A podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related. Long-form interviews with people whose work I find interesting.
This is a special episode: this podcast will change after this episode, from remote audio-only interviews to exclusively in-person video interviews. Dan Quintana, professor at the University of Oslo and host of the Everything Hertz podcast, joins me to discuss why and how I'm making this change, podcasting and science communication more broadly, time management as an academic and podcaster, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: An obnoxious episode: podcasters talking about podcasting
0:02:22: Why Dan and I started our podcasts
0:07:15: Video vs audio podcasts, YouTube as a podcast platform, and social media
0:13:08: In-person vs. online/remote recordings
0:18:40: My plans for recording in-person video interviews
0:28:55: To start a remote podcast, you only need a laptop now
0:30:58: Managing a podcast while being a full-time scientist
0:39:14: Inviting guests to do interviews
0:43:20: Is podcasting a waste of time?
0:48:22: Science communication
0:49:56: Should I change my podcast's name and logo?
0:55:55: Final recommendations for the podcast from Dan? And for people who want to start a podcast
1:04:02: A book or paper more people should read
1:09:50: Something Dan wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:12:11: Advice for postdocs
Podcast links
Dan's links
Ben's links
Other links & references
Samson 2QU microphone: https://samsontech.com/products/microphones/usb-microphones/q2u/
Latour & Woolgar (1979). Laboratory life: The construction of scientific facts.
Morris (1979). The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
Todes (2014). Ivan Pavlov: A Russian life in science.
Lauren Ross is a professor of logic and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. We talk about her work on causation, mechanism, and explanation in neuroscience, Lauren's background in medicine, how to write clearly, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Why Lauren studied medicine
0:04:23: Differences between medicine and philosophy
0:21:19: Why Lauren switched to philosophy of science
0:25:30: How to learn to write clearly
0:30:21: Are doctors practitioners of causality?
0:34:25: What's so difficult about causality?
0:38:46: Causal structures: mechanism, pathway, cascade, circuit.
1:02:11: The practical use of thinking about causal structures and varieties
1:11:35: What's the difference between a circuit and a pathway? And what are you trying to do?
1:20:31: Secondary features of causation/causal varieties: strength, stability, speed, specificity
1:29:29: A book or paper more people should read
1:30:45: Something Lauren wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:33:29: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Lauren's links
Ben's links
References
Alon (2006). An introduction to systems biology: design principles of biological circuits. [There's a lecture series by Alon that seems to be based on the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6VZeWuME_A&list=PLLbr-B8cNbo6v4kc68JowzUeAYdh6gdQH]
Barack, Miller, Moore, Packer, Pessoa, Ross, & Rust (2022). A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience. Trends in neurosciences.
Forsyth (2013). The elements of eloquence: How to turn the perfect English phrase.
Hempel (1965). Aspects of scientific explanation.
Ross (2021). Causal concepts in biology: How pathways differ from mechanisms and why it matters. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Ross & Bassett (2024). Causation in neuroscience: keeping mechanism meaningful. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Kai Ruggeri is professor for health policy and management at Columbia University. We talk about his global collaborations, in which they studied various important decision-making aspects, including Prospect Theory and temporal discounting.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Why Kai studied stats anxiety in his PhD, and then moved to broader policy questions
0:09:15: Replicating the original Prospect Theory paper across the world
0:30:01: Adversarial collaborations and choosing which findings are worth being replicated
0:38:31: How to run global collaborations
0:56:25: Overlooked aspects of these global collaborations
1:03:59: Should we collect data from non-Western countries without local collaborators?
1:10:24: A book or paper more people should read
1:16:38: Something Kai wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:27:50: Advice for postdocs
Podcast links
Kai's links
Ben's links
References, links & notes
Junior Researcher Programme: https://jrp.pscholars.org/
Today, Israel uses the Shekel, but when Kahneman & Tversky did research there, they used the Israeli pound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_pound
Prolific: https://www.prolific.com/
Besample: https://besample.app/
Kahneman's final decision: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/daniel-kahneman-assisted-suicide-9fb16124
Gal & Rucker (2018). The loss of loss aversion: Will it loom larger than its gain? J Cons Psych.
