Curated Video
Narcolepsy (2017)
UC Berkeley sleep scientist Matthew Walker describes our current understanding of the biophysiological mechanisms at play in the condition of narcolepsy.
Curated Video
Memory Pinball
UC Berkeley sleep scientist Matthew Walker describes how current research on the function of sleep supports the age-old notion that it is a good idea to sleep on a problem.
Curated Video
The Need To Belong
Roy Baumeister, University of Queensland, describes how, for the longest time social psychologists only paid lip service to the social world, and that his groundbreaking work The Need To Belong was motivated by an awareness that much of...
Curated Video
Sleep Sociology
UC Berkeley sleep scientist Matthew Walker ruminates on the sociology of sleep science within the broader domain of psychology, both past and present.
Curated Video
Making the Effort
Elyn Saks, Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at USC, discusses how far more people who are afflicted with schizophrenia could be high-functioning members of society than presently are.
Curated Video
In Praise of Barriers
Poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht argues that many cultural and social factors play a key role in leading people to commit suicide, highlighting the effectiveness of various social policies designed to combat it.
Curated Video
Between Two Extremes
Cognitive scientist Victor Ferreira (UC San Diego) discusses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, while admitting that most cognitive scientists opt for the middle road between the two intellectual poles.
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Attracted by The Unknown
Psychologist Chris Frith (UCL) relates his intellectual motivations that propelled him to the front lines of psychological research.
Curated Video
A Bridge to Exceptional Memory
World-champion bridge player Fred Gitelman describes how avid bridge players spontaneously develop exceptional memory skills after several years of playing.
Curated Video
Valuing The Details
Celebrated scientific polymath Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, describes how he is "more interested in the details than the big picture", and explains why he thinks that it is vital to not just search for overall equations,...
Curated Video
Undarkened Doors
Solar physicist Jenny Nelson, Imperial College, describes her first major research project in physics and feeling of personal isolation while working on her doctorate, which led to her leaving the world of scientific research for a time.
Curated Video
Time to Dive In
Cosmologist Justin Khoury, University of Pennsylvania, relates his belief that we are, right now, at a critical juncture, on the threshold of a new revolution in physics, and that it is the perfect time for young people to jump in and...
Curated Video
Theory Meets Experiment
Princeton University physicist Paul Steinhardt reveals how he felt when he was suddenly confronted with a laboratory result of exactly what he had been theoretically investigating.
Curated Video
Measuring Intelligence
Neuroscientist John Duncan (Cambridge) describes some of the tests associated with Charles Spearman's mysterious "g factor."
Curated Video
Beyond Solenoids
Cognitive scientist Victor Ferreira (UC San Diego) describes his youthful career anxiety and his excitement that science could be about people rather than just assessing magnetic field lines.
Curated Video
The Big Bang Entropy Puzzle
Nobel Laureate in Physics Roger Penrose (Oxford) relates his longstanding bemusement at why the early universe was in such a peculiar low state of entropy.
Curated Video
Testing For Dark Matter
University of Chicago cosmologist Rocky Kolb describes the history of dark matter: how it was overlooked by most physicists for decades together with current hypotheses of what it might be and experiments to determine which one is valid.
Curated Video
A Sad Story
Particle physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed (IAS) recounts his frustration of the "faster than light neutrinos" story that made media headlines in 2011.
Curated Video
The Mind as a Functional System
Cognitive scientist Victor Ferreira (UC San Diego) describes how psychology and neuroscience might overlap through the mind.
Curated Video
Suicide and Depression
Poet and independent scholar Jennifer Michael Hecht argues that suicidal thoughts and acts are often not limited to the clinically depressed.
Curated Video
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Cognitive scientist Victor Ferreira (UC San Diego) describes a core question in linguistics concerning how language and thought are related.
Curated Video
Rationalizing Abuse
Legal scholar Emilie Hafner-Burton (UC San Diego) discusses the issue of human rights abusers justifying and rationalizing their actions.
Curated Video
Mind vs. Brain
Cognitive scientist Victor Ferreira (UC San Diego) gives his perspective on the difference between the mind and the brain.
Curated Video
Memory Education
Memory scientist Elizabeth Loftus describes how the “repressed memory phenomenon” that originated in North America has given rise to many similar international court cases of wrongful convictions based on repressed memories.