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Recently described by the media as a "legendary New York criminal defense attorney," Jeffrey Lichtman has successfully handled criminal trials and appeals on some of the country's largest stages. His clients include those charged in the federal and state systems with white collar and non-white collar offenses. For over 30 years, Mr. Lichtman's practice style has been marked by exhaustive pretrial preparation and smothering pressure inside the courtroom. His cross-examinations, in fact, have ...
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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Sean Carroll | Wondery
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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, ...
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Laura Kessler and her guests explore a diverse array of topics engaging Jewish leadership and the AIM Syndrome: Antisemitism, Israel-phobia, and Miseducation of our youth and culture. Her guests include prominent thought leaders, activists, academics, historians, politicians, among others that dominate headlines within the international Jewish world today. https://www.jewishtvchannel.com/talkingpoint/
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308 | Alison Gopnik on Children, AI, and Modes of Thinking
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We often study cognition in other species, in part to learn about modes of thinking that are different from our own. Today's guest, psychologist/philosopher Alison Gopnik, argues that we needn't look that far: human children aren't simply undeveloped adults, they have a way of thinking that is importantly distinct from that of grownups. Children ar…
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Welcome to the March 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questi…
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307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Cocktails
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A lot of science goes into crafting the perfect cocktail. Balancing sweet and bitter notes, providing the right amount of aeration and dilution, getting it to just the right temperature and keeping it that way. And even if you have no interest in cocktails as such, the general principles extend to other activities in art and in life. I talk to scie…
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306 | Helen Czerski on Our Energetic Oceans
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It is commonplace to refer to the Earth's oceans as vast and largely unexplored. But we do understand some aspects, and improving that understanding is crucial to ensuring the continued viability and success of life on this planet. The oceans are a paradigmatic complex system: there are many components, distinct but mutually interacting, that add u…
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Hamas Hits A Fresh Low: When Do the Gates of Hell Open? / NY Federal Prosecutors Are Not Above Politically-Motivated Actions: Just Ask James O’Keefe
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In this episode, Jeff finds a fresh low for Hamas: celebrations around the coffins of babies they kidnaped and massacred. When will the world stand up? When will President Trump open the gates of hell he promised? Jeff provides a quick plan to fix the terrorist threat from Gaza. Also, federal prosecutors in NYC rightly quit in protest of the Depart…
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305 | Lilliana Mason on Polarization and Political Psychology
1:17:25
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Political outcomes would be relatively simple to predict and understand if only people were well-informed, entirely rational, and perfectly self-interested. Alas, real human beings are messy, emotional, imperfect creatures, so a successful theory of politics has to account for these features. One phenomenon that has grown in recent years is an alig…
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Bonus | Cuts to Science Funding and Why They Matter
1:10:25
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The Trump administration, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, has proposed sweeping cuts to spending on science research here in the US, in particular at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. I explain a little about what is being cut and why these funds are important to scientific progress…
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Dr. Sheila Nazarian Pt. 1: Becoming Unapologetic - The Making of a Persian-Jewish Thought Leader
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SEASON 3 PREMIERE [Part 1 of 3] What does it take to speak out when the world wants you to stay silent? Dr. Sheila Nazarian didn’t set out to be a political voice, but when she saw the truth being twisted, she refused to stay quiet. In this powerful conversation, she shares her journey from immigrant to influencer, and the personal convictions that…
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304 | James Evans on Innovation, Consolidation, and the Science of Science
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It is a feature of many human activities - sports, cooking, music, interpersonal relations - that being able to do them well doesn't necessarily mean you can accurately describe how to do them well. Science is no different. Many successful scientists are not very good at explaining what goes into successful scientific practice. To understand that, …
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Welcome to the February 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the que…
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Trump Returns, Wreaking Havoc in Washington and Across the Globe: It’s Not Enough / My Last Few Weeks of Federal Prisons and Federal Courtrooms, and Why Lawyers Should Try to Sound Human
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In this episode, Jeff dives into Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his whirlwind of executive orders, targeting the FBI and imposing tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. But is it enough to steer America back on track, or is it merely settling old scores? Jeff doesn't hold back on the radicalism festering in American universities, deman…
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303 | James P. Allison on Fighting Cancer with the Immune System
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A typical human lifespan is approximately three billion heartbeats in duration. Lasting that long requires not only intrinsic stability, but an impressive capacity for self-repair. Nevertheless, things do occasionally break down, and cancer is one of the most dramatic examples of such breakdown. Given that the body is generally so good at protectin…
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302 | Chris Kempes on the Biophysics of Evolution
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Randomness plays an important role in the evolution of life (as my evil twin will tell you). But random doesn't mean arbitrary. Biological organisms are physical objects, after all, and subject to the same laws of physics as non-biological matter is. Those laws place constraints on how organisms can fulfill their basic functions of metabolism, repr…
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301 | Tina Eliassi-Rad on Al, Networks, and Epistemic Instability
