Shows
BJKS Podcast119. This (audio only) podcast is dead - long live the podcast? With Dan QuintanaThis 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: An obnoxious episode...
2025-09-291h 14BJKS Podcast118. Lauren Ross: Causation, mechanism, and explanation in neuroscienceLauren 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Lauren studied medicine0:04:23: Differences between medicine and philosophy0:21:19: Why Lauren switched to philosophy of science0:25:30: How to learn to write clearly
2025-09-221h 36BJKS Podcast117. Kai Ruggeri: Global collaborations, Prospect Theory, and temporal discountingKai 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Kai studied stats anxiety in his PhD, and then moved to broader policy questions0:09:15: Replicating the original Prospect Theory paper across the world0:30:01: Adversarial collaborations and choosing which findings are worth being replicated
2025-09-151h 36BJKS Podcast116. Elsa Fouragnan: Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation, brain surgery, and French PolynesiaElsa 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...
2025-09-081h 37
The Conscious CutEp. 10 Cleaning Up Hong Kong: Community Action for a Greener Future w/ James Marlow-SmithIn this empowering episode of The Conscious Cut, host Hoiki Liu sits down with James Marlow-Smith, founder of Green Hour Hong Kong, a community-driven NGO tackling urban waste and environmental challenges. Hailing from the UK and settling in Hong Kong in 2016 as a drama teacher, James shares his evolution into a passionate advocate for sustainability, inspired by litter-strewn streets and surplus food going to waste. From launching "plogging" runs—jogging while picking up trash—to the Bun Run project redistributing bakery goods to street cleaners and the elderly, he discusses innovative ways to combat food waste, foster community connections, and...
2025-07-111h 08BJKS Podcast115. Melinda Baldwin: A triple history of Nature, scientific journals, and peer reviewMelinda 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Melinda's chemistry-history double major0:03:42: Why Melinda did a PhD on the history of Nature0:07:06: The glorious beginning of Nature and...
2025-06-241h 32BJKS Podcast114: Steve Fleming: Lab culture, learning as a PI, and the allure of cognitive neuroscienceSteve 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Steve ran his lab...
2025-05-261h 40
Tiger View PodcastEpisode 5: Easter Weekend Recap: Wins, Records & RumorsGavin and Dawson are back with Episode 5 of the Tiger View Podcast! We kick things off recapping a dramatic Easter weekend on the diamond — from Lucas Mahlstedt's 14th save to Marian Collins’ walk-off bomb against South Carolina. Clemson Baseball battled Louisville in a tight series, with strong outings from Aidan Knaak and Drew Titsworth, but couldn’t complete the sweep. Meanwhile, Softball kept rolling behind record-breaking performances from Julia Knowler, Aby Vieira, Maddie Moore, and Alex Brown.We also dive into the latest from the transfer portal — Clemson Men’s and Women’s Basketball each landed key additions, w...
2025-04-2149 min
Tiger View PodcastEpisode 4: Diamond Dominance & Transfer Portal ChaosWelcome back to the Tiger View Podcast with Gavin James and Dawson Smith! In this week’s episode, we’re diving into a loaded slate of Clemson Athletics and college sports headlines.We kick things off with a breakdown of Clemson baseball’s series win, including another dominant outing from Aidan Knaak and a power surge from JJ. Then we shift to softball, where the Tigers completed a sweep of NC State, Maddie Moore made history, and Reese Basinger hit a major milestone.From there, we zoom out to the national picture with the latest on the...
2025-04-1435 min
Tiger View PodcastEpisode 1: Debut ShowWelcome to the very first episode of the Tiger View Podcast! Hosts Gavin James and Dawson Smith introduce themselves and share their passion for all things Clemson athletics. They kick things off with a fun discussion about their favorite Clemson memories before diving into what listeners can expect from the show.This week’s episode covers: ⚾ Clemson Baseball Recap – Breaking down the weekend series vs. Wake Forest, key performances, and the ongoing search for a Sunday starter. 🥎 Softball Dominance – A sweep of Syracuse, Alex Brown’s perfect weekend, and a big matchup against South Carolina ahead.
2025-03-2444 minBJKS Podcast113. Damian Blasi: Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science, linguistic diversity, and how to study a language you don't speakDamian 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Damian studied physics0:06:31: How to deal with small, sparse, incomplete, imbalanced, noisy, and non-independent observational data0:09:38: Evolutionary advantages of different languages0:14:01...
2025-03-101h 41
A Job Done Well - Making Work BetterHow to Work Out What are the Most Important Metrics – With Bernie SmithBernie Smith, KPI guru, is back to help us find 'gold bars' - those vital measures that drive business success. Bernie shares a simple three-step method for unlocking those gold bars, using examples as diverse as predicting an international incident from pizza sales data, spotting a COVID outbreak using scented candle complaints, and calculating the number of piano tuners in Chicago.Despite being an analytical love fest, this is one of our most entertaining and informative episodes. (They only briefly discuss celery cell growth and paper moisture levels!)Got a question - get i...