Kahneman & Tversky (1979). Prospect theory: an analysis of decisions under risk. Econometrica.
Lewis (2016). The undoing project.
Macher, ... & Ruggeri (2012). Statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, learning behavior, and academic performance. Europ J psych edu.
Macher, ... Ruggeri, ... (2013). Statistics anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement. British J Edu Psych.
Mellers, Hertwig & Kahneman (2001). Do frequency representations eliminate conjunction effects? An exercise in adversarial collaboration. Psych Sci.
Parks, Joireman & Van Lange (2013). Cooperation, trust, and antagonism: How public goods are promoted. Psych sci in the public interest.
Ruggeri, ... & Folke (2020). Replicating patterns of prospect theory for decision under risk. Nat Hum Behav.
Ruggeri, ... & Folke (2021). The general fault in our fault lines. Nat Hum Behav.
Ruggeri, ... & Toscano (2022). The globalizability of temporal discounting. Nat Hum Behav.
Ruggeri (Ed.). (2018). Behavioral insights for public policy: concepts and cases.
Thaler (2015). Misbehaving.
Elsa Fouragnan is an Associate Professor and UKRI Future Leader Fellow at the University of Plymouth. We talk mainly about her work on focussed transcranial ultrasound stimulation, a new non-invasive way other stimulating (human) brains, including deep areas that can't be reached with TMS. We also discuss her childhood in French Polynesia, how she started doing research, what it's like seeing a brain during surgery, and much more.
This was the first episode I recorded in-person. The audio quality is really good, with the minor exception that I made a really silly error during editing, such that quiet parts are sometimes not entirely audible. A few words are not audible, but this shouldn't affect comprehension.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Elsa's childhood in French Polynesia and in mainland France
0:10:25: Why Elsa studied engineering and started doing research
0:19:04: How Elsa started working on Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation
0:23:08: What is Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation?
0:28:20: Is it safe?
0:36:12: What can you do with it/what kind of stimulations is it?
0:53:41: The practicalities of using TUS
1:04:42: What it's like to see brain surgery in the operating theatre
1:10:11: Back to the skull being a problem and which brains regions can be reached with TUS?
1:18:49: The future of TUS
1:27:59: A book or paper more people should read
1:30:13: Something Elsa wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:34:51: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Elsa's links
Ben's links
References and links
Ua Pou: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ua_Pou
Folloni, Verhagen, Mars, Fouragnan, ... & Sallet (2019). Manipulation of subcortical and deep cortical activity in the primate brain using transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation. Neuron.
Liptrot (2015). The Outrun.
Murphy & Fouragnan (2024). The future of transcranial ultrasound as a precision brain interface. PLoS Biology.
Yoo, Mittelstein, Hurt, Lacroix & Shapiro (2022). Focused ultrasound excites cortical neurons via mechanosensitive calcium accumulation and ion channel amplification. Nature Communications.
Yaakub, ... & Fouragnan (2024). Non-invasive Ultrasound Deep Neuromodulation of the Human Nucleus Accumbens Increases Win-Stay Behaviour. BioRxiv.
Melinda Baldwin is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland. We talk about her work studying the history of Nature, scientific journals more broadly, what it means to be a scientist, peer review, the Tyndall project, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Melinda's chemistry-history double major
0:03:42: Why Melinda did a PhD on the history of Nature
0:07:06: The glorious beginning of Nature and the history of scientific journals
0:17:00: How Nature became a journal for scientists (rather than the educated general public)
0:19:59: When did scientists start calling themselves 'scientists'? The mergence of science as a profession
0:26:26: The history of peer review: How to get into Nature in the 19th century, and the rise of peer review during the Cold War
0:40:53: Establishing causality in historical research
0:48:33: The future of peer review
1:06:16: Tyndall, why?
1:19:02: A book or paper more people should read
1:22:24: Something Melinda wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:29:05: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Melinda's links
Ben's links
References and links
eLife peer review: https://elifesciences.org/about/peer-review
John Tyndall project: https://tyndallproject.com/
Baldwin (2017). In referees we trust? Physics Today.
