Champalimaud Foundation

Leafing Through Science

Science EN ↓ 11 episodes

Every two weeks, the new podcast series Leafing Through Science brings together host Hedi Young, Champalimaud Foundation neuroscientist and science communicator, with the authors behind some of the most fascinating non-fiction books in the life sciences. From new releases to timeless classics, we explore everything from the mysteries of consciousness and free will, to broken hearts, alien hands, and minds under siege. Expect page-turning ideas, head-spinning science, and stories that might just change how you see the world – and yourself. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are th...

Author

Champalimaud Foundation

Episodes

7. The Science of Imagination: Measuring the Invisible (Part 2) 12.11.2025 41:55

Can you measure imagination? Following Episode 7 - Part 1 , Hedi continues his conversation with neurologist Adam Zeman about his book “The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination” – from Francis Galton’s 19th-century “breakfast table” questionnaire to today’s ingenious experiments putting the “mind’s eye” under the microscope. You’ll hear how simply imagining sunlight can make your p...

7. The Science of Imagination: Away from the Here and Now (Part 1) 08.10.2025 41:47

Close your eyes for a moment. Can you picture an apple? Maybe it’s red and shiny, maybe green and crisp. Now imagine if you couldn’t picture it at all. For some people, imagination comes in dazzling technicolour, while for others, it’s silent and dark. And for all of us, it’s the hidden stage on which so much of life plays out. Whether reminiscing about the past, planning the future, or daydreamin...

6. Hurricanes in the Brain: A New Plan for Neuroscience (Part 2) 24.09.2025 49:28

In Episode 6 - Part 2 of Leafing Through Science , Hedi continues his conversation with neuroscientist Nicole Rust, author of “Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders – and How We Can Change That”. If Part 1 set the stage for a whole new way of thinking about the brain, Part 2 shows where that shift might take us. Nicole explores how moving away from the “domino-chain” view o...

6. Hurricanes in the Brain: Why Cures Elude (Part 1) 11.09.2025 48:43

In Episode 6 (Part 1) of Leafing Through Science , we dive deep into one of the biggest challenges in medicine: understanding – and treating – the human brain. Hedi is joined by professor and brain researcher Nicole Rust, author of “ Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders – and How We Can Change That ”. Nicole asks a provocative question: what if treating brain disorders is...

5. The Brain Below: Clocks, Cravings & Changing Tunes (Part 2) 09.07.2025 38:59

Following Episode 5 - Part 1 , where we explored the hidden world of the hypothalamus and the “love hormone” oxytocin, this second part of Hedi’s conversation with neuroendocrinologist Gareth Leng takes us even deeper. You’ll hear how neurons in the hypothalamus can change the very language they speak and who they’re speaking to; discover the astonishing experiment where researchers transplanted b...

5. The Brain Below: Mating Marathons & the “Love Hormone” (Part 1) 25.06.2025 59:43

Appetite. Aggression. Puberty. Parenthood. Even 48-hour prairie vole mating marathons. Is there anything the hypothalamus isn’t involved in? In Episode 5 (Part 1) of Leafing Through Science , Hedi is joined by neuroendocrinologist Gareth Leng, author of “The Heart of the Brain: The Hypothalamus and Its Hormones”. From the “love hormone” and maternal bonding, to why your brain is more like a quantu...

4. Consciousness: From Zombies to Beast Machines 11.06.2025 1:05:36

Why is there something it’s like to be you – and could AI ever be truly conscious? In Episode 4 of Leafing Through Science , neuroscientist and bestselling author Anil Seth joins Hedi to explore the mystery at the heart of his acclaimed book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness . From philosophical zombies and the purpose of dreaming, to measuring consciousness like temperature and why brains...

3. Inside OCD: White Bears and Blizzards 28.05.2025 39:02

In Episode 3 of Leafing Through Science , Hedi sits down with David Adam – science writer and author of the bestseller The Man Who Couldn't Stop: The Truth About OCD – to explore the strange and unrelenting world of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). What drives someone to fear their own thoughts, or an Ethiopian schoolgirl to eat the wall of her house, bit by bit? Why do millions of us get stuc...

2. Beyond the Beat: The Heart You Didn’t Know You Had 14.05.2025 59:11

Sian Harding, a world leader in cardiac research, joins Hedi to reveal the heart as you’ve never seen it before, as they discuss her book The Exquisite Machine: The New Science of the Heart . From how social rank, air pollution, noise, and even your mother’s pregnancy diet can shape heart health, to the heart’s mini-brain or growing hearts in the lab from skin cells, they uncover the remarkable wa...

1. How the Brain Creates the Body: Who Moved My Hand? (Part 2) 30.04.2025 29:24

Following Episode 1 - Part 1 , this second part of Hedi’s conversation with science writer Moheb Costandi unpacks how our sense of agency – the feeling of being in control of our actions and responsible for their outcomes – can be disrupted in conditions like Alien Hand Syndrome and schizophrenia, manipulated on the operating table, or even altered in everyday life. Their discussion also ranges fr...

1. How the Brain Creates the Body: Whose Leg is This? (Part 1) 16.04.2025 40:43

In this inaugural episode, Hedi sits down with veteran science writer Moheb Costandi about his fascinating book Body Am I: The New Science of Self-Consciousness . From phantom breasts and rubber hands to the Pinocchio illusion and out-of-body experiences; from amputating a healthy leg to feel whole, to scratching an itch with a ghostly third arm – prepare to journey through the strange and astonis...