2025-03-0426 min
A Job Done Well - Making Work BetterHow to Leverage KPI's? With Bernie SmithThis week, we are joined by KPI Guru Bernie Smith - world-renowned expert and author of 21 books...Bernie has made a career out of successfully helping people from across the globe to identify how they use KPIs to unlock performance. In this first episode, Bernie shares how to identify the KPIs that will give you the edge with practical insights and engaging stories. It is hard to believe that KPIs can be so interesting.And, of course, we'll get another dose of middle class smugness from James as his Volvo and its heated seats give h...
2025-02-2523 minBJKS Podcast112. Gordon Pennycook: From Carrot River to Cornell, misinformation, and reducing conspiracy beliefsGordon 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Straight outta Carrot River: From Northern Canada to publishing in Nature0:37:01: Exploration vs focusing on one topic: finding your research topic0:48:57: A sense...
2025-02-171h 50BJKS Podcast110. Ella Marushchenko: Scientific illustrations, digital vs. classic art, and how to improve scientific figuresElla 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Ella's unlikely path to doing scientific illustrations0:33:17: Running...
2024-12-181h 32BJKS Podcast109. Roberto Bottini: Cognitive maps, visual impairment, and image spacesRoberto 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Roberto's background0:03:20: Start discussing Roberto's paper on altered grid cells in visually impaired people: theoretical background0:16:28: Methods & results: walking on a clock face / altered grid cells: fourfold...
2024-12-081h 24BJKS Podcast108. Robert Wilson: 10 simple rules for computational modelling, phishing, and reproducibilityRobert (Bob) Wilson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgia Tech. We talk about his tutorial paper (w/ Anne Collins) on computational modelling, and some of his recent work on detecting phishing.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Bob's strange path through computational cognitive neuroscience0:07:37: Phishing: a computational model with real-life applications0:25:46: Start discussing Bob's paper 10 simple rules for computational modeling of behavioral data0:32:15: Rule 0: Why even do computational...
2024-11-221h 50BJKS Podcast107. Nick Wise: Publication fraud, buying authorships, and tortured phrasesNick Wise is a postdoc in fluid dynamics at Cambridge University. We talk about his 'detective work' on publication fraud which has gotten more than 800 papers retracted to date, including tortured phrases, discovering Facebook groups and Telegram channels in which people sell authorships on papers, how 'Special' issues can be exploited, and what we can do about this.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Nick got involved with publication fraud: tortured phrases
2024-11-152h 01BJKS Podcast106. Eugenie Reich (Part 2): The legalities of scientific fraud, why fraudsters rarely go to prison, and what whistleblowers are allowed to doThis is the 2nd part of my interview with Eugenie Reich, who is a lawyer who represents scientific whistleblowers, and a former investigative science journalist. We talk about her transition from journalism to law, and discuss the legal aspects of scientific fraud: why fraudsters rarely go to prison, what whistleblowers are legally allowed to do, how and when to seek legal advice, and much more. Obviously, none of this is legal advice, but hopefully it provides some useful pointers.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
2024-11-081h 09BJKS Podcast105. Eugenie Reich (Part 1): Plastic Fantastic, scientific fraud, and institutional normsEugenie Reich is an attorney who represents scientific whistleblowers, and a former investigative science journalist. We talk about her previous work as a science journalist, in particular her book Plastic Fantastic about one of the biggest fraud cases in physics, the case of Jan-Hendrik Schön. We'd planned to also discuss Eugenie's current work as an attorney, but spent all our time on the Schön case. Eugenie kindly agreed to do another interview, in which we cover the legal aspects of fraud, which will be the next episode (#106).BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, an...
2024-11-011h 26BJKS Podcast104. James Shine: Integrating neuroscience with fMRI, collaboration, and the importance of dumb questionsJames (Mac) Shine is a PI and fellow at the University of Sydney. We talk about his background in sports, using fMRI to integrate various parts of neuroscience, collaboration, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Mac's sporting background0:07:46: Overview of Mac's review in Nature (w/ Emily Finn and Russell Poldrack)0:14:03: The role of great editors in improving scientists and their work0:32:53: Connecting different levels of description0:40:07...
2024-10-251h 48BJKS Podcast103. Brandon Brown: Farms not grants, academic negotiations, and unusual academic contributionsBrandon Brown is a professor at University of California Riverside, where he studies global health and ethics. He also writes career columns for Nature and Science, which we talk about: negotiations in academia, his sabbatical, his life owning and working a farm, different types of grants and contributions in academia, and much moreBJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Brandon's path to becoming a scientist0:20:39: Start discussing Brandon's career columns in Nature
2024-10-181h 53BJKS Podcast102: Soledad Gonzalo Cogno: Sloooow oscillations in entorhinal cortex, mentoring, and the physics approach to neuroscienceSoledad Gonzalo Cogno is a group leader at the Kavli Institute for Science Neuroscience in Trondheim. We talk about how she went from studying physics in Argentina to working on the brain in Norway, the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, why researchers should give their research animals a nice life, mentorship, and discuss her recent Nature paper on ultraslow oscillatory sequences in medial entorhinal cortex.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Studying...
