Neurotalk is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with neuroscientists about the brain. 

Neurotalk

Welcome to the new year of school, and a new year of NeuroTalk! In our first episode of our second season, we speak with Yun Zhang about growing up in science, and learning and behavior in the nematode C.elegans! 

Yun Zhang is an associate professor of biology at Harvard University. 

Note to listeners: we had some connectivity issues while conducting the interview, so the audio quality is not as good in some places.

NeuroTalk S2E1 Yun Zhang

Born in Japan, raised in London, Fu seamlessly blends the essence of British music culture with her deep-seated passion for the sounds of Chicago and Detroit. Influenced by the underground music scenes of both Japan and the UK, Fu will instantly bring you into the zone with her deep house/techno set. Beyond Japan, Fu is spreading her wings out into the growing presence of dance music communities in Asia, including Indonesia (Bali) and Thailand. 

Kyle Hall - 05.08.25

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/robert-musil.

Robert Musil (1880-1942) was an Austrian novelist, famous for "The Man Without Qualities." Set in Austria just before the start of World War I, it features a character who tries to live without fixed principles. But is it a good idea to conduct your life in this way? Is it even possible? Could having a rigid system of beliefs make you insensitive to changes in society? Is there a happy medium between dogmatism and spinelessness? Josh and Ray remain flexible with Bence Nanay from the University of Antwerp, author of "Philosophy Without Qualities: Robert Musil, the Thinker" (forthcoming).

Robert Musil and Life as Experiment

Making and Breaking Habits

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/making-and-breaking-habits.

To honk or not to honk?

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/narrative-and-the-meaning-of-life.

Humans are uniquely storytelling creatures who can narrate the events of their own lives. Some argue that our lives derive meaning from our ability to see them as an ongoing story. So is telling our own life story the key to a meaningful life? Is it the events that matter, or how we describe them? Does it matter if we’re unreliable narrators who fudge the facts to make ourselves look good? Josh and Ray tell tales with Helena de Bres from Wellesley College, author of "Philosophy in the First Person."

Narrative and the Meaning of Life

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/narrative-and-the-meaning-of-life.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle.

Gilbert Ryle and the Map of the Mind

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle.

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book The Concept of Mind. He developed a novel argument against Cartesian dualism, which he called “the doctrine of the ghost in the machine”—the idea that our minds and bodies are separate substances. Ryle introduced a new term for the problem with this argument: Descartes was making a “category mistake.” But what exactly is a category mistake, and how bad is it to make one? If Cartesian dualism is false, what is the relationship between our minds and our bodies? And what does it have to do with the distinction between “knowing-how” and “knowing-that”? Josh and Ray turn their minds to Michael Kremer from the University of Chicago.

Each week SINTN (the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neuroscience) invites a prominent scientist to come to campus and share their most recent work with the Stanford community. For professors, and a few students each week, this is also an opportunity to chat casually with these scientists one-on-one. Our goal with this program is to open that experience up to the broader neuroscience community.

We hope the conversation gives you some insight into the speaker’s personality and provides a platform for the kind of stories of science which are of interest to us but are often are left out of more formal papers or presentations...
how did the scientist really get interested in a subject ?
what are some of the more unexpected challenges they had to overcome?
In essence, it’s a conversation between neuroscientists, for neuroscientists.

This week’s speaker is Alison Doupe, a professor of psychiatry and physiology at the W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF.

NeuroTalk Ep1 Allison Doupe

each week SINTN (the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neuroscience) invites a prominent scientist to come to campus and share their most recent work with the Stanford community. For professors, and a few students each week, this is also an opportunity to chat casually with these scientists one-on-one. With the goal of opening that experience up to the broader neuroscience community, we at NeuWrite West (a group dedicated to improving science communication), are launching a new podcast called NeuroTalk. Each week, we will engage the SINTN speaker in an informal interview/conversation, with the aim of gaining a better insight into the speaker’s personality, and providing a platform for the kinds of stories which are of interest to us but are often left out of more formal papers or presentations. In essence, it’s a conversation between neuroscientists, for neuroscientists.

This week’s guest is Dr. Michael Platt, a professor of neurobiology, and the director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.

NeuroTalk Ep2MichaelPlatt

In our third episode of NeuroTalk, we speak with professor Evan Eichler about the role of genetic variations in evolution and disease, the journey from the early days of the human genome project to personal genomics, juggling chromosomes, angora sweaters, and more.  Dr. Eichler is a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. 

NeuroTalk Ep3EvanEichler

In the fourth episode of NeuroTalk, we talk to Peggy Mason, a professor of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago, about pain, empathy, and sharing your lunch. 


NeuroTalk Ep4 Peggy Mason

This week, we speak with Mark Mayford, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at the Salk Institute at the University of California at San Diego. 

NeuroTalk Ep6MarkMayford

Neurotalk, the interview series for Stanford University's week neuroscience seminar, and Brains & Bourbon, a casual cocktails and chat series featuring prominent members of our neuroscience community.

NeuroTalk S2E1 Yun Zhang

NeuWriteWest

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