Baldwin (2018). Scientific autonomy, public accountability, and the rise of “peer review” in the Cold War United States. Isis.
Baldwin (2019). Making" Nature" The History of a Scientific Journal.
Gordin (2012). The pseudoscience wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the birth of the modern fringe.
Poehler (2014). Yes please.
Zuckerman & Merton (1971). Patterns of evaluation in science: Institutionalisation, structure and functions of the referee system. Minerva.
Steve Fleming is a professor in psychology at University College London. I invited Steve to talk about his work on meta-cognition, but we ended up spending the entire episode talking about lab culture, starting a lab, applying for funding, Steve's background in music, and what drew him to do cognitive neuroscience. There's even a tiny discussion about consciousness research at the end.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Steve ran his lab in London from Croatia for a few years
0:23:57: Lessons as a PI: students and postdocs are adults and will figure it out
0:28:45: Learning more skills as a postdoc vs. starting a lab
0:41:13: Contacting departments to apply for grants
0:52:19: Steve's background in music
1:07:13: What drew Steve to cognitive science? A brief discussion of the future of consciousness research
1:27:23: A book or paper more people should read
1:33:02: Something Steve wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:38:16: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Steve's links
Ben's links
References and links
FIL at UCL: https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/
ERC Starting Grant: https://erc.europa.eu/apply-grant/starting-grant
Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award (without strict time restrictions): https://wellcome.org/research-funding/schemes/wellcome-early-career-awards
Example paper by Josh Mcdermott on music: McDermott, Schultz, Undurraga & Godoy (2016). Indifference to dissonance in native Amazonians reveals cultural variation in music perception. Nature.
Carter (2002). Consciousness.
Chalmers (1995). Facing up to the problem of consciousness. Journal of consciousness studies.
Dehaene, Al Roumi, Lakretz, Planton & Sablé-Meyer (2022). Symbols and mental programs: a hypothesis about human singularity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Isaacson (2021). The code breaker.
Marr (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information.
Pinker (1997). How the mind works.
Tononi (2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC neuroscience.
Damian Blasi is a professor at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. We talk about his article 'Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science', linguistic diversity, how to study across the world's languages, his career path, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Why Damian studied physics
0:06:31: How to deal with small, sparse, incomplete, imbalanced, noisy, and non-independent observational data
0:09:38: Evolutionary advantages of different languages
0:14:01: How Damian started doing research on linguistics
0:20:09: How to study a language you don't speak
0:28:58: Start discussing Damian's paper 'Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science'
0:48:25: What can experimental scientists do about the vast differences between cultures, especially of difficult to reach peoples? And how different are languages and cultures really?
1:10:15: Why is New Guinea so (linguistically) diverse?
1:17:34: Should I learn a common or a rare language? And where?
1:29:09: A book or paper more people should read
1:32:31: Something Damian wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:33:56: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Damian's links
Ben's links
References
World Atlas of Languages: https://en.wal.unesco.org/world-atlas-languages
The Andamanese group that's hostile to strangers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese
"the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito_surrender_broadcast
Bakker (2022). The sounds of life.
Blasi ... Neubig (2021). Systematic inequalities in language technology performance across the world's languages. arXiv.
Blasi ... Bickel (2019). Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration. Science.
Blasi ... Majid (2022). Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science. Trends in cognitive sciences.
Everett (2023). A myriad of tongues.
Floyd ... Enfield (2018). Universals and cultural diversity in the expression of gratitude. Royal Society Open Science.
Gordon (2004). Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia. Science.
Hossenfelder (2018). Lost in math.
Koyama & Rubin (2022). How the world became rich.
Nettle (1998). Explaining global patterns of language diversity. Journal of anthropological archaeology.
Pica ... Dehaene (2004). Exact and approximate arithmetic in an Amazonian indigene group. Science.
Skirgård ... Gray (2023). Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss. Science Advances.