2024-10-111h 37BJKS Podcast101. Julie Old: Wombats, saving endangered species, and the difficulties of studying wild animalsJulie Old is as Associate Professor at Western Sydney University. We talk about her experiences and research with wombats, various aspects of wombat behavior, conservation efforts, challenges such as sarcoptic mange and roadkill, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat's critically endangered status and efforts to translocate them safely, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Julie got into working with wombats0:03:14: What are wombats?0:11:40: How Julie started researching wombats0:15:34...
2024-10-041h 14BJKS Podcast100. Tom Chivers: Thomas Bayes, Bayesian statistics, and science journalismTom Chivers is a journalist who writes a lot about science and applied statistics. We talk about his new book on Bayesian statistics, the biography of Thomas Bayes, the history of probability theory, how Bayes can help with the replication crisis, how Tom became a journalist, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Tom's book about Bayes & Bayesian statistics relates to many of my previous episodes and much of my own...
2024-08-161h 19BJKS Podcast99. Laura Luebbert: gget, hunting viruses, and questionable honeybee dancesLaura Luebbert just finished her PhD in computational biology and will soon be a postdoc with Pardis Sabeti, to hunt some viruses. We talk about how she got into biology, how she created a widely-used software project (gget) with no prior coding experience, her recent reports when she discovered questionable data in key papers about honeybee dances, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Laura studied biology in Leiden/the...
2024-08-021h 51
The Healthtech Podcast#360 The UK's top TV producer turned men's mental health founder, with Neil Smith CEO of MettleThis week, James is joined by the UK's top former TV executive Neil Smith. Neil is the CEO and Founder of Mettle, a mental fitness app co-founded with adventurer Bear Grylls and Dr Alex George (UK Government’s Mental Health Ambassador). At this time of crisis, Mettle is revolutionising men’s mental health by giving them the permission and tools they need to be happier, healthier and more successful, for the good of all.Learn more: Bemettle.comApply to be a guest: www.thehealthtechpodcast.comSubscribe to Healthtech Pigeon 🐦:www.healthtechpigeon.com...
2024-07-311h 13BJKS Podcast98. Laura Wesseldijk: Behavioural genetics, music, and the importance of twinsLaura Wesseldijk works at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt at the Behavioral Genetics unit in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. We talk about her research on the genetics of music and mental health, methods in behavioural genetics, the role of large samples, the importance of twins for behavioural genetics, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Did Beethoven have bad genetics for music...
2024-07-191h 20BJKS Podcast96. Benjamin Ehrlich: Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the neuron doctrine, and combining art & scienceBenjamin Ehrlich is the author of the recent biography of Santiago Ramon y Cajal (The brain in search of itself), and The Dreams of Santiago Ramon y Cajal. We talk about Cajal's life and work, Cajal's unlikely beginnings in a rural Spain, how he discovered that neurons were separate from each other, leading to the neutron doctrine, how Cajal became famous seemingly overnight, Cajal's rivalry with Camillo Golgi, the relationship between art and science, how to write a biography of someone whose autobiographical writings were heavily influenced by picaresque novels, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a...
2024-04-161h 06BJKS Podcast95. Emily Finn: Neural fingerprinting, 'naturalistic' stimuli, and taking time before starting a PhDEmily Finn is an assistant professor at Dartmouth College. We talk about her research on neural fingerprinting, naturalistic stimuli, how Emily got into science, the year she spent in Peru before her PhD, advice for writing well, and much more.There are occasional (minor) audio disturbances when Emily's speaking. Sorry about that, still trying to figure out where they came from so that it won't happen again.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...
2024-03-021h 43BJKS Podcast94. David Van Essen: The Human Connectome Project, hierarchical processing, and the joys of collaborationDavid Van Essen is an Alumni Endowed Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about David's path to becoming a neuroscientist, the Human Connectome project, hierarhical processing in the cerebral cortex, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: David's childhood: ravens, rockets, and radios0:05:00: From physics to neuroscience (via chemistry)0:13:55: Quantitative and qualitative approaches to science0:19:17: Model species...
2024-02-181h 01BJKS Podcast92. Tom Hardwicke: Meta-research, reproducibility, and post-publication critique Tom Hardwicke is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. We talk about meta-science, incuding Tom's work on post-publication critique and registered reports, what his new role as editor at Psychological Science entails, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: What is meta-science/meta-research?0:03:15: How Tom got involved in meta-science0:21:51: Post-publication critique in journals0:39:30: How Tom's work (registered reports) led to policy changes at journals0:44:08: Tom i...
2024-02-021h 06BJKS Podcast91. Jessica Polka: Preprints, publishing peer reviews, and the joys of pipettingJessica Polka is Executive Director of ASAPbio, a non-profit that promotes innovation and transparency in life science publishing. We talk about her work at ASAPbio, how she got into it, preprints, the many functions of peer review, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: The Jessica-Polka0:01:25: What is ASAPbio?0:03:53: Do we still need to convince people to use preprints in 2024? / Different uses for preprints0:17:53: Are preprints really that b...
