Benjamin James Kuper-Smith

BJKS Podcast

Science EN ↓ 119 episodes

A podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related. Long-form interviews with people whose work I find interesting.

Author

Benjamin James Kuper-Smith

Category

Science

Podcast website

bjks.buzzsprout.com

Latest episode

Sep 29, 2025

Where to listen?

Podcasts in the app Replaio Radio Coming soon

Podcasts are coming to the app soon. Install now and be the first to see a whole new take on podcasts

Get it on Google Play Install for free Android 5M+ downloads · 4.8 rating iOS soon

Episodes

94. David Van Essen: The Human Connectome Project, hierarchical processing, and the joys of collaboration 18.02.2024

David Van Essen is an Alumni Endowed Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about David's path to becoming a neuroscientist, the Human Connectome project, hierarhical processing in the cerebral cortex, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benja...

93. Nachum Ulanovsky: Bats, spatial navigation, and natural neuroscience 09.02.2024

Nachum Ulanovsky is a professor at the Weizman Institute. We talk about his research on spatial navigation in bats, how Nachum started working with bats, the importance of natural behaviour, how to build a 700m long tunnel for neuroscience, and much more. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: How Nachum started working with bats 0:09:29: The technical difficulties of w...

92. Tom Hardwicke: Meta-research, reproducibility, and post-publication critique 02.02.2024

 Tom Hardwicke is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. We talk about meta-science, incuding Tom's work on post-publication critique and registered reports, what his new role as editor at Psychological Science entails, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https...

91. Jessica Polka: Preprints, publishing peer reviews, and the joys of pipetting 26.01.2024

Jessica Polka is Executive Director of ASAPbio, a non-profit that promotes innovation and transparency in life science publishing. We talk about her work at ASAPbio, how she got into it, preprints,  the many functions of peer review, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https:/...

90. Brian Boyd: The life & works of Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, and writing biographies 19.01.2024

Brian Boyd is a Distinguished Professor in English and Drama at the University of Auckland. We talk mainly about Vladimir Nabokov: Brian wrote the defining biography on Nabokov (in addition to books on more specific aspects about Nabokov), so we discuss Nabokov's life & work, Brian's approachh to writing biographies, with some hints of the new biography Brian is writing about Karl Po...

89. Camillo Padoa-Schioppa: Value in the brain, orbitofrontal cortex, and causality in neuroscience 13.01.2024

Camillo Padoa-Schioppa is a Professor of Neuroscience at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about Camillo's work on economic values in the brain, whether it is causally involved in choice, Camillo's career, working with different species, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely rel...

88. Juliana Schroeder: Talking to strangers, undersociality, and replicable field studies 05.01.2024

Juliana Schroder is a professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. In this conversation, we talk about her research in which she asks people to talk to strangers, and how this experience is usually a lot more pleasant than people expect. We talk about how the research came to be, what they found, how culture and norms affect the results, how to create robust and replicable field studies,...

87. Rick Betzel: Network neuroscience, generative modeling, and collaborations 01.01.2024

Rick Betzel is an Associate professor at India University Bloomington. We talk about his research on network neuroscience, how to find good collaborators, Rick's path to network neuroscience, and much more. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: What's the purpose of connectomics if understanding a species' entire connectome (as in C elegans) doesn't...

86. Elisabeth Bik: Reporting scientific misconduct, the arms race between fraud & fraud detection, and the microbiome of dolphins 22.12.2023

Elisabeth Bik is a science integrity consultant. In this conversation, we talk about her work on reporting scientific errors and misconduct, how one becomes a full-time scientific integrity consultant, her postdoc work on the microbiome of dolphins, reactions to her work (both positive and negative), how to deal with online abuse, the arms race between fraudsters and fraud detectors, and much more...

85. Peter Bandettini: The history, present, and future of fMRI 15.12.2023

Peter Bandettini is director of the fMRI core facility at the National Institute of Mental Health. In this episode, we talk about the history, present, and future of fMRI, alongside Peter's career. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: How Peter got started working on fMRI in the early 1990s 0:05:48: What was possible in neuroimaging in the late 80s 0:18:44: Major...

84. Brian Nosek: Improving science, the past & future of the Center for Open Science, and failure in science 08.12.2023

Brian Nosek is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, and Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Open Science. In this conversation, we discuss the Center for Open Science, Brian's early interest in improving science, how COS got started, what Brian would like to do in the future, and how to figure out whether ideas are working. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about n...

83. Rachel Bedder: Rumination, teaching without grades, and managing yourself as a PhD student 03.12.2023

Rachel Bedder is a postdoc with Yael Niv at Princeton. In this conversation, we talk about her research on rumination and repetitive negative thinking (in the context of a partially observable Markov decision process), her work as a curator, why she enjoys teaching without grades, how to manage yourself as a PhD student, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and...

