# mindscape (podcasts) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 2 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover mindscape. Page: Feed: --- ## [364 | Stuart Firestein on How Science Relies on Ignorance and Failure](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/08/17/364-stuart-firestein-on-how-science-relies-on-ignorance-and-failure/) _2026-08-17 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ One of the paradoxes of science is that it seeks objectively true understanding of the world, but its methodology is driven by ignorance, failure, and uncertainty. Some phenomena we understand pretty well, but interesting research happens at the boundary of what we do and don't know. And there is no foolproof algorithm for moving in the right direction; we need to make conjectures and test them… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/stuart_firestein.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [363 | Chandra Sripada on How LLMs and Humans are Cognitive Cousins](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/08/10/363-chandra-sripada-on-how-llms-and-humans-are-cognitive-cousins/) _2026-08-10 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ Large Language Models display an uncanny ability to construct human-sounding speech, and can synthesize concepts in novel ways. Is this because they are truly thinking like human beings in some way, or have they found a way to be human-like without reproducing the internal mechanisms of human thought? Chandra Sripada argues that LLM cognition is more human-like than we suppose, and offers evidence… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/chandra_sripada.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | August 2026](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/08/03/ama-august-2026/) _2026-08-03 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ Welcome to the August 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/ama_August_2026.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [362 | Luis Bettencourt on the Universal Properties of Self-Organizing Cities](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/07/27/362-luis-bettencourt-on-the-universal-properties-of-self-organizing-cities/) _2026-07-27 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ People who live in large cities produce more patents per person than those who live in small towns. They also walk faster down the street, and use less infrastructure per person. Indeed, the relationships between these quantities and city population obey power laws with apparently universal exponents, reminiscent of scaling laws is biological organisms? Luis Bettencourt argues that they can be… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/luis_bettencourt.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [361 | Bonnie Bassler on How Bacteria Talk and Work Together](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/07/20/361-bonnie-bassler-on-how-bacteria-talk-and-work-together/) _2026-07-20 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ One of the characteristics of life is that living organisms gather information and put it to use. Even one of the simplest lifeforms, bacteria, are able to sense features of their surroundings and alter their behavior accordingly. Most impressively, they are able to sense the presence of similar bacteria by a process called quorum sensing . Today's guest, Bonnie Bassler, is a leader in this field,… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/bonnie_bassler.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | July 2026](https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/07/13/ama-july-2026/) _2026-07-13 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ Welcome to the July 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/ama_July_2026.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [360 | Marc Berman on the Science of Touching Grass](https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/07/06/360-marc-berman-on-the-science-of-touching-grass/) _2026-07-06 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ Modern life has, in many ways, removed us from the environments in which our ancestors lived and adapted. Not only do we spend time looking at screens, but we spend time indoors, or outdoors but in urban spaces. How does this affect how we think and feel? Psychologist Marc Berman is a pioneer of "environmental neuroscience." In his recent book, Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/marc_berman.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [359 | Solo: Theories of Dark Energy](https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/29/359-solo-theories-of-dark-energy/) _2026-06-29 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ The cosmological constant, as discussed last episode, provides a perfectly good (thus far) explanation for why we observe the universe to be accelerating. But it might not be the right explanation, and demonstrating that would be yet another foundational discovery. In this episode I discuss what is required to invent a plausible theory of dynamical dark energy , This includes considerations from… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/solo-DE-2.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [358 | Solo: Vacuum Energy and the Cosmological Constant](https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/22/358-solo-vacuum-energy-and-the-cosmological-constant/) _2026-06-22 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ The most surprising discovery in fundamental physics during my career as a scientist was undoubtedly the acceleration of the universe , announced in 1998. The most straightforward explanation for these observations is a positive cosmological constant, or vacuum energy. I talk about the origin of the idea with Einstein, how quantum physicists started to think about it and understand the… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/solo-DE-1.mp3?dest-id=5264190) ## [Point once, get highlights (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/erUkYdEhE1KH) _2026-06-22 · **Sponsored**_ Get minutes worth watching from a whole game — point once ## [357 | Jeff Coller on mRNA, Vaccines, and Bespoke Therapeutics](https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/15/357-jeff-coller-on-mrna-vaccines-and-bespoke-therapeutics/) _2026-06-15 · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas_ Messenger RNA (mRNA) plays a literally central role in the functioning of life as we know it, shuttling information back and forth between the DNA where it is stored to the ribosome where it is used to produce proteins. RNA may even have been the first molecule to kick-start the origin of life. Today, scientists are learning how to manipulate mRNA to cure and prevent diseases, whether through… [Listen](https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/Jeff_Coller.mp3?dest-id=5264190)