Big Brains
Big Brains explores the groundbreaking research and discoveries that are changing our world. In each episode, we talk to leading experts and unpack their work in straightforward terms. Interesting conversations that cover a gamut of topics from how music affects our brains to what happens after we die.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 28 minutes
- Episodes
- 201
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Celebrating Our 100th Episode
This episode marks the official 100th episode of the Big Brains podcast. To celebrate this milestone, our Senior Producer Matt Hodapp joins host Paul M. Rand for a behind-the-scenes conversation abou…
00:17:55 |
Thu 29 Sep 2022
The Science Of Speech & Identity With Katherine Kinzler
Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highligh…
00:31:18 |
Thu 22 Sep 2022
Life’s Mysterious Origins With Jack Szostak
Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highligh…
00:22:34 |
Thu 15 Sep 2022
The Afterlife Of Mass Incarceration With Reuben Jonathan Miller
Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highligh…
00:36:46 |
Thu 08 Sep 2022
The Imbalance In Our Society With Raghuram Rajan
Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highligh…
00:25:16 |
Thu 01 Sep 2022
Does Welfare Reduce Crime? With Manasi Deshpande
There have been myths and tropes about welfare since it was created. We often hear critics say that welfare discourages people from working — but are these claims really true? This debate often plays…
00:27:28 |
Thu 18 Aug 2022
The Crucial Race To Build A Better Battery With Shirley Meng
Batteries have revolutionized our lives, especially the invention of rechargeable batteries, which have enabled us to have cellphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But as we transition to more for…
00:26:42 |
Thu 04 Aug 2022
Do Animals Dream? With David M. Peña-Guzmán
Do animals dream? If you’re a pet owner, it may seem obvious that your furry friends dream. Most of us have seen dogs running in their sleep or cats meowing during a nap. But this is an academic podc…
00:33:26 |
Thu 21 Jul 2022
Extreme Heat Waves: Why Are They Surging? with Noboru Nakamura
It’s not your imagination, summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in a…
00:22:05 |
Thu 07 Jul 2022
Why Air Pollution Is Cutting Years Off Our Lives, With Christa Hasenkopf And Anant Sudarshan
We can’t always see the consequences of air pollution around us, but it’s costing us years off our lives. According to a new Air Quality Life Index report from the Energy Policy Institute at the Univ…
00:28:08 |
Thu 23 Jun 2022
How Tax Dodging And Corporate Secrecy Found A Home In Delaware, With Hal Weitzman
When you think about corporate secrecy, nefarious shell companies and conspiratorial tax dodging, the state of Delaware probably doesn’t come to mind. We often think of exotic places like Panama or B…
00:32:50 |
Thu 09 Jun 2022
Why Countries Choose War Over Peace, With Chris Blattman
War is costly, deadly and destructive. So, why do we do it? In his new book Why We Fight: The Roots of War and The Paths to Peace, Prof. Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago lays out the five …
00:29:22 |
Thu 26 May 2022
How Death In America Is Changing With Shannon Lee Dawdy
What does our relationship with the dead tell us about the living? Anthropologists learn about ancient cultures by studying their burial sites, but could we do the same with contemporary America? Tho…
00:26:27 |
Thu 12 May 2022
Why We Need To Invest In Parents During A Child's Earliest Years, With Dana Suskind
The United States is an outlier when it comes to parents. Compared to similar countries, the U.S. has the largest happiness gap between the 63 million parents and the child-free. This statistic is no…
00:25:59 |
Thu 28 Apr 2022
The Troubling Rise Of Antibiotic-resistant Superbugs, With Christopher Murray
For nearly a decade, public health experts have been warning that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. In 2014, the World Health Organization even said the post-antibiotic era is near. Des…
00:23:35 |
Thu 14 Apr 2022
Is Scientific Progress Slowing? with James Evans
There are far more scientists in today’s world, and they’re publishing research papers at a much faster pace. However, all of this growth hasn’t translated to more scientific progress. As University …
00:29:22 |
Thu 31 Mar 2022
Could We Vaccinate Against Opioid Addiction? With Sandra Comer And Marco Pravetoni
The United States recently hit a grim milestone: More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between May 2020 and April 2021. The majority of those deaths were due to synthetic opioids, whic…
00:24:02 |
Thu 17 Mar 2022
The Man Who Fought To Sanction Putin And Russian Oligarchs, with Bill Browder
As Vladimir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine, Western nations have come together in unprecedented fashion to condemn his actions, in the form of economic sanctions against Putin and his Russia…
00:31:16 |
Wed 02 Mar 2022
Why Big Ideas Fail To Scale—And How To Fix It With John List
Solving problems like poverty, education inequality or discrimination require policy interventions that can scale, but they rarely do. Why do some scale, while others have little success? It's not lu…
00:28:00 |
Thu 17 Feb 2022
Could Personalizing Laws Make Society More Just? With Omri Ben-Shahar
Big data has created a world of personalization. We have personalized medicine, personalized education, personalized advertising. Now, one University of Chicago Law School scholar is asking: Why not …
00:26:30 |
Thu 03 Feb 2022
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