Minds Matter

We hear about neuromodulators like serotonin all the time, but how do they actually work? This week Dr. Claire O’Callaghan gives us an introduction to the science of neurobiology! She discusses the roles of serotonin and noradrenaline and we learn that the systems are more complex than we may hear in popular science. Ava and Beth discuss their misconceptions around neuromodulators and Beth shares...

Are all inequalities perceived the same? Dr. Riana Brown joins us to discuss how different inequalities — health, economic, and belonging — differentially motivate support for collective action and social change. Dr. Brown also shares research on when and why some people might opt to tackle the root causes of inequality, such as advocating for policy changes, versus addressing its immediate conseq...

What do the social lives of chimps and bonobos reveal about human cognition? Join us as biological anthropologist & comparative psychologist Dr. Laura Lewis tells us about the social structures of our closest living relatives & shares her research on how chimps and bonobos remember friends and foes and manage their social attention. Beth and Ava discuss how to think about the similarities...

How do we store information in the brain? How do we know when one memory should end and another begin? We speak to Dr. Oded Bein who explains how we use schemas to organise information. Dr. Bein discusses how we segment our experiences to store as our memories and how these processes might be different for people with anxiety. We also give some tips to improve memory and Ava and Beth reflect on ho...

When something's bothering you, do you tend to suppress those emotions or sit with them? Dr. Rachel Low joins us to discuss her research on emotion regulation in individuals, relationships, and families. Learn about how parents' emotion regulation styles might spill over to their children, and how just one person suppressing their emotions in a romantic relationship can undermine relationship sati...

Is sexual chemistry just natural compatibility, or can it grow from effort and work? Dr. Jessica Maxwell shares her research exploring how sexual beliefs influence well-being in both long-term and casual relationships. We discuss how individual differences, like attachment styles, shape our relationship preferences, from one-night stands to long-term monogamy. Plus, stay tuned for practical tips f...

How often do you play negative experiences over in your head? If this is a painful pattern of thinking, why would we do this? This week we talk about rumination with Dr. Rachel Bedder, she explains why we ruminate and how it is different from worry. Dr. Bedder discusses her computational model of rumination and we learn how we can apply these models in real life. Ava and Beth reflect on their own...

How does culture shape our actions towards the environment and our responses to global crises? Dr. Kimmon Eom joins us to discuss how different cultures and socioeconomic statuses influence the willingness to engage in pro-environmental actions. He also shares work on how pandemics and fear of contagion may make even the unprejudiced support xenophobic policies. Beth and Ava have an honest convers...

What makes a for a good conversation? Why do we feel we 'click' with some people and not others? This week we speak to Dr. Emma Templeton about research on conversation. She discusses why gap length between two conversation partners is important into understanding our connections and why this may have different meanings between strangers and friends. Ava and Beth share how they feel about conversa...

Are we really what we eat? Research on the gut microbiome suggests we really are! This week we speak to Dr. Aya Osman who researches how the gut microbiome influences our brain and behaviour. Dr Osman explains the role of the gut microbiome in addiction and autism and how we can study these connections. We learn what foods are best for a healthy gut. Ava and Beth discuss their personal experiences...

One of the biggest mysteries in science is, what is consciousness? This week we speak to Dr Anil Seth about how we can study consciousness and where the field is at the moment. Dr. Seth discusses how our experience can be considered a controlled hallucination and what all this means for AI. Ava and Beth reflect on their views which somehow relates back to Terminator 2.

What happens to our memories as we age? Dr. Tarek Amer challenges the idea that memory decline is inevitable as we get older. Tune in to find out when older adults' 'sticky' memories not only aid in recollection but also enhance creativity, potentially giving them an edge over younger folks.

How do you decide to do your maths homework or play a video game? Why does maths homework feel like more effort than the video game? This week we speak with Dr. Laura Ana Bustamante about how cognitive effort effects the decisions we make. She speaks about her research relating cognitive to physical effort, how we can increase our willingness to exert effort and the relationship between anxiety an...

When guilt strikes, how do you respond? Is it a rush to make things right or an urge to evade? Dr. Hongbo Yu is joins us to delve into the complexities of guilt, its neural bases, and the surprising role our eyes play in magnifying or mitigating those guilty feelings. Plus, Beth and Ava share some personal perspectives on eye contact.

Elle Murata is a neuroscience Ph. D. student specializing in the impact of sex hormones on the brain. When she noticed something was off with her own menstrual cycle, she found herself having to advocate for her own health to receive proper care. In this conversation, Elle shares her journey to find answers about her own health, and insights from her lab about the effects of sex hormones on our br...

How do we tell our imagination apart from reality? Although it may seem like a simple process we often get the two confused. This week Dr. Nadine Dijkstra shares with us her research on the reality threshold and how this helps us determine what is real and what is not! Ava and Beth discuss top-down and bottom-up processes in perception and how reality can seem blurry at times.

We are back for season 3! To start off the season we talk with Dr. Julian Scheffer about his research on compassion. Dr. Scheffer tells us about the cognitive costs of compassion and how effort may effect our decision to feel compassion for others. We discuss how compassion compares to empathy and why it is beneficial to feel compassion at all!

In this episode, we explore experiences of minoritized individuals in healthcare. Dr. Kimberly Martin shares her research on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among Black Americans, and challenges the common attribution to the Tuskegee experiments, sharing research on the critical role of current experiences in shaping medical mistrust. In addition, Dr. Martin shares her personal journey of transitio...

Do you ever wonder how often people lie on dating apps? Or how language can reveal people's lies about groups they dislike? Dr. David Markowitz joins us to share his research on the frequency and types of lies people tell. He also discusses whether and how lies, like fake news, can be detected by humans or AI. Beth and Ava share their own experiences with deception on dating apps and discuss how d...

This week we sat down to chat with Dr. Mette Leonard Høeg who is a literary theorist and philosopher studying theories of consciousness. Dr. Høeg speaks about how we can use works of literature in the field consciousness research. We discuss everything from free will to what future societies might be imagined from different theories of consciousness!

Have racism, sexism, and homophobia reduced over time? What about ableism? Dr. Tessa Charlesworth joins us to discuss her research using big data and word embeddings to track shifting attitudes about marginalized groups over the years and decades. We explore the implications of her research on prejudice reduction strategies. Beth and Ava discuss their own experiences with stereotypes of women in S...

How does a researcher's positionality affect their research? Why do we use the scientific methods that we do? And how do we even measure success in science? This week on the podcast we speak to Dr. Cammi Murrup-Stewart about her research on well-being for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island youth. Speaking about the First Nations Methodologies she uses, we address the big questions around th...

Why do we love to dance? What makes dance different from other movements? This week on the podcast we speak to Dr. Emily Cross about her research on the neuroscience of dance. Dr. Cross explains why we prefer to watch certain dances over others and how emotion is central to dancing. Ava and Beth discuss their aesthetic experiences with art in general, leading to very different opinions!

Is more of a good thing always better? We know this isn't the case with exercise and eating, but does the same idea apply to meditation and mindfulness? This week on the podcast Dr. Sarah Strohmaier talks about her research on 'dose' meditation. Her research found that more mindfulness isn't always the best approach. We discuss how mindfulness and meditation help reduce anxiety and stress and what...

Have you ever wondered why we are drawn to characters like Tony Soprano, even though he carries out morally bad actions? One possible explanation is our moral curiosity. This week on the podcast Dr. Jordan Wylie helps us understand what moral curiosity is and why we are allured by morally ambiguous characters. Dr. Wylie also speaks to us about her research on ‘phantom rules’, rules such as jay-wal...