Gordon Pennycook is an Associate Professor at Cornell University. We talk about his upbringing in rural Northern Canada, how he got into academia, and his work on misinformation: why people share it and what can be done about it.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Straight outta Carrot River: From Northern Canada to publishing in Nature
0:37:01: Exploration vs focusing on one topic: finding your research topic
0:48:57: A sense of having made it
0:54:17: Why apply reasoning research to religion?
0:59:45: Starting working on misinformation
1:08:20: Defining misinformation, disinformation, and fake news
1:15:52: Social media, the consumption of news, and Bayesian updating
1:24:48: Reasons for why people share misinformation
1:35:57: Are social media companies listening to Pennycook et al?
1:38:19: Using AI to change conspiracy beliefs
1:44:59: A book or paper more people should read
1:46:33: Something Gordon wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:48:12: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Gordon's links
Ben's links
References
Costello, Pennycook & Rand (2024). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI. Science.
Dawkins (2006). The God Delusion.
MacLeod, ... & Ozubko (2010). The production effect: delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Nowak & Highfield (2012). Supercooperators: Altruism, evolution, and why we need each other to succeed.
Pennycook, ... & Fugelsang (2012). Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief. Cognition.
Pennycook, Fugelsang & Koehler (2015). What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement. Cognitive Psychology.
Pennycook, Cheyne, Barr, Koehler & Fugelsang (2015). On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit. Judgment and Decision making.
Pennycook & Rand (2019). Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition.
Pennycook & Rand (2021). The psychology of fake news. Trends in cognitive sciences.
Rand (2016). Cooperation, fast and slow: Meta-analytic evidence for a theory of social heuristics and self-interested deliberation. Psychological Science.
Stanovich (2005). The robot's rebellion: Finding meaning in the age of Darwin.
Tappin, Pennycook & Rand (2020). Thinking clearly about causal inferences of politically motivated reasoning: Why paradigmatic study designs often undermine causal inference. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
Thompson, Turner & Pennycook (2011). Intuition, reason, and metacognition. Cognitive Psychology.
Renzo Huber is a staff scientist at NIH. We talk about his work on layer-fMRI: what it is, how Renzo got into it, how to do it, when it makes sense to do it, what the future holds, and much more.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: How Renzo got into high-resolution fMRI
0:11:28: The difference between 3T and 7T fMRI
0:22:46: Is a bigger fMRI scanner always better?
0:33:35: Layer-fMRI
0:56:28: For what types of research is layer-fMRI most useful?
1:02:35: How to do layer-fMRI and make it reproducible
1:19:21: The future of layer-fMRI
1:27:02: A book or paper more people should read
1:30:37: Something Renzo wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:33:11: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Renzo's links
Ben's links
References and links mentioned
Episode with Peter Bandettini: https://geni.us/bjks-bandettini
Episode with Emily Finn: https://geni.us/bjks-finn
Renzo's blog about layer fMRI: https://layerfmri.com/
YouTube channel on layer fMRI: https://www.youtube.com/@layerfmri/
Bastos, ... & Friston (2012). Canonical microcircuits for predictive coding. Neuron.
Bollmann & Barth (2021). New acquisition techniques and their prospects for the achievable resolution of fMRI. Progress in Neurobiology.
Boulant, ... & Le Bihan (2024). In vivo imaging of the human brain with the Iseult 11.7-T MRI scanner. Nature Methods.
Finn, ... & Bandettini (2019). Layer-dependent activity in human prefrontal cortex during working memory. Nature Neuroscience.
Feynman (1985). "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!": adventures of a curious character.
Haarsma, Kok & Browning (2022). The promise of layer-specific neuroimaging for testing predictive coding theories of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research.
Huber, ... & Bandettini (2017). High-resolution CBV-fMRI allows mapping of laminar activity and connectivity of cortical input and output in human M1. Neuron.
Huber, ... & Möller (2019). Non-BOLD contrast for laminar fMRI in humans: CBF, CBV, and CMRO2. Neuroimage.
Huber, ... & Bandettini (2020). Sub-millimeter fMRI reveals multiple topographical digit representations that form action maps in human motor cortex. Neuroimage.
Huber, ... & Kronbichler (2023). Evaluating the capabilities and challenges of layer-fMRI VASO at 3T. Aperture Neuro.
