BRIGHTHINK: In Conversation

How do we nurture our own — and our children’s — brains so we can thrive amid rapid technological and societal change? How do we not just survive, but flourish, in the age of AI? Let neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow take you on a fascinating journey through the latest discoveries in brain science as she explores the ideas behind her new book, The 21st Century Brain. Drawing on cutting-edge resea...

On the largest scales, gravity shapes galaxies and bends space-time. On the smallest, quantum mechanics governs a strange world of uncertainty and probability. Both frameworks are extraordinarily successful. There’s just one problem: they don’t work together. This tension sits at the heart of modern physics. When we try to describe extreme environments - black holes, the Big Bang - our best theori...

Stunning advances in digital technology have given us a new wave of disarmingly human-like AI systems. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini put the knowledge of all the world’s experts at our fingertips, and can generate meaningful sentences, equations and computer code. The march of this new technology is set to upturn our economies, challenge our democracies, and refashion society in unpredi...

What if the present moment – the ‘now’ we all inhabit – isn’t just a tick of the clock? We feel that the present is everything; all we can know. Yet physics finds no universal ’now’. Jo Marchant discusses her new book, In Search of Now , with Prof Robyn Waller and shows how we each carve out our lived experience – sensations and emotions, actions and decisions – through our interactions with the w...

AI systems now write code, generate images, produce news content, and increasingly make decisions that affect everyday life—from what we see online to how businesses operate and resources are allocated. What once felt experimental is now embedded in the tools, platforms, and institutions many of us rely on, often in ways that are invisible but deeply influential. This rapid integration has been ma...

John Keats once accused scientists of merely wanting to “unweave a rainbow,” but it was an irrepressible, romantic urge to wonder that defined Francis Crick, as much as a desire to find the basis of life in DNA and the workings of our minds. Crick was never shy about big questions. After helping reveal the structure of DNA, he turned his attention to some of the most challenging problems in biolog...

Rarely has there seemed a more confusing time to be a man. This uncertainty has spawned an array of bizarre and harmful underground subcultures, collectively known as the ‘manosphere’, as men search for new forms of belonging. Acclaimed journalist James Bloodworth delves into these worlds and asks: what does their emergence say about Western society? Why are so many men susceptible to the sinister...

The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist. The tech disruptor. You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate . Helen Lewis discusses her new book, The Genius Myth, with Rafael Behr and unravels a word that we all use - without really questioning what it means. And she a...

A vital perspective is missing from the discussions we're having about Artificial Intelligence: What does it mean for our identity? Our fascination with AI stems from the perceived uniqueness of human intelligence. We believe it's what differentiates us. Fears of AI not only concern how it invades our digital lives, but also the implied threat of an intelligence that displaces us from our...

The UK has seen a 400% increase in far-right terror arrests over the last decade, with under-18s now making up a growing share of those radicalised. Far-right content is shared up to 10 times more on social media than mainstream political content - thanks to algorithms that reward outrage and conspiracy. Joe Mulhall, Director of Research at Hope not Hate, draws from his extensive experience invest...

Cosmetic surgeries are at an all-time high, Ozempic is bringing back ‘heroin chic’ and TikTok, trad-wives are on the rise – after four waves of feminism, what went wrong? Despite decades of progress, the gains of the feminist movement feel more fragile than ever. But as Atlantic critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert points out, this is not a unique moment. Feminism felt just as fragmen...

In this timely and critical discussion on how the war in Ukraine is understood, interpreted, and justified within Russia, our panel of leading scholars - Jeremy Morris, Ilya Yablokov and Stefanie Ortmann - explore the narratives shaping Russian public opinion, the role of state propaganda, and the broader implications for Russian society and global geopolitics. Whether you're interested in int...

How did wet nurses drive civilisation? Are women always the weaker sex? Is sexism useful for evolution? And are our bodies at war with our babies? Join Cat Bohannon as she discusses her first book Eve , with Sally Howard, and they delve into the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Bohannon's findings are not only a sweeping revision...

The history of autism is male. It is time for women and girls to enter the spotlight. When autistic girls meet clinicians, they are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, personality disorders – or receive no diagnosis at all. Autism’s ‘male spotlight’ means we are only now starting to redress this profound injustice. Renowned brain scientist Gina Rippon discusses her book, The Lost Girls of...

We tend to think of our memories as impressions of the past that remain fully intact, preserved somewhere inside our brains. In fact, we construct and reconstruct our memories every time we attempt to recall them. Join Ciara Greene , co-author of Memory Lane, as she discusses why our flawed memories are not a failure of evolution but rather a byproduct of the perfectly imperfect way our minds have...

Join two of the leading minds in the world of neuroscience, Kevin J. Mitchell and Anil Seth , as they explore one of the most profound questions in philosophy and science: Is there such a thing as free will? Delving into the realms of determinism and compatibilism, they'll examine whether our choices are truly free or governed by forces beyond our control. As neuroscientists probe ever deeper...

Why are a growing number of influencers like #tradwives dressing up like 1950s housewives and preaching total subservience to men? How did Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s divorce become the centre of the anti- #MeToo backlash? Why have so many teen boys fallen under the thrall of Andrew Tate, a failed reality show contestant? In the years since #MeToo – the largest social media facilitated feminist...

From periods and childbirth to menopause, female pain has been normalized, as society shrugs and says 'welcome to being a woman' instead of coming up with better solutions. But it doesn't have to be this way. Join award-winning journalist Marina Gerner as she takes an eye-opening look at the innovators challenging the status quo to deliver the healthcare solutions women need. In her ne...

Rob Burley has been making political and current affairs TV since 1996, through seven General Elections and interviews with eight Prime Ministers. Offering a unique insight into the British political class during a time when no one appears to be telling the truth , Rob discusses his book ‘Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me?’ - a deliciously irreverent insider’s account of a career spent trying...

Threats and abuse litter Marianna’s social media feeds. She is one of the most consistently trolled journalists working at the BBC . They infect her everyday life. Sometimes the people behind the messages try to find her in person. This seems to be the price of venturing into the world of conspiracy theories, hate and algorithms. And it turns out, she is far from alone. In 2020, Marianna became th...

Everything you know about capitalism is wrong - Free markets aren't really free. Record corporate pro­fits don't trickle down to everyone else. And we aren't empowered to make our own choices – they're made for us every day. Join acclaimed journalist Grace Blakeley ' In Conversation' with Siân Berry about her searingly explosive book, ' Vulture Capitalism' , which takes on the world's most powerfu...

Content Warning: This episode contains references to racist language and experiences of racism. Some listeners may find this content distressing or uncomfortable. Listener discretion is advised. "This guy has better Punjabi than both of us and he’s only half Punjabi." Only. Half. When Jassa heard those words he felt diminished. The intent was not malicious, but he felt robbed of somethin...

There are many routes to mental wellbeing and award-winning neuroscientist Camilla Nord is at the forefront of finding them. In her ground-breaking book, The Balanced Brain , she offers a revelatory tour of the scientific and technological developments that are revolutionising the way we think about mental health, showing why and how events - and treatments - can affect people in such different wa...

In his book ‘The Weight of Nature’ award-winning journalist and neuroscientist, Clayton Page Aldern , argues that the warming climate is not just affecting our planet – it is changing our minds, brains and bodies, too. An impassioned work of research and storytelling, Clayton’s book is the first on a burgeoning public health crisis that is largely going unreported – how the climate is changing our...