2024-01-261h 16BJKS Podcast90. Brian Boyd: The life & works of Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, and writing biographiesBrian Boyd is a Distinguished Professor in English and Drama at the University of Auckland. We talk mainly about Vladimir Nabokov: Brian wrote the defining biography on Nabokov (in addition to books on more specific aspects about Nabokov), so we discuss Nabokov's life & work, Brian's approachh to writing biographies, with some hints of the new biography Brian is writing about Karl Popper.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why this is a special...
2024-01-191h 40BJKS Podcast89. Camillo Padoa-Schioppa: Value in the brain, orbitofrontal cortex, and causality in neuroscienceCamillo Padoa-Schioppa is a Professor of Neuroscience at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about Camillo's work on economic values in the brain, whether it is causally involved in choice, Camillo's career, working with different species, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: The historic background of economic value0:12:31: How Camillo became a neuroeconomist0:38:50: What does neuroscience add to our understanding...
2024-01-131h 52BJKS Podcast88. Juliana Schroeder: Talking to strangers, undersociality, and replicable field studiesJuliana Schroder is a professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. In this conversation, we talk about her research in which she asks people to talk to strangers, and how this experience is usually a lot more pleasant than people expect. We talk about how the research came to be, what they found, how culture and norms affect the results, how to create robust and replicable field studies, 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...
2024-01-051h 02BJKS Podcast86. Elisabeth Bik: Reporting scientific misconduct, the arms race between fraud & fraud detection, and the microbiome of dolphinsElisabeth Bik is a science integrity consultant. In this conversation, we talk about her work on reporting scientific errors and misconduct, how one becomes a full-time scientific integrity consultant, her postdoc work on the microbiome of dolphins, reactions to her work (both positive and negative), how to deal with online abuse, the arms race between fraudsters and fraud detectors, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Elisabeth became a full-time...
2023-12-221h 32BJKS Podcast84. Brian Nosek: Improving science, the past & future of the Center for Open Science, and failure in scienceBrian Nosek is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, and Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Open Science. In this conversation, we discuss the Center for Open Science, Brian's early interest in improving science, how COS got started, what Brian would like to do in the future, and how to figure out whether ideas are working.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-patreonTimestamps00:00: Brian's early interest in improving science
2023-12-081h 02BJKS Podcast83. Rachel Bedder: Rumination, teaching without grades, and managing yourself as a PhD studentRachel Bedder is a postdoc with Yael Niv at Princeton. In this conversation, we talk about her research on rumination and repetitive negative thinking (in the context of a partially observable Markov decision process), her work as a curator, why she enjoys teaching without grades, how to manage yourself as a PhD student, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Teaching maths in prison0:06:40: Teaching without grades0:15:42: Working as...
2023-12-031h 36BJKS Podcast81. Brooke Macnamara: Growth mindset, deliberate practice, and the benefits of diverse experiencesBrooke Macnamara is an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. In this conversation, we talk about her research on growth mindset and deliberate practice, whether deliberate practice is falsifiable, the benefits of diverse experiences, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Brooke started working on mindset and deliberate practice0:02:10: (Growth) mindset: does it matter?0:21:10: Mindset interventions0:36:48: Deliberate practice0:47:06: Benefits of diverse experiences0:56:20: Is the...
2023-11-171h 06BJKS Podcast80. Simine Vazire: Scientific editing, the purpose of journals, and the future of psychological scienceSimine Vazire is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. In this conversation, we talk about her work on meta-science, the purpose of journals and peer review, Simine's plans for being Editor-in-Chief at Psychological Science, the hidden curriculum of scienitic publishing, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: What is SIPS and why did Simine cofound it?0:05:10: Why Simine resigned from the NASEM Reproducibility & Replicability committee0:13:07: Do...
2023-11-101h 21BJKS Podcast78. Gillian Coughlan: Dementia, spatial navigation, and menopauseGillian Coughlan is a postdoc whose work focuses on the role of spatial navigation in dementia. In this conversation, we talk about how Gillian went from Ireland to doing a PhD in the UK, different ways for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, what beta-amyloid and tau are, what spatial navigation has to do with dementia, and whether early menopause can affect women's spatial navigation performance and risk of getting dementia.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-patreonTimestamps
2023-10-2757 minBJKS Podcast77. Lynn Nadel: Collaboration, Hippocampal History, and clinical applications of hippocampal developmentLynn Nadel is an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, where his research focuses on the role of the hippocampus in memory. This is our second conversation. We discuss how the Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map was received, Lynn's career, including his years as head of department at the University of Arizona, how to foster collaboration, why Lynn started the Hippocampal History project, and the development and clinical aspects of the hippocampus.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni...
2023-10-2048 minBJKS Podcast74. Moin Syed: Glorious PNAS, editing a journal, and masterful procrastinationMoin Syed is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he studies identity and personality development. Our conversation focuses on his work in meta-science, especially the role of journals and editors in the scientific process.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: The silliness of prestige journals (especially PNAS)0:18:45: Deep description are necessary for science and theory0:29:43: Where should I submit my paper?0:35:51: Why would one want to...
2023-08-111h 34BJKS Podcast73. Tom Hostler: Open science, workload, and academic capitalismTom Hostler is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. In this conversation, we focus on his recent article on the increased workload caused by open science.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Start discussing Tom's paper 'The Invisible Workload of Open Research'0:29:22: Does open science actually increase workload?0:44:26: How open science changes the research process0:54:02: Are open science requirements especially time consuming for labs without lots of funding?1:01:44...