Huber, ... & Horovitz (2023). Laminar VASO fMRI in focal hand dystonia patients. Dystonia.
Persichetti, ... & Martin (2020). Layer-specific contributions to imagined and executed hand movements in human primary motor cortex. Current Biology.
Polimeni, ... & Wald (2010). Laminar analysis of 7 T BOLD using an imposed spatial activation pattern in human V1. Neuroimage.
Ella Marushchenko is a scientific illustrator who runs a studio of artists and scientists that creates cover art, scientific and illustrations, and more. We talk about her unlikely path from artist in Russia to scientific illustrator in the US, digital vs classic art, how to interact as scientists with illustrators, how to improve scientific figures, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Ella's unlikely path to doing scientific illustrations
0:33:17: Running a studio for scientific illustrations
0:36:30: The process of commissioning a scientific figure
0:46:44: The changing landscape of scientific publications and communication
0:50:15: Unhelpful things to avoid when interacting with a science illustrator
0:59:06: Who are scientific illustrations for?
1:06:36: The purpose of illustrations in science
1:16:09: How to learn to improve scientific figures
1:22:30: How to become a scientific illustrator
1:26:10: A book or paper more people should read
1:27:48: Something Ella wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:29:10: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Ella's links
Ben's links
References and links
Some pictures by Sergey Krasnov: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergey_krasnov/
Sergiy Minko: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TMotc_wAAAAJ
Science diagrams that look like shitposts: https://x.com/scienceshitpost
My photo of the elephant at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle: https://www.bjks.blog/nature/3n6ljuy6noa5470tdsbcuicltu48df
Episode about Cajal: https://geni.us/bjks-ehrlich
Bulgakov (1967). The Master and Margarita.
Roberto Bottini is an Associate Professor at the University of Trento. We talk about his recent work on unusual cognitive maps in blind people, image spaces, metaphors, and he gives me some advice for writing successful grant applications.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon
Timestamps
0:00:00: Roberto's background
0:03:20: Start discussing Roberto's paper on altered grid cells in visually impaired people: theoretical background
0:16:28: Methods & results: walking on a clock face / altered grid cells: fourfold symmetry
0:47:48: Start discussing Roberto's paper on cognitive maps and image spaces (TiCS)
0:52:05: Egocentric and allocentric perspectives
0:55:27: Metaphors and analogies
1:00:08: Tips for grant applications
1:14:18: A book or paper that more people should read
1:18:38: Something Roberto wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:20:30: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links
Roberto's links
Ben's links
References
Aronov, ... & Tank (2017). Mapping of a non-spatial dimension by the hippocampal–entorhinal circuit. Nature.
Bisiach & Luzzatti (1978). Unilateral neglect of representational space. Cortex.
Bottini & Doeller (2020). Knowledge across reference frames: Cognitive maps and image spaces. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Casasanto (2009). Embodiment of abstract concepts: good and bad in right-and left-handers. Journal of experimental psychology: General.
Constantinescu, ... & Behrens (2016). Organizing conceptual knowledge in humans with a gridlike code. Science.
Derdikman, ... & Moser (2009). Fragmentation of grid cell maps in a multicompartment environment. Nature neuroscience.
Eichenbaum (2014). Time cells in the hippocampus: a new dimension for mapping memories. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Gardenfors (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought.
Gentner (1983). Structure-mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy. Cognitive science.
He & Brown (2019). Environmental barriers disrupt grid-like representations in humans during navigation. Current Biology.
Horner, ... & Burgess (2016). Grid-like processing of imagined navigation. Current Biology.
Jaynes (1976). The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
Park, ... & Boorman (2021). Inferences on a multidimensional social hierarchy use a grid-like code. Nature Neuroscience.
Sigismondi, ... & Bottini (2024). Altered grid-like coding in early blind people. Nature Communications.
Stangl, ... & Wolbers (2018). Compromised grid-cell-like representations in old age as a key mechanism to explain age-related navigational deficits. Current Biology.
Tolman (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review.
Whittington, ... & Behrens (2022). How to build a cognitive map. Nature Neuroscience.