rise and is social media to blame?In this episode, Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa look into the psychological mechanisms behind these fringe beliefs, the harms they may cause, and who is potentially susceptible (spoiler: it's all of us). |
| 2022-May-16 • 56 minutes Your Mind on Mindfulness The billion-dollar industry of mindfulness promises us reductions in anxiety, knowledge of our true selves, and general transcendence... or something. This episode, Beth and Ava look at what the science of mindfulness does and doesn't tell us about the brain, cognition, and even the self.Come along for the ride as we breakdown the hype around mindfulness, even venturing into potential dark sides of meditative practices. |
| 2022-May-16 • 60 minutes Your Mind on Music When we listen to music, our brains light up like fireworks. While listening starts in the auditory cortex, processing also involves memory, emotion, social and motor regions. Clearly, music can make us feel a whole lot, and we’ve all got a vague idea that musical practice can make you ‘smarter’, but how? This week, Beth and Ava are diving into what makes music so powerful. From AC/DC to Drake to Donk - what makes music so universal yet so variable? |
| 2022-May-16 • 57 minutes Your Mind on Love When it comes to love, science has been a bit slow to realize that romantic relationships don't have to be between one man and one woman. But, a lot of research can be salvaged since the various stages of love (excitement, nervousness, attachment...) are experienced pretty similarly for anyone, regardless of gender, culture or relationship structure. So, what does happen to our brain, thoughts and behaviour when we fall in love? Neural data tells us that it's like addiction or even OCD, but how viable and u... |
| 2022-May-16 • 50 minutes Your Mind on Nostalgia Getting lost in bittersweet memories of the past might not seem like the most productive use of your time. But, research shows nostalgia can actually be a great coping strategy to deal with negative emotions. So, should you plunge yourself into long and languid daydreams about your glory days? Not necessarily. This week Beth, Noah and Ava explore what triggers nostalgia, the contents of these kinds of memories, and how individual differences influence the effects of nostalgia on the brain and mind. |
| 2022-May-15 • 54 minutes Your Mind on Nature Take a hike! We mean that in a nice way, seriously. This week we’re talking about the effect of the great outdoors on our brains. Research has shown that being in nature helps us de-stress, makes us exercise, and even helps broaden and focus our attention. But can we isolate what exactly about nature makes it so good for us? Beth, our resident Australian country girl, Ava, a city girl who almost never went outside, and Noah, who grew up somewhere in the middle, discuss the research & our own experience... |