2023-06-231h 18BJKS Podcast72. Nico Schuck: Replay, cognitive maps, and multivariate decoding with fMRINico Schuck is Professor and head of the research group 'Mechanisms of learning and change' at the University of Hamburg, where his research focuses on the neuroscience of learning, memory, and cognitive maps. In this conversation, we discuss his work on cognitive maps and replay in Orbitofrontal Cortex and Hippocampus, decoding even brief events with fMRI, 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-patreonTimestamps00:00: Nico's work elicits 'limited enthusiasm'04:36: Multivariate decoding...
2023-06-0458 minBJKS Podcast71. Lynn Nadel: Memory, The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map, and the importance of behaviourLynn Nadel is an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, where his research focuses on the role of the hippocampus in memory. In this conversation, we talk about the early years of Lynn's career: why he chose to do chemistry, how a course with Donald Hebb made him switch to psychology, how his postdoc was disrupted by the Soviet invasion during the Prague Spring, John O'Keefe's discovery of place cells, how Lynn and O'Keefe wrote The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related...
2023-04-231h 01BJKS Podcast70. Mona Garvert: Cognitive maps, fMRI adaptation, and computational psychiatryMona Garvert is Lead Research Scientist at Alena where she uses her background in cognitive neuroscence to advance computational psychiatry. In this episode, we talk about her academic research on the neural basis of cognitive maps, how she got into this topic, fMRI adaptation , and her recent move from academia to working at Alena.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/bjks_podcastTimestamps00:00: How Mona started working on cognitive maps15:28: Repetition suppression/fMRI...
2023-04-081h 06BJKS Podcast69. Peter Gärdenfors: Conceptual spaces, knowledge representation, and semanticsPeter Gärdenfors is an Emeritus Professor at Lund University at the Department of Philosophy. His work is at the intersection of philosophy, cognitive, psychology, and linguistics. In this conversation, we discuss his book Conceptual spaces and many of the topics discussed therein (convexity, prototypes, metrics), whether the theory is falsifiable, how it can explain aspects of semantics and of how children learn, 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-patreonTimestamps0:00:04: Where i...
2023-04-011h 06BJKS Podcast68. Isabel Thielmann: Economic games, personality, and affordancesIsabel Thielmann is a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the study of crime, security and law. In this conversation, we talk about her background as a competitive sprinter, her research on prosocial behaviour and personality, the role of affordances, how game theory and interdependence theory can helpus understand human social behaviour, and Isa's experiences in having started a lab.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-patreonTimestamps0:00:04: Isa used to be...
2023-03-191h 51BJKS Podcast67. Daniela Schiller: Social spaces, cognitive maps, and clinical applicationsDaniela Schiller is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she studies the neural mechanisms of emotional control and flexibility. In this conversation, we talk about her work on cognitive maps for social behaviour, the importance of power and affiliation for our social lives, the difficulties of measuring spatial navigation with fMRI, and potential psychiatric applications of cognitive maps.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google...
2023-02-1251 minBJKS Podcast66. Rafael Pérez y Pérez: Story Machines, Creative AI, and Mexian serenadesRafael Pérez y Pérez is a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Cuajimalpa, where he studies computational creativity, in particular in relation to computer programs that can write stories. In this conversation, we talk about MEXICA, the story generator he has been working on for most of his career, his newly released book Story Machines (with Mike Sharples), the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to creating stories with AI, what the future holds, whether large companies like Amazon are working on these topics, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psy...
2023-02-051h 01BJKS Podcast65. Adam Mastroianni: Conversational doorknobs, improv comedy, and a very dumb academic revolutionAdam Mastroianni is a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School. In this conversation, we talk about his work on conversations, his Substack/blog, his article Things Could Be Better and why he chose to publish it this way, improv comedy, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps0:01:20: Did Adam fake having a girlfriend when h...
2022-12-101h 34BJKS Podcast64. Gareth Barnes: MEG, OPM-MEG and the beauty of tinkeringGareth Barnes is a professor at University College London, where he is Head of Magnetoencephalography. We talk about how Gareth randomly stumbled into working on MEG, what MEG is, and some of his recent projects, including the exciting new generation of MEG scanners: OPM-MEG.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes appear roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps0:00:03: How I found out about Gareth's work0:02:31: What is...
2022-11-171h 25BJKS Podcast62. Nils Köbis: AI, corruption, and deepfakesNils Köbis is a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where he studies the intersection of AI and corruption. In this conversation, we talk about how Nils got into working on this topic, and some of his recent papers on AI, corruption, deepfakes, and AI poetry.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month.Timestamps0:00:04: Moral Games0:13:09: How Nils started working at the intersection of AI and corruption0:30:12: Start d...
2022-09-131h 34
The Small Business SurgeonJames Smith: Determination & PositivityHey guys today I am excited to announce today's guest because we have been trying to get him on the show for a while! He is the CEO of ACT Audio and ACT Audio fleet, James P. Smith. Today he talks to us about his business and experience in the car industry and his journey to getting where he is today.You can find James on Facebook and his website.
