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Why penguins are one of the planet’s most unique bird species
Thanks to their comical waddle-like way of walking, striking tuxedo-patterned plumage or graceful ability to seemingly ‘fly’ beneath the water, penguins are without doubt one of the planet’s most instantly recognisable animals. But the fact is that they are also one of its most endangered species of bird. In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Peter Fretwell, lead scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, to talk about his latest book The Penguin Book of Penguins – An Expert’s Guide to the World’s Most Beloved Bird. He tells us how, despite popular belief, penguins are found all over the globe, not just in Antarctica, why exactly they have such a comical way of walking and the actions we need to take if we want to save these charismatic birds from extinction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Busting the biggest myths in neuroscience
Relatively speaking neuroscience and psychology are young fields of scientific research that only really got going over the last hundred years or so. However, during this time several stubborn myths have arisen that, zombie-like, just don’t seem to go away. In this episode, we speak to neuroscientist, best-selling author and long-time BBC Science Focus contributor Dr Dean Burnett. He tells us how much of our brain we really use, explains whether polygraphs can really tell if we’re lying, and explains the real difference between our left and right brains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The positive tipping points that can help us solve the climate crisis
When it comes to climate change, we often think of tipping points as having a huge negative effect. Be it the loss of ice sheets in the Arctic, the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest or the alteration of ocean currents, scientists have identified several key systems on the Earth that will be impossible to reverse if they cross a critical threshold. But if we look at the situation from the opposite side, there are also several positive tipping points that, given the correct momentum, can potentially halt the crisis the planet is facing. In this episode, we’re joined by Prof Tim Lenton, chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter, to talk about his latest book Positive Tipping Points – How to Fix the Climate Crisis. He tells us how the pop group A-ha helped Norway to lead the way in the adoption of electric vehicles, how government mandates can act as powerful amplifiers to get us closer to these vital climate tipping points, and how each positive tipping point can feed into another to push us closer to a greener future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How cats became one of our most-loved domestic pets
From Lewis Carrol’s mysterious grinning Cheshire Cat and Jim Davis’s lazy, lasagne-loving comic strip tabby Garfield to the depictions of big cats found in palaeolithic cave art and the ancient Egyptian’s practice of worshipping cat-like deities, it’s clear we humans have had a long-standing fascination with felines. But how did this obsession with these charismatic animals begin? In this episode, we’re joined by Jerry D Moore, a professor of anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, to talk about his latest book Cat Tales: A History – How We Learned to Live with Them… He tells us how ancient cultures feared and revered the big cats they shared their land with thanks to their prowess as apex predators, how human’s development of agriculture and the storage of grain gave wild cats a reliable hunting ground in which to catch rodents, and how the domestic house cats of today may have chosen to live with us and much as we chose to live with them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How the health of the oceans is vital for the health of the planet
Despite being a land-based species, the fact is that we humans live on a planet that is largely covered by oceans. The oceans play a key role in regulating the Earth’s climate and provide us with many of the resources essential for our continued survival – even down to the oxygen we breathe. The sad truth is our oceans aren’t in good shape. But there is still hope. With directed effort we can all help to preserve this vital resource and improve the health of the planet and all who live on it. In this episode, we catch up with oceanographer, environmentalist and grandson of the legendary ocean explorer and innovator Jacques Cousteau, Philippe Cousteau Jr. He breaks down the huge importance the oceans have on the health of the planet, explains how taking positive environmental action can benefit us both culturally and economically and how educating the next generation is key to safeguarding the future of the planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The tiny molecules tackling the planet’s biggest challenges
In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Omar Yaghi – a pioneer of materials chemistry whose inventions are shaping the future of clean energy, clean air, and even clean water. He’s best known for creating metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs, and covalent organic frameworks, COFs – ultra-porous materials that can capture carbon, store hydrogen, and even pull drinking water out of desert air. His work has opened up an entirely new field of chemistry, and his breakthroughs are now being developed into technologies that could help us tackle some of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How to build a healthier, longer-living society
The most commonly held narrative states that we’re all ultimately responsible for our own health and wellbeing. While there’s undoubtedly truth in this idea, the bigger picture shows that the societies we live in and the policies shaped by our governments also play a huge role in our quality of life and longevity. In this episode, we’re joined by Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health based at the University of Edinburgh, about her latest book, How Not to Die (Too Soon) – The Lies We’ve Been Sold and the Policies That Can Save Us. She explains how the key to longevity begins with education, discusses the lessons we can learn from some of the world's longest-lived populations, and outlines the positive societal changes governments can implement to help us all live longer, healthier lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The psychology of making the most of your time
Be it due to an increasingly demanding workload or responsibilities that need fulfilling at home, these days many of feel that there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything we need to get done. For many of us this can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. So, what can we do to improve our relationship with time? In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Ian Taylor, a psychologist based at Loughborough University, to talk about his latest book Time Hacks – The Psychology of Time and How to Spend it. He tells us how relying on willpower alone is never the best way to be more productive, why we should be getting the most important tasks on our to-do lists completed early in the day and how breaking larger intimidating goals down into smaller micro-goals can have a huge impact on our motivation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How to overcome fear, according to a neuroscientist
We all know the feeling: thoughts racing through your mind, nervous flutters in your belly, your heart beating hard in your chest. When your whole body is screaming at you that you’re in danger, it can feel impossible to not listen. But fear doesn’t have to hold you back. In this episode, we speak to Professor Abby Marsh, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University, in the US, who recently starred in National Geographic’s new series, Limitless: Live Better Now. In this series, scientists – including Abby – teach actor Chris Hemsworth how to conquer fear, pain and cognitive decline. Today, Abby tells us about what fear is, how it manifests in our bodies and brains, and techniques we can use to overcome or harness it, so we can live more emboldened lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How connecting with nature can help neurodivergent lives
It’s estimated that as many as one in five of the world’s population are neurodivergent. Be it ADHD, autism or dyslexia, these differences in brain function can make everyday life more difficult for many. But maybe the natural world can provide some much-needed relief. In this episode, we speak to naturalist and author Joe Harkness about his latest book Neurodivergent by Nature – Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity. He tells us why many neurodivergent people don’t receive an accurate diagnosis until later in life, why many neurodivergent people are attracted to careers in conservation and how getting out in natural environments can help us all to relax and feel safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The science behind PMS, and how to beat it
The luteal phase of the menstrual cycle has a really bad reputation. It’s known for premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, when many menstruating people experience low mood, bloating, food cravings and sluggishness before their period arrives. In stark contrast, we think of earlier phases in the cycle as times when we feel energetic, motivated and self-confident. In this episode, we speak to Dr Sarah Hill, an evolutionary psychologist whose research focuses on women, relationships and health, and the author of This is Your Brain on Birth Control and her upcoming title, The Period Brain. She tells us what happens to the body and brain during the luteal phase, why so many of us experience unpleasant symptoms, and some little things we can do to feel our best. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How the world needs to adapt to a changing climate
We’re no longer living in a world before climate change. Its impacts – from rising sea levels to more extreme weather – are already upon us, and will almost certainly get worse before they get better. But beyond cutting our emissions as fast as possible, what do we need to do to survive, and hopefully thrive, in this new world? Today’s guest, researcher and author Susannah Fisher, joins us to explore that question. In her new book Sink or Swim, she lays out two possible futures: one where we fail to adapt and face the mounting chaos, and another where we make the hard choices needed to live in a hotter world. Which one of these we end up with, she says, is up to us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How humans learned to speak and why
Humans’ unique ability to communicate through complex systems of language is one of the key attributes that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. But how did this complex behaviour arise? In her latest book, The Origin of Language – How We Learned to Speak and Why, evolutionary biologist Madeleine Beekman argues that our ability to speak arose due to the need to take care of our children. She tells us how early human’s anatomy changed dramatically when our ancestors came down from the tress and began walking on two legs, how a quirk of genetics allowed humans to develop such large brains that aided the development of language, and why human’s slow development from helpless infants to functioning members of society gave rise to the need for in-group cooperation and complex modes of communication. To get the exclusive gift box from Shokz, order via this link: https://bit.ly/4kFt10l Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The biggest unsolved mysteries in cosmology
For thousands of years humans have looked out into the night sky and pondered on the mysteries of the vast cosmos that we find ourselves part of. From Copernicus’ discovery that the Earth revolves around the Sun to Einstein’s revelation that gravity is the result of the curvature of spacetime, we’ve learned much about how the universe operates. But we’re still only scratching the surface. In this episode, we speak to Marcus Chown, an award-winning science writer and broadcaster and long-time contributor to BBC Science Focus. He explains why pinning down the nature of dark matter and dark energy has eluded us for so long, why we can’t get gravity to agree with the three other forces of nature, and discusses the possibility of the existence of multiple universes. To get the exclusive gift box from Shokz, order via this link: https://bit.ly/4kFt10l Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The hidden ways money has shaped human civilisation
If most of us were asked what we thought was meant by the word ‘technology’ chances are the first thing that would come to mind are inventions such as cars, medicine and computers. But economist and author David McWilliams would argue these are all physical technologies and that there’s also a whole world of social technologies out there that have shaped human progress in a similarly profound way that most of us are largely unaware of. Chief amongst these, he says, is the invention of money. In this episode, we speak to David about his latest book Money – A Story of Humanity. He tells us how the very reason that money has any value at all is based on our collective belief and trust in it as a concept, how money was much more deeply involved in turning points in human history than first meets the eye, and we need to see our relationship with money as an evolutionary process that progresses much like natural selection. To get the exclusive gift box from Shokz, order via this link: https://bit.ly/4kFt10l Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices