Best Sean Carroll | Wondery Podcasts (2024)

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286 | Blaise Agüera y Arcas on the Emergence of Replication and Computation 1:20:35

6d ago1:20:35

1:20:35

Understanding how life began on Earth involves questions of chemistry, geology, planetary science, physics, and more. But the question of how random processes lead to organized, self-replicating, information-bearing systems is a more general one. That question can be addressed in an idealized world of computer code, initialized with random sequence…

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285 | Nate Silver on Prediction, Risk, and Rationality 1:11:15

13d ago1:11:15

1:11:15

Being rational necessarily involves engagement with probability. Given two possible courses of action, it can be rational to prefer the one that could possibly result in a worse outcome, if there's also a substantial probability for an even better outcome. But one's attitude toward risk -- averse, tolerant, or even seeking -- also matters. Do we wo…

1
AMA | August 2024 3:37:21

19d ago3:37:21

3:37:21

Welcome to the August 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 quest…

1
284 | Doris Tsao on How the Brain Turns Vision Into the World 1:02:52

27d ago1:02:52

1:02:52

The human brain does a pretty amazing job of taking in a huge amount of data from multiple sensory modalities -- vision, hearing, smell, etc. -- and constructing a coherent picture of the world, constantly being updated in real time. (Although perhaps in discrete moments, rather than continuously, as we learn in this podcast...) We're a long way fr…

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283 | Daron Acemoglu on Technology, Inequality, and Power 1:17:43

1M ago1:17:43

1:17:43

Change is scary. But sometimes it can all work out for the best. There's no guarantee of that, however, even when the change in question involves the introduction of a powerful new technology. Today's guest, Daron Acemoglu, is a political economist who has long thought about the relationship between economics and political institutions. In his most…

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282 | Joel David Hamkins on Puzzles of Reality and Infinity 1:18:23

1M ago1:18:23

1:18:23

The philosophy of mathematics would be so much easier if it weren't for infinity. The concept seems natural, but taking it seriously opens the door to counterintuitive results. As mathematician and philosopher Joel David Hamkins says in this conversation, when we say that the natural numbers are "0, 1, 2, 3, and so on," that "and so on" is hopeless…

1
Ask Me Anything | July 2024 3:21:50

2M ago3:21:50

3:21:50

Welcome to the July 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 questio…

1
281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution 1:11:46

2M ago1:11:46

1:11:46

Just like with physics, in biology it is perfectly possible to do most respectable work without thinking much about philosophy, but there are unmistakably foundational questions where philosophy becomes crucial. When do we say that a collection of matter (or bits) is alive? When does it become an agent, capable of making decisions? What are the ori…

1
280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence 1:41:49

2M ago1:41:49

1:41:49

Which is more intelligent, ChatGPT or a 3-year old? Of course this depends on what we mean by "intelligence." A modern LLM is certainly able to answer all sorts of questions that require knowledge far past the capacity of a 3-year old, and even to perform synthetic tasks that seem remarkable to many human grown-ups. But is that really intelligence?…

1
279 | Ellen Langer on Mindfulness and the Body 1:11:51

2M ago1:11:51

1:11:51

For those of us who are not dualists, the mind arises from our physical bodies -- mostly the brain, but the rest of the body has a role to play. And yet it remains tempting to treat the mind as a thing in itself, disconnected from how the body is doing. Ellen Langer is a psychologist who is one of the foremost researchers on the idea of mindfulness…

1
278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People 1:15:56

3M ago1:15:56

1:15:56

We claim to love all of our children, friends, and students equally. But perhaps deep down you assign a ranking to them, from favorite to not-so-favorite. Ranking and quantifying people is an irresistible human tendency, and modern technology has made it ubiquitous. In this episode I talk with sociologist Kieran Healy, who has co-authored (with Mar…

1
AMA | June 2024 3:58:45

3M ago3:58:45

3:58:45

Welcome to the June 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 questio…

1
277 | Cumrun Vafa on the Universe According to String Theory 1:22:25

3M ago1:22:25

1:22:25

String theory, the current leading candidate for a theory of quantum gravity as well as other particles and forces, doesn't connect directly to the world we see. It's possible that there is a large landscape of possible states of theory, with the hope that one of them represents our universe. The existence of a landscape implies the existence of a …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Sean Carroll | Wondery Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

Sean Carroll | Wondery

1
286 | Blaise Agüera y Arcas on the Emergence of Replication and Computation 1:20:35

1
285 | Nate Silver on Prediction, Risk, and Rationality 1:11:15

1
AMA | August 2024 3:37:21

1
284 | Doris Tsao on How the Brain Turns Vision Into the World 1:02:52

1
283 | Daron Acemoglu on Technology, Inequality, and Power 1:17:43

1
282 | Joel David Hamkins on Puzzles of Reality and Infinity 1:18:23

1
Ask Me Anything | July 2024 3:21:50

1
281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution 1:11:46

1
280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence 1:41:49

1
279 | Ellen Langer on Mindfulness and the Body 1:11:51

1
278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People 1:15:56

1
AMA | June 2024 3:58:45

1
277 | Cumrun Vafa on the Universe According to String Theory 1:22:25

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