2022-08-151h 09BJKS Podcast61. Eva Krockow: Social dilemmas, antimicrobial resistance, and the value of qualitative studiesEva Krockow is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leicester, where her research focusses on the psychology of antimicrobial resistance. We talk about her educational background, her work on the Centipede Game, social dilemmas, antimicrobial resistance, and the value of qualitative studies.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. Timestamps0:00:04: How Eva ended up studying psychology in Leicester0:07:16: Before her PhD, Eva worked in international relations0:13:06: The Centipede Game/Eva's PhD...
2022-08-131h 13BJKS Podcast60. Rickesh Patel: Mantis Shrimp navigation, walking bumblebees, and scientific illustrationsRicky Patel is a postdoc at Lund University, where he studies the neural basis of navigation behaviours in arthropods. In this conversation, we talk about his work on spatial navigation in Mantis Shrimp and bumblebees, the difficulty of recording from moving insects, science communication, and scientific illustrations.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps00:04: What is a Mantis S...
2022-07-0359 minBJKS Podcast59. Chris Frith: Two Heads, social neuroscience, and the history of the FILChris Frith is an Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at University College London. His research has spanned several topics, including social cognition, schizophrenia, volition, and consciousness. We talk about Two Heads (a book co-written with his wife and son), his career, and the history of the FIL.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps00:04: Why did Chris not become a...
2022-06-191h 02BJKS Podcast58. Cameron Brick: climate change, pro-environmental behaviour, and illusory essencesCameron Brick is an Assistant Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the psychological aspects of climate change. In this conversation, we talk about climate change, the psychological aspects behind it, the difficulty of defining pro-environmental behaviour, and his recent article on Illusory Essences in psychological (and neuroscientific) research.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
2022-06-121h 10BJKS Podcast57. Peter Vuust: music in the brain, predictive coding, and jazzPeter Vuust is a Professor at the Center for Music in the Brain in Aarhus, a jazz musician, and composer. In this conversation , we talk about his recent review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, how he got to where he is, active inference in music, jazz improvisation, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps00:05: How Peter b...
2022-05-281h 02BJKS Podcast56. Mary Elizabeth Sutherland: scientific editing, behavioural sciences at Nature, and how to improve submissionsMary Elizabeth Sutherland is senior editor at Nature, where she edits submissions in the behavioural sciences and cognitive neuroscience. In this conversation, we talk about how she became an editor, what editors do all day, how to improve your submissions, the future of publishing at Nature, the harp, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.). Timestamps0:00:00: I...
2022-05-211h 09BJKS Podcast55. Angelika Stefan: p-hacking, simulations, and Shiny AppsAngelika Stefan is a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam in the Psychological Methods group (lead by Eric-Jan Wagenmakers). In this conversation, we talk about her preprint 'Big little lies: A Compendium and Simulation of p-Hacking Strategies', which she just uploaded to PsyArXiv. We also discuss how she created the Shiny App that allows users to play around with the simulations and run simulations that didn't make it into the paper.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per...
2022-05-0154 minBJKS Podcast54. Jessica Kay Flake: Schmeasurement, making stats engaging, and the Psychological Science AcceleratorJessica Flake is Assistant Professor for quantitative psychology and modeling at McGill University, where she studies measurement. In this conversation, we talk about her recent paper 'Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable measurement practices and how to avoid them' (with former guest of the podcast Eiko Fried), how she makes stats lectures interesting, and her work on the Psychological Science Accellarator.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/G...
2022-04-071h 33BJKS Podcast53. Chris Chambers: Registered Reports, scheduled peer-review, and science without journalsChris Chambers is professor at Cardiff University where he is Head of Brain Stimulation. He is also one of the pioneers behind Registered Reports, a type of article where researchers receive peer review and in-principle acceptance before the results are known. In this conversation, we focus on Registered Reports and talk about how Chris got Registered Reports started at Cortex, how the review process differs between Registered Reports and regular papers, whether they are suited for scientists on short-term contracts, and what the future holds for Registered Reports and scientific publishing in general. BJKS Podcast is a p...
2022-03-1658 minBJKS Podcast52. Postdoc fellowship applications (with Toby Wise)In this conversation, I talk with Toby Wise about applying for postdoc fellowships. Toby has received and completed the Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, where he worked with Ray Dolan and Dean Mobbs. He answers some of the questions I have about applying for postdoc fellowships in general, such as how to write a proposal, how to contact potential supervisors/sponsors for your application, when to start, and what kind of scientist a fellowship is even for.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will...
2022-03-061h 27BJKS Podcast45. Michael Hornberger: Sea Hero Quest, developing games for science, and Alzheimer's diseaseMichael Hornberger is a professor of applied dementia research at the University of East Anglia who developed Sea Hero Quest, a mobile game for studying spatial navigation that was downloaded more than 4 million times. In this conversation, we talk about Sea Hero Quest, how Michael (together with Hugo Spiers) developed it, the first findings, and dementia in general.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
2021-11-261h 03BJKS Podcast44. Dan Quintana: Synthetic datasets, science communication, and podcastingDan Quintana is a senior researcher at the University of Olso, where his research focuses on oxytocin, autism, and meta-analyses. In this conversation, we talk about Dan's primer on synthetic datasets, science comunication, Everything Hertz, and podcasting in general.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday, available on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:04: From Australia to Norway0:09:37: Synthetic datasets0:41:15: Software tools in science (for writing and analysing data)0:58:41: Dan's multifaceted o...