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Big data is ruling, or at least deeply infiltrating, all of modern existence. Unprecedented capacity for collecting and analyzing large amounts of data have given us a new generation of artificial intelligence models, but also everything from medical procedures to recommendation systems that guide our purchases and romantic lives. I talk with compu…
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A new year, and a new centennial -- 300 (regularly-numbered) episodes of Mindscape! Our tradition is to have a solo episode, and what better topic than the nature of time? Physicists and philosophers have so frequently suggested that time is some kind of illusion that it's become almost passé to believe that it might be fundamental. This is an issu…
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It's the end of the year, and time for our annual holiday break here at Mindscape. But as usual, we wrap up with a Holiday Message. This year, inspired by Joni Mitchell's "Hits" and "Misses" albums, I go through my scientific papers and talk about some of my favorites -- some of which were hits, in terms of making an impact on subsequent research, …
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Luigi Mangione: All the Confusion Explained / A Judge Shows Extraordinary Empathy / Eric Adams’ Top Aide Indicted, Still Can’t Shut Her Mouth
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In this new episode of Beyond the Legal Limit, Jeff unwinds all things Luigi: from the arrest to the initial state charges, to the upgraded First Degree Murder charge, to the shocking federal charges. Included is Jeff’s insight on why everything seemed to change in the prosecution — the impact of the massive pro-Luigi public groundswell is the culp…
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299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life
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Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving certain functions needed to survive and procreate. Natural selection provides a compelling explanation for why that is so. But is there a bigger picture, a more general framework that explains the origin and evolution of functions and complexity in a w…
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298 | Jeff Lichtman on the Wiring Diagram of the Brain
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The number of neurons in the human brain is comparable to the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Unlike the stars, however, in the case of neurons the real action is in how they are directly connected to each other: receiving signals over synapses via their dendrites, and when appropriately triggered, sending signals down the axon to other ne…
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The Daniel Penny Trial: What Happened and What’s Happening Next / Assad is Out in Syria, and the Axis of Resistance is Gone
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In this episode, Jeff dives into the trial of Daniel Penny, the former Marine charged in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway. With jurors grappling over manslaughter charges, Jeff explores the legal, cultural, and moral dimensions of the case. Was Penny a reckless vigilante or the hero every New Yorker prays for when chaos erupts undergr…
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Welcome to the December 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the que…
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How Did a Bizarre Movie Line End Up in a Famous Trial’s Summation? You’ll Never Guess / Diddy Denied Bail Due Solely to a Frenzied Media Storm / Joe Biden's Latest Disgrace: Flaunting Anti-Israel Propaganda ...
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Jeffrey Lichtman dives into the art of trial summation, sharing how a line from a 1977 Robbie Benson film unexpectedly found its way into the John Gotti, Jr. summation. Bottom line: the more that’s in your brain, the more that can come out — and help you — at unexpected times. Next, Jeff unpacks the bail denial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, highlighting t…
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297 | Emily Wilson on Homer, Poetry, and Translation
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Not too long ago, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana starred in a (loose) adaptation of Homer's epic poem The Iliad; next month, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche will headline a film based on The Odyssey. Given that the originals were written (or at least written down) in the 8th century BCE, that is some impressive staying power. But they were also written…
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296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution
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Biological evolution via natural selection is a simple idea that becomes enormously complicated in its realization. Populations of organisms are driven toward increased "fitness," a measure of how successfully we reproduce our genetic information. But fitness is a subtle concept, changing with time and environment and interactions with other organi…
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295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality
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Emergence is a centrally important concept in science and philosophy. Indeed, the existence of higher-level emergent properties helps render the world intelligible to us -- we can sensibly understand the macroscopic world around us without a complete microscopic picture. But there are various different ways in which emergence might happen, and a te…
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I Was Wrong: Trump’s Comeback, and a Seismic Shift Across America
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In this episode, Jeffrey Lichtman dives into the aftermath of the 2024 election — Kamala Harris’s resounding defeat and the unexpected national shift that defied nearly every major poll. Jeff openly admits he underestimated the American electorate, having repeatedly predicted that Trump could never win. But last week, Trump did just that, sweeping …
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Welcome to the November 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the que…
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Final Election Thoughts: Voting Trump for the First Time / Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims — And the Media Pounces / A Long Overdue Musical Tribute to Social Distortion
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With Election Day looming, Jeff dives into the political desperation driving the Democrats’ strategy—and why, for the first time, he’s decided to vote for Trump. As smear campaigns and absurd accusations pile up, Jeff examines the stark reality of what’s at stake and contrasts the Democrats’ fearmongering with the mess they’ve actually created: ope…
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294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life
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Erwin Schrödinger said that the important characteristic of life is that it "goes on doing something... for a much longer period than we would expect an inanimate piece of matter to keep going under similar circumstances." Living organisms are in constant motion inside; so where does this stability and persistence come from? Addy Pross points to a …
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