Podcasts

Alexandra Delbot discusses Young's double-slit experiment with physicists Christophe Salomon and Serge Haroche. They trace its role in establishing interference and examine how electron experiments, measurement and quantum theory changed the interpretation of the experiment and of wave-particle duality.

Hosted by Alexandra Delbot

Maxim Raginsky joins Paul Middlebrooks to examine brains, AI and biological autonomy through control theory. They discuss what behaviour reveals about a system's internal organisation, analog and digital descriptions, the relationship between control and cybernetics, active inference and the limits of computational accounts. The publisher offers a public episode and supporter access to its full archive.

Hosted by Paul Middlebrooks

Jérémie Naudé and Albert Moukheiber join Alexandra Delbot to examine popular misconceptions about the brain, including claims about dopamine detoxes. They discuss what neuroscience experiments establish about dopamine and reward prediction, and how simplified biological narratives can distort research and public understanding.

Hosted by Alexandra Delbot

Jonathan Webb and ABC science reporter Ellen Phiddian examine textile absorbency and why an older tea towel can sometimes dry better than a new one. The discussion connects everyday fabric performance with the behaviour of fibres and considers when a worn towel should be replaced.

Hosted by Jonathan Webb

Diogo Almeida joins Sam Charrington to discuss TypeSafe's Jev model and the use of calibrated decisions as a component of AI software. The conversation examines reinforcement learning from calibrated decisions, differences from classifiers and text-generating models, and the implications for agents, tool use and system architecture.

Hosted by Sam Charrington

Andrew Huberman joins Patrick O’Shaughnessy to discuss the frontier of neurotechnology and sustained human performance. Their conversation considers the convergence of AI and biotechnology, gene-based methods for changing neural activity and motivation, and the relationships between visual behaviour, arousal and sleep. Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University.

Hosted by Patrick O’Shaughnessy

Anna Truzzi and Luca Pellegrino discuss experiments on a historical antibacterial preparation and the sources of bias in AI systems. An external segment with Ian Scott and Ilaria Zanardi explores elephant communication, including low-frequency sound, long-distance signalling and the evidence for individually distinctive calls.

Hosted by Anna Truzzi, Luca Pellegrino

Physicist Daniel Akerib joins Sean Carroll to examine the search for weakly interacting massive particles and the challenges of directly detecting dark matter. They discuss a single unusual event in recent LUX-ZEPLIN data and why its low statistical significance warrants interest rather than a discovery claim. The conversation connects this result with Akerib’s experience in the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, LUX and LUX-ZEPLIN experiments.

Hosted by Sean Carroll

Yuandong Tian discusses his research on computer Go, from DarkForest to OpenGo, and the role of action-space design in applying reinforcement learning. The conversation covers gradient-free optimization, neural architecture search, Coconut’s approach to reasoning in latent space, representation learning and grokking. It then examines AI-assisted research, recursive self-improvement, coding-agent limitations, and whether alternative architectures can outperform transformers. The closing discussion considers data efficiency, robotics, restrictions on self-improving systems, and open-source models.

Hosted by Ravid Shwartz Ziv, Allen Roush

Sana Qadar speaks with cognitive neuroscientist Reuben Rideaux and English professor Sophie Gee about how using AI may affect thinking, memory and creative work. They examine cognitive offloading, the potential contributions of AI tools, and which parts of intellectual activity benefit from continued human engagement.

Hosted by Sana Qadar

Cell researcher and author Katharina Vestre joins Gaute Einevoll for a Norwegian-language conversation about the cells that build the human body. They explore how diverse cells, from muscle fibres to red blood cells, cooperate while sharing a common organisation of membranes and organelles. The discussion considers how that internal machinery allows cells to survive, perform specialised functions and divide, drawing on Vestre’s book about cellular life.

Hosted by Gaute Einevoll

The episode examines what happens chemically when cooked starch cools and is reheated. Melissa and Jam discuss glucose polymers, insulin, digestion, crystallization, resistant starch, and interactions with gut microbes. They review studies involving foods such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes, and explore the proposed effects of repeated reheating. The discussion connects everyday cooking questions to food chemistry and the evidence behind claims about leftovers.

Hosted by Melissa, Jam

Mathematician Maggie Miller of the University of Texas at Austin joins Janna Levin and Steven Strogatz to explore knots, surfaces and four-dimensional topology. They discuss why loops can untangle in four spatial dimensions while two-dimensional surfaces can remain knotted, how three-dimensional snapshots help visualize 4D spaces, and Miller and collaborators’ resolution of a knotted-surface question posed by Charles Livingston in 1982. The conversation also connects visual techniques from art with mathematical reasoning.

Hosted by Janna Levin, Steven Strogatz

Madeleine Finlay interviews Boston University neuroscientist Steve Ramirez about locating, activating and removing rodent memories, and possible applications in humans.

Hosted by Madeleine Finlay

Ming-Yu Liu, NVIDIA vice president of research and head of the Cosmos Lab, joins Practical AI hosts Daniel Whitenack and Chris Benson to discuss AI systems that interact with the physical world. The conversation examines open models, world models and simulation as foundations for robotics and autonomous vehicles, and how research and deployment can advance physical AI. Published 1 October 2026; publisher runtime 47 minutes 19 seconds.

Hosted by Daniel Whitenack, Chris Benson

Historian of chemistry Alexander Kraft joins Charlotte Gerischer to examine alchemy and its relationship to the emergence of experimental chemistry. They discuss influential figures, the search for the philosopher's stone and the ideas and practices that persisted as chemistry developed into a scientific discipline.

Hosted by Charlotte Gerischer

Astrophysicist Benoît Famaey and theoretical physicist Francesca Calore discuss the evidence motivating dark matter and the challenges of identifying its nature. With Alexandra Delbot, they examine proposed particle candidates, possible detection signals and why a promising observation requires careful scrutiny before being treated as a discovery.

Hosted by Alexandra Delbot

This episode examines the history of genetics and the Genetics Society’s relationship with the eugenics movement. The discussion draws on an article investigating how ideas about heredity became entangled with the discredited programme of applying selective breeding to human populations. It invites listeners to consider the scientific community’s own history and the responsibilities attached to genetic research.

Hosted by Mike Pointer

The Chemical Breakdown team looks ahead to the 2026 Nobel prize in chemistry. Host Mariana Kneppers discusses possible research areas and laureates with Jamie Durrani and Neil Withers, with additional predictions from the Chemistry World team. Topics include skeletal editing, GLP-1 research and analytical techniques, alongside how previous prizes shape expectations. This is a predictions episode published before the prize announcement, rather than a report of confirmed winners.

Hosted by Mariana Kneppers

Jonathan Webb discusses lithium-ion battery chemistry with Neeraj Sharma of UNSW, explaining why prolonged full charging or deep discharge can shorten battery life and what the underlying processes mean for phone and electric-vehicle battery engineering.

Hosted by Jonathan Webb