2021-11-191h 45BJKS Podcast42. Matthias Stangl: grid cells in aging, path integration, and neural representations of actual physical movement in humansMatthias Stangl is a postdoc at UCLA, where he studies the neural representations of spatial navigation in social situations. In this conversation, we talk about his PhD work about aging, grid cells, and path integration, about his recent Nature paper, about the difference between movement in VR and actual physical movement, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:04: Stangl.Stangl...
2021-11-051h 09BJKS Podcast41. Reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma" Part 2: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (Stewart), and Prisoner's Dilemma (Yardley)This is the second episode of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma". Today I'm reviewing The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart and Prisoner's Dilemma by Ilexa Yardley.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:00: Intro01:07: Reviewing Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma18:04: Reviewing Ilexa Yardley's...
2021-10-2934 minBJKS Podcast40. Reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma" Part 1: A Prisoner's Dilemma (Karabache) and Prisoner's Dilemma (Feiklowicz)This episode is the start of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma", and today I'm starting with the first two books. Basically, I use the Prisoner's Dilemma in my own work and realised that there are 26 books with that title (or minor variant thereof). So, as a very silly idea, I decided to review them all and see whether there is anything I can learn from them about the Prisoner's Dilemma. This episode will be the first, and I'm reviewing A Prisoner's Dilemma by Matthew Karabache and Prisoner's Dilemma by Damien Mitchell Feiklowicz. Over the...
2021-10-2230 minBJKS Podcast39. Nikolai Axmacher: Reduced grid cells in Alzheimer's risk carriers, landmarks in abstract cognitive space, and clinical translationNikolai Axmacher is professor at the Institue for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ruhr University Bochum where his research focuses on memory, spatial navigation, and neurodegenerative diseases. In this conversation, we talk about how he and his colleagues found that people with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's showed reduced grid-cell like activity and path integration ability, despite having no symptoms and still being in their 20s.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms...
2021-10-151h 09BJKS Podcast38. Keno Juechems: Where does value (in RL) come from, optimality with finite computational resources, and learning as a PhD studentKeno Juechems is a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College in Oxford. He studies how humans make decisions, using computational modelling, behavioural tasks, and fMRI. In this conversation, we talk about his papers "Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision" and "Where does value come from?", and various related topics.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: Where do...
2021-10-081h 28BJKS Podcast37. Jacob Bellmund: Deformed cognitive maps, abstract cognitive spaces, and how many dimensions can grid cells encode?Jacob Bellmund is a postdoc at the Max Planck in Leipzig, studying spatial navigation, cognitive maps, and episodic memory. In this conversation, we talk about his research on deforming cognitive maps, abstract cognitive maps, and the translation of the spatial navigation literature to abstract spaces.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:05: How Jacob started working on cognitive maps02:05: What are place...
2021-10-0159 minBJKS Podcast33. Bryan Bruns: Applied sociology, 2x2 games, and how to transform tragedy into win-winBryan Bruns is an independent consultant sociologist, working mainly on water irrigation systems in southeast Asia. He also publishes academic papers about game theory. In this conversation, we talk about how he became a consultant sociologist, what that even means, how to learn foreign languages, his work on 2x2 games, how to transform a social dilemma into a win-win situation, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple...
2021-09-032h 08BJKS Podcast31. Stuart Ritchie: Science Fictions, fraud, and open science Stuart Ritchie is Lecturer at King's College London, where he studies behavioural genetics in relation to personality and cognitive ability. In this conversation, we don't talk about any of that though but instead focus on his book Science Fictions, a book about how science goes wrong, and the topics covered therein.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:41: Trying to replicate Bem (2011...
2021-08-201h 33BJKS Podcast29. Anna Riedl: Cognitive science, effective altruism, and science communicationAnna Riedl is a cognitive scientist, currently finishing her MSc in cognitive science in Vienna. She is also founder of Effective Altruism Austria, and co-organiser of the Rationality Vienna Meetup. In this conversation, we talk about cognitive science, rationality, effective altruism, visualisation in science communication, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:04: Studying as a firstgen07:35: Anna's MSc...
2021-08-0650 minBJKS Podcast27. Nichola Raihani: The evolution of punishment, ultimate & proximate explanations, and cleaner fishNichola Raihani is a professor of evolution and behaviour at University College London. Her research focuses on the evolution of punishment and paranoia. In this conversation, we talk about the fieldwork she did for her PhD in the Kalahari desert, the evolution of punishment, proximate and ultimate explanations, cleaner fish, and Nichola's book The Social Instinct.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps
2021-07-2357 minBJKS Podcast25. Désirée Brucks: Inequity aversion in dogs, ecologically realistic experiments, parrots help others obtain food rewardsDésirée Brucks is a postdoc at the University of Giessen and studies social cognition in animals, having worked with dogs, wolves, parrots, and a few more species. She is currently studying farm animals. In this conversation, we talk mainly about her work on inequty aversion in dogs and helping behaviour in parrots. Along the way, I get to ask all sorts of questions about animal cognition.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all po...
2021-07-091h 40BJKS Podcast23. Pete Trimmer: Croquet, from maths anxiety to maths degree, and ecological rationalityPete Trimmer is a behavioural scientist who works as a senior teaching fellow at the University of Wawrick. His research, almost exclusively theoretical, focuses on the evolution of learning, decision-making, and physiological processes. In this conversation, we talk about a wide range of topics: how Pete became a world-class croquet player (former World No. 3), how he got into academia, how he overcame maths anxiety to become a mathematical biologist, and his work on ecological rationality.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday...
2021-06-251h 29
In this Corner the PodcastFormer world welterweight champ Shawn Porter joins ITCIn This Corner's James "Smitty" Smith and co-host Amber Dixon preview Crawford vs Brook with insight from former world welterweight champion and boxing broadcaster Shawn Porter who fought Kell Brook.Porter also discusses what's next in his career while offering comment on Lopez vs Lomachenko and Deontay Wilder's allegations of foul play in Wilder-Fury 2.Regular contributor Lee Groves, a boxing historian, writer and author, also joins the show.
2021-06-1244 minBJKS Podcast21. Giuliana Spadaro: Cooperation Databank, payoff matrices, and meta-analysesGiuliana Spadaro is a postdoc in the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab, directed by Daniel Balliet. Her research focuses on cooperation and prosociality. In this conversation, we talk about Giuliana's recent work on the Cooperation Databank (https://cooperationdatabank.org/), a database that contains around 2,600 studies on cooperation, coded by experts to facilitate meta-analyses and other tasks about cooperation research. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).T...
2021-06-111h 18BJKS Podcast19. Erik Wengström: Loss aversion when deciding for others, the relationship between economics & psychology, and prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemicErik Wengström is a Professor of Economics at Lund University where he studies how people behave in economic and financial situations. In this conversation, we talk about his study about loss aversion when deciding for others and his recent study on prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, we also discuss the differences and similarities between economics and psychology. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Pod...
2021-05-281h 13BJKS Podcast17. Bianca Trovò: Ants-Review, rethinking peer review, and blockchainBianca Trovò is a PhD student at Neurospin and Sorbonne Université, where she studies self-initiated movements. Recently, she is a developer of Ants-Review, a blockchain-based protocol for incentivising scientific peer review. In this conversation, we talk mainly about Ants-Review and I ask questions from the perspective of a scientist who isn't particularly familiar with blockchain and cryptography.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Ti...
2021-05-141h 48BJKS Podcast16. Brock Bastian: Pain, cooperation, and the benefits of difficultyBrock Bastian is a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne whose research focuses on pain, happiness, and morality. In this conversation, we talk about Brock's work on how and why pain is meaningful. We talk about Brock's work on pain and cooperation, reproducibility in social psychology, his books The Other Side of Happiness, the value of doing shit jobs, Brave New World, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on al...
2021-04-301h 08
Bard FliesHamlet: The Rest is Violence...what can one say about the Melancholy Dane that hasn’t already been said? It’s the big one, the work that casts the longest shadow in all of English literature outside of the King James Bible. We quote it without thinking. It helped inspire The Lion King. And its most famous soliloquy has launched a thousand parodies. Will and James break down the epic monologues, the bloody action, the meditations on mortality, depression, mental illness, tortured love affairs, murder, suicide, conspiracy, invasion, and a savagely bloody denouement in which (spoiler alert!) everyone dies. // CREDITS // Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The...
2021-04-021h 08BJKS Podcast14. Tessa Rusch: COVID-Dynamic, an extremely variable year, and theory of mindTessa Rusch is a postdoc working on computational modelling of social interactions at Caltech in the labs of Ralph Adolphs and John O'Doherty. She is also part of COVID-Dynamic project, a large-scale longitudinal study on the psychological effects of the COVID pandemic. In this conversation, we talk about Tessa's experiences of being part of such a large project, about her move to the US just before the pandemic, and about her review on computational models and bevioural tasks of Theory of Mind.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted b...
2021-04-021h 48BJKS Podcast13. Joe Hilgard: Scientific fraud, reporting errors, and effects that are too big to be trueJoe Hilgard is Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Illinois State University. In this conversation, we discuss his work on detecting and reporting scientific fraud. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: Are we only catching the dumb fraudsters?0:08:45: Why does Joe always sign his peer reviews?0:11:51: Detecting errors during peer review0:17:44: Retractions motivated by Joe's work0:22:19: The w...
2021-03-191h 28BJKS Podcast12. Eiko Fried: Being a generalist, theory building in psychology, and useful fictionsEiko Fried is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. He recently published a target article in Psychological Inquiry about the lack of theory building in network and factor models, and how this impedes progress.In this conversation, we talk about that article, problems with theories in psychology, Eiko's general approach to science, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts...
2021-03-051h 42