Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

The course of history is affected by many things, including the political and social situations of large groups of people, their biological and physical abilities, and their geographical and environmental contexts. Sometimes, it would seem, history -- or corporations, or religions, or sports teams -- can be affected by the actions of just a few influential persons. In his new book, Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings, Jared Diamond asks what effect leaders can have, and what it is that makes them successful (or not). Right now, Babbel is offering listeners who want to learn a new language up to 60% off. Go to https://babbel.com/MINDSCAPE. #ad Preserve your online privacy at Incogni and get 60% off an annual plan at https://incogni.com/MINDSCAPE. #ad Monthly pledges to FarmKind to help fight factory farming will be boosted by 50% at https://farmkind.giving/MINDSCAPE. #ad Blog post with transcript: https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/09/07/367-jared-diamond-on-the-course-of-history-and-the-role-of-leaders/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Jared Diamond received a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Pulitzer Prize. His international bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel has sold over seven million copies. Web site UCLA web page Amazon author page Wikipedia

Black holes, as Stephen Hawking discovered, do grow old: they emit radiation, lose mass, and eventually evaporate away. But our fascination with black holes never grows old. This is especially true today, as we are seeing a flood of new data and intriguing theoretical ideas, which both tests the limits of Einstein's general relativity and teach us new things about the astrophysical universe. At the Center of Gravity at the University of Copenhagen, they are currently celebrating Black Hole Week, which provides an excellent opportunity to talk with Center director Vitor Cardoso about what we've been learning about these singular cosmic objects. Use code MINDSCAPE at https://monarch.com/ to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. #ad Upgrade your everyday and get free shipping and 365-day returns at https://quince.com/MINDSCAPE. #ad See what ElevenAgents can do for your specific workflows at https://elevenlabs.io/MINDSCAPE. #ad Blog post with transcript: https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/08/24/365-vitor-cardoso-on-why-black-holes-are-special/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Vitor Cardoso received his Ph.D. in physics from the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. He is currently a Villum Investigator and Director of the Center of Gravity at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and a Distinguished Professor at Técnico. Web site University of Copenhagen web page Simons Collaboration page Google Scholar publications

Large Language Models display an uncanny ability to construct human-sounding speech, and can synthesize concepts in novel ways. Is this because they are truly thinking like human beings in some way, or have they found a way to be human-like without reproducing the internal mechanisms of human thought? Chandra Sripada argues that LLM cognition is more human-like than we suppose, and offers evidence from the ways that cognitive scientists study actual humans. Blog post with transcript: https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/08/10/363-chandra-sripada-on-how-llms-and-humans-are-cognitive-cousins/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Chandra Sripada received an M.D. from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Rutgers University. He is currently a professor of philosophy and psychiatry at the University of Michigan, where he holds the Theophile Raphael Research Professorship and directs the Weinberg Institute for Cognitive Science. He writes Cognition, Decoded, a Substack newsletter about AI, cognitive science, and philosophy. Web site Google Scholar publications PhilPeople profile Babbel is offering listeners up to 60% off. Go to https://babbel.com/MINDSCAPE. #ad Get 60% off an annual plan from Incogni using code MINDSCAPE at https://incogni.com/mindscape. #ad

People who live in large cities produce more patents per person than those who live in small towns. They also walk faster down the street, and use less infrastructure per person. Indeed, the relationships between these quantities and city population obey power laws with apparently universal exponents, reminiscent of scaling laws is biological organisms? Luis Bettencourt argues that they can be explained in similar ways, using ideas from complex systems and network theory. Blog post with transcript: https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/07/27/362-luis-bettencourt-on-the-universal-properties-of-self-organizing-cities/ Support Mindscape on Patreon. Luis Bettencourt received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Imperial College London. He is currently the Lorna Puttkammer Straus Professor Department of Ecology and Evolution & Data Sciences Institute, as well as Associate Faculty and Special Friend in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Introduction to Urban Science: Evidence and Theory of Cities as Complex Systems. Web site University of Chicago web page Google Scholar publications Wikipedia