The Convergent Science Podcasts on Mind, Brain and Technology

How does a rat build a three-dimensional picture of the world using nothing but hair? Mitra Hartmann unpacks the biomechanics of whisker sensing, the distinction between active touch and passive sensation, and her vision for a tactile paintbrush that could scan objects in 3D. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Hartmann begins by carefully distinguishing active t...

How does a dead fish swim upstream, and what does that reveal about the hidden intelligence of body design? Maarja Kruusmaa explores the surprising physics of fish locomotion, lateral line sensing, and why propellers may not be the last word in underwater engineering. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Kruusmaa challenges naive biomimetics, the tendency to copy...

What if consciousness isn't generated by the brain at all, but is a way of describing how organisms interact with the world? Kevin O'Regan presents a radical sensorimotor theory that dissolves the hard problem of consciousness using the same conceptual trick that demystified life itself. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. O'Regan argues that searching for neural...

Can algorithmic control ever match the adaptability of a lobster navigating the ocean floor? Neuroscientist and roboticist Joseph Ayers reveals why DARPA abandoned traditional approaches and how chaos-based neural controllers are reshaping biomimetic robotics. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. In this episode, Ayers explains why conventional algorithmic robot c...

Why does understanding the body matter as much as understanding the brain , and how do soft, squishy biomechanics simplify the control problems that nervous systems must solve? Hillel Chiel extracts general principles from tongues, worms, and sea slugs. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Hillel Chiel's research program rests on a foundational claim: evolution se...

How does a lobster find food in a turbulent ocean where chemical signals vanish for minutes at a time , and what can a robot lobster teach us about the strategies that work and fail? Frank Grasso explores the neuroscience of olfactory search through biomimetic robotics. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Frank Grasso studies "crunchies and squishies", lobsters a...

What if the next generation of robot muscles were made of rubber, driven by static electricity, and could sense their own deformation? Federico Carpi introduces dielectric elastomer actuators , soft, lightweight, and already shipping in consumer electronics. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Federico Carpi makes the case that conventional electric motors are fu...

Is the neocortex really uniform , and do feedforward and feedback connections mean what we think they mean? Kathleen Rockland challenges foundational assumptions about cortical organization with evidence that structure and function are more discrepant than textbooks suggest. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Kathleen Rockland is a neuroanatomist who has spent h...

Why do bacteria have more elegant network architecture than the internet , and what can both teach us about building robust, evolvable systems? John Doyle unpacks the universal design principle of layered constraints that biology and technology share. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. John Doyle is a control theorist and mathematician who found himself drawn to...

How do flowers deceive insects into pollinating them , and what does this reveal about how olfactory systems encode meaning? Bill Hansson explores the evolutionary arms race between plants and pollinators through the lens of insect chemosensory neuroscience. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Bill Hansson studies olfaction in insects, and his entry point is one...

How did a brain system for grasping objects become the foundation for human language? Michael Arbib traces the evolutionary path from mirror neurons to speech, arguing that schema theory provides the missing link between neural circuits and cognitive architecture. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Michael Arbib has spent decades developing schema theory , a fra...

How does evolution build brains without a blueprint? Terrence Deacon reveals how self-organizing developmental processes, constrained by diffusible molecular signals, generate the neural architecture that natural selection then sculpts through competition and functional use. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Terence Deacon brings the evo-devo perspective to bra...

How do we move beyond "this brain region lights up" to genuinely understanding how neural circuits compute? Alard Roebroeck argues that the future lies in merging bottom-up computational models with top-down neuroimaging analysis , and that neither community can succeed alone. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Alard Roebroeck tackles a fundamental tension in ne...

What if patients diagnosed as vegetative are actually conscious but trapped , unable to signal their awareness through any behavioral channel? Adrian Owen describes how fMRI and EEG are revealing hidden minds and opening new paths to communication. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Adrian Owen's research confronts one of the most unsettling problems in clinical...

Why is the ability to hold something in mind, even briefly, the gateway to flexible cognition? Xiao-Jing Wang explains how attractor dynamics and slow synaptic reverberation in prefrontal cortex give rise to both working memory and decision-making. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Xiao-Jing Wang begins with a deceptively simple argument: without the capacity t...

Can neuroscience tell us what consciousness really is , even when introspection and behavior fall short? Victor Lamme argues that recurrent neural processing, not global workspace activation, is the fundamental ingredient of conscious experience. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Viktor Lamme opens with a challenge to the dominant paradigm in consciousness rese...

What if the cerebellum works less like a learning machine and more like an interrupt handler , resetting circuits and gating sensory information depending on what the animal is doing? Sam Wang shares how advanced optical imaging is rewriting our understanding of cerebellar function. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Sam Wang came to neuroscience from physics, d...

What happens when engineered systems become too complex for humans to understand, let alone control? Riccardo Sanz argues that the path forward requires machines capable of controlling themselves , and that this leads, perhaps inevitably, toward machine self-awareness. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Riccardo Sanz approaches consciousness not from philosophy...

How do you map the wiring of an entire brain when neuroscience is simultaneously drowning in data and starving for the right kind? Partha Mitra explains why he left theoretical physics to build a whole-brain mesoscale connectome , and what it reveals about the gap between data richness and genuine understanding. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. In this episode...

What if we've been studying brain activity for decades without actually knowing how the brain is wired? Neuroscientist Olaf Sporns introduced the concept of the connectome, a complete structural map of the human brain's network, and explains why understanding connectivity is the missing foundation beneath all of functional neuroscience. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcas...