Inquiring Minds

We talk to writer Keith Law about the behavioral economics of baseball and his new book The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: New research on a biological enzyme that can break down the plastic we use for water bottles; a brief look into the history of egg decorating; a new study on the social consequences of a financially contingent self-worth; and a summary of new research involving jazz guitarists improvising while wearing EEGs on their heads.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to journalist and founder of the Neurodiversity Project Jenara Nerenberg about her new book Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to social psychologist David Dunning about his well-known 1999 study on why people are so bad at knowing how smart they are. He explains what people get wrong about it today, and what he’s learned since then.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her new book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen about his new book The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene about his new book How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine … for Now.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Jessica Powell, a writer and former VP of Communications for Google, about her new book The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: scientists successfully germinated 2,000-year-old date palm seeds and we might soon know what 2,000-year-old dates taste like; another group of researchers 3D modeled a 3,000-year-old mummy’s vocal tract and what they may have sounded like; and new research on how support cells in brains, called microglia, affect memory in mice.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to science journalist Deborah Blum about her new book The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to wildlife researcher and writer Adele Brand about her new book The Hidden World of the Fox.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to professor of information studies at UCLA and director of the UC Digital Cultures Lab Ramesh Srinivasan about his new book Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Indre, along with fellow neuroscientist and person who is her husband, Adam Bristol, recap their favorite science stories and interviews of 2019.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to oncologist, professor of medicine, and director of the MDS Center at Columbia University Azra Raza about her new book The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to environmental journalist Beth Gardiner about her new book Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Michael Casey, Senior Advisor for Blockchain Opportunities at MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, about his new book, co-authored with Paul Vigna, The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, author of the new book The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsk about how language can influence the way we think.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to cardiologist, writer, and clinical researcher Haider Warraich about his new book State of the Heart: Exploring the History, Science, and Future of Cardiac Disease.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to author and journalist Joe Posnanski about his new book The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds