Robinson's Podcast

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Neil Shubin is Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. In addition to actively leading research expeditions across the globe, Neil runs the Shubin Lab, where genetic, kinematic, and paleontologic work combine to investigate some of the major transitions in evolution. In this episode, Robinson and Neil...

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Larry Keith is the Head of Conservation and Keeper of the National Gallery of London, where he preserves and maintains some of the world’s most precious works of art, including paintings by Leonardo, Caravaggio, and Rubens. In this episode, Robinson and Larry discuss what goes into a conservator’s appraisal of an artwork, some of the tools and techniques of the job,...

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/robinsonerhardt Jon Butterworth is Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at University College London, where he works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. In this episode, Robinson and Jon discuss his work on the standard model of particle physics, it’s connection to quantum theory, life at the L...

Patreon:  ⁠https://www.patreon.com/robinsonerhardt⁠ Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. In this epi...

Adam Gazzaley is David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his M.D. and Ph. D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Adam works on developing new approaches to both assess and optimize human cognition, with particular attention to underutilized but high-potentia...

Chike Jeffers is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, where he researches Africana philosophy, the philosophy of race, social and political philosophy, and ethics. Lucius Outlaw is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and W. Alton Jones Chair Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt University, where he researches African, Africana, continental, socia...

Juan Maldacena is Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, where his work focuses on quantum gravity, string theory, and quantum field theories. In this episode, Robinson and Juan discuss the relationship between string theory and black holes, the holographic principle, and Juan’s groundbreaking paper on the AdS/CFT Correspondence. OUTLINE 0...

Brian Little is Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton, and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known for his work on personality psychology and his development of personal project analysis. In this episode, Brian and Robinson discuss the Big Five personality t...

Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor of Behavioral Genetics at King’s College London. He has published over 800 papers, is among the hundred most cited psychologists of the twentieth century, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his research, the best known of which is on twin studies and behavioral genetics. In this episode, Robinson and Robert discuss the distinc...

Rebecca Goldstein is a philosopher and novelist. She received her Ph. D. in philosophy from Princeton University and studied with Thomas Nagel. She is a MacArthur Follow and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama. Rebecca is also an expert on Spinoza and Gödel, and has a whole bevy of other wide-ranging interests. In this episode, Robinson and Rebecca discuss her novel the Mind-...

Ken Olum is Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University, where he works on exotic physics and topics in cosmology like cosmic strings, gravitational waves, anthropic reasoning, and inflation. In this episode, Robinson and Ken talk all about cosmic strings, which are spindly, hypothesized astronomical objects of intense mass and energy that may have been create...

Joseph LeDoux is Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, University Professor, Professor of Neural Science, Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University, where he works in neuroscience and related areas. Though his career is expansive, one major focus of his research has been emotions in humans and other animals. He is also the frontman of The...

Richard Haier is Professor Emeritus in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, where he uses brain imagining and the tools of neuroscience to study learning, memory, and intelligence, and how they relate to brain function and structure. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Rich discuss all things human intelligence, ranging fr...

Sheldon Goldstein is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University, where he researches mathematical physics, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and Bohmian Mechanics. He is also Board Member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, founded by fellow Robinson’s Podcast multiverse denizen, Tim Maudlin. In this episode, Robinson and Shelly discuss all things Bohmi...

Michael Graziano is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, where he and his lab research the brain basis of consciousness. Naturally, this is precisely what Michael and Robinson discuss in this episode. More particularly, they get into the philosophical question of what consciousness is, the roles of philosophy and science in answering the same, and whether or not there...

Una Stojnić is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University, where she works in the philosophy of language, formal semantics and pragmatics of natural language, and philosophical logic. In this episode, Robinson and Una discuss three of her projects. First, they talk about linguistic conventions, and how language consists of more than just the words we might find...

David Wallace is Mellon Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Before that, he obtained PhDs in both physics and philosophy at Oxford. David works mainly in the philosophy of physics, and is best known for his development and defense of the Everett—or Many-Worlds—interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson and David talk...

Robert Stickgold is Professor of Pyschiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he researches sleep and dreams from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. In this episode, Bob and Robinson discuss the role of sleep in memory processing and emotional regulation, how sleep deprivation affects performance, and the evolutionary purpose and function of dreams. OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:17 Introduct...

Anubav Vasudevan is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he works in formal epistemology and the history of logic, though he has published in a number of other areas. This is Anubav’s second appearance on the show. In episode #81, he and Robinson discussed mathematics, physics, and the history of logic. In this episode, they talk about the wonderf...

Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor and Past President at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist who has worked broadly on topics related to elementary particles and their cosmological implications. Among other topics, he has also worked on complexity theory, scaling laws in biology, and how they can be applied in other areas, such as cities and problems involving globa...

Daniel Levitin is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University and Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at Minerva University. He is also a record producer, musician, and writer. In this episode, Robinson and Daniel discuss one of his best-selling books, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Penguin, 2006), as well as some of the songs on his tw...

Tim Palmer is Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics at the University of Oxford, where he is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin Institute and a Professorial Fellow at Jesus College. Tim works on the predictability and dynamics of weather and climate, including extreme events, and is well known within the field for developing probabilistic ensemble forecasting techniques. In this ep...

James Owen Weatherall is Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science and Department Chair at the University of California, Irvine, where he is also a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science, the Center for Cosmology, and the Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy. Jim is a physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, and works broadly on  the mathematical and con...

David Friedman is Professor Emeritus at the Santa Clara University School of Law. While he was trained as a physicist, David is best known for his work in economics, and particularly his defense of anarcho-capitalism, a political philosophy that advocates for a free-market system unhampered by government. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some criticisms of current economic systems, the...

Erik Verlinde is Professor of Physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam, where he specializes in quantum gravity and string theory, black holes, and cosmology. In this episode, Erik and Robinson discuss his studies with the Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, black holes, the holographic principle, string theory, entropic gravity, and dark matter. OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode…...