Comic novelist David Lodge takes on the old battle between science and the humanities in his latest book, “Thinks.”
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Cheryl Gilkes talks with Steve Paulson about the importance of the female soloist in the tradition of gospel music.
Could the Internet feel happy or depressed? That's a distinct possibility, according to Christof Koch. In this EXTENDED interview, he talks about computer consciousness, God, and just what it means that our brains have a hundred billion neurons and trillions of synapses. Koch wonders whether all matter might have consciousness.
Entomologist Deborah Gordon tells Steve Paulson that ant colonies run with no one in charge. She’s spent years figuring out how they do it.
Doug here. I thought there was good back-and-forth between Chuck and myself in this conversation. I like how the interview went “meta” at the end, with Chuck speculating that if I’m right about his book being hailed as the “Moby Dick" of non-fiction in 300 years time. This interview belongs in a time capsule. At the very least, a “Best of” show. I also really enjoyed the fact that we heard the musical stylings of John Philip Sousa, Chuck Berry, KISS and Veruca Salt. Of course, if Chuck’s book taught me anything (and it actually taught me many things), I could be wrong.
Bill Streever is an Alaskan biologist and a "cryophile" - someone who loves the cold. He describes what it's like to jump into freezing water as hypothermia starts to set in.
He's produced albums for Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day and Foo Fighters. After decades in the business, Butch Vig says that new technologies are changing the music industry.
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