82. Geoff Cumming: p-values, estimation, and meta-analytic thinking 24.11.2023

Geoff Cumming is an Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University. In this conversation, we discuss his work on New Statistics: estimation instead of hypothesis testing, meta-analytic thinking, and many related topics. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: A brief history of statistics, p-values, and confidence intervals 0:32:02: Meta-analytic thinking 0:42:56: Why do p-va...

81. Brooke Macnamara: Growth mindset, deliberate practice, and the benefits of diverse experiences 17.11.2023

Brooke Macnamara is an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. In this conversation, we talk about her research on growth mindset and deliberate practice, whether deliberate practice is falsifiable, the benefits of diverse experiences, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support...

80. Simine Vazire: Scientific editing, the purpose of journals, and the future of psychological science 10.11.2023

Simine Vazire is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. In this conversation, we talk about her work on meta-science, the purpose of journals and peer review, Simine's plans for being Editor-in-Chief at Psychological Science, the hidden curriculum of scienitic publishing, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related,...

79. Nanthia Suthana: Invasive brain recordings in humans, learning as a PI, and the joys of mentorship 03.11.2023

Nanthia Suthana is an Associate Professor at UCLA. In this conversation, we talk about her research using invasive brain recordings from humans, how the technologies have changed and what might happen in the future. We also talk about how she runs her lab, how to learn as a PI, and what Nanthia enjoys about mentoring students and postdocs. We had some minor audio issues, so Nanthia switched her re...

78. Gillian Coughlan: Dementia, spatial navigation, and menopause 27.10.2023

Gillian Coughlan is a postdoc whose work focuses on the role of spatial navigation in dementia. In this conversation, we talk about how Gillian went from Ireland to doing a PhD in the UK, different ways for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, what beta-amyloid and tau are, what spatial navigation has to do with dementia, and whether early menopause can affect women's spatial navigation perfo...

77. Lynn Nadel: Collaboration, Hippocampal History, and clinical applications of hippocampal development 20.10.2023

Lynn Nadel is an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, where his research focuses on the role of the hippocampus in memory. This is our second conversation. We discuss how the Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map was received, Lynn's career, including his years as head of department at the University of Arizona, how to foster collaboration, why Lynn started the Hippocampal History projec...

76. Adam Mastroianni: Paradigms in psychology, science as a strong-link problem, and The Psychology House 13.10.2023

Adam Mastroianni is a scientist who writes the Substack 'Experimental History'. This is our second conversation. We discuss science as a strong-link problem, why everyone is allowed to do science, and some of Adam's suggestions for how science can be done differently. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Adam's Substack is now his main thing 0:05:3...

75. Paul Smaldino: Modeling Social Behavior, the value of false models, and research beyond traditional disciplines 06.10.2023

Paul Smaldino is an Associate Professor of Cognitive and Information Sciences at UC Merced, where he studies the evolution of behavior in response to social, cultural, and ecological pressures. In this conversation, we talk about his new book Modeling Social Behavior, everything related to formal models of social behaviour, and Paul's path to where he is today. Support the show: https://geni....

74. Moin Syed: Glorious PNAS, editing a journal, and masterful procrastination 11.08.2023

Moin Syed is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he studies identity and personality development. Our conversation focuses on his work in meta-science, especially the role of journals and editors in the scientific process. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https...

73. Tom Hostler: Open science, workload, and academic capitalism 23.06.2023

Tom Hostler is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. In this conversation, we focus on his recent article on the increased workload caused by open science. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Start discussing Tom's pape...

72. Nico Schuck: Replay, cognitive maps, and multivariate decoding with fMRI 04.06.2023

Nico Schuck is Professor and head of the research group 'Mechanisms of learning and change' at the University of Hamburg, where his research focuses on the neuroscience of learning, memory, and cognitive maps. In this conversation, we discuss his work on cognitive maps and replay in Orbitofrontal Cortex and Hippocampus, decoding even brief events with fMRI, and much more. BJKS Podcast is...

71. Lynn Nadel: Memory, The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map, and the importance of behaviour 23.04.2023

Lynn Nadel is an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, where his research focuses on the role of the hippocampus in memory. In this conversation, we talk about the early years of Lynn's career: why he chose to do chemistry, how a course with Donald Hebb made him switch to psychology, how his postdoc was disrupted by the Soviet invasion during the Prague Spring, John O'Keefe&ap...

70. Mona Garvert: Cognitive maps, fMRI adaptation, and computational psychiatry 08.04.2023

Mona Garvert is Lead Research Scientist at Alena where she uses her background in cognitive neuroscence to advance computational psychiatry. In this episode, we talk about her academic research on the neural basis of cognitive maps, how she got into this topic, fMRI adaptation , and her recent move from academia to working at Alena. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and any...

Listen to the BJKS Podcast podcast in Replaio

Radio and podcasts in one app - free, with no sign-up. Install today and do not miss the launch

Get it on Google Play

Replaio is not a podcast publisher; show names, artwork and audio belong to their authors and are distributed through public RSS feeds.