Podcasts by Big Brains

Big Brains Trailer from 2023-12-13T14:37:06.137441

Big Brains tells the stories behind the pioneering research and breakthroughs reshaping our world. The show is produced out of the University of Chicago and hosted by Paul Rand.

Nature’s Design Secrets with Rama Ranganathan from 2023-12-13T14:37:06.076774

From the smallest proteins of cells to entire ecosystems, nature might be the most sophisticated engineer on earth.

Researchers like UChicago molecular biologist Rama Ranganathan are tryi...

Economist’s Journey to the Nobel with Richard Thaler from 2023-12-13T14:37:06.068537

Richard Thaler has been dubbed one of the "founding fathers" of behavioral economics, bridging the gap between psychology and economics, and in 2017 he received the Nobel Prize in Economic Scien...

SCOTUS Nears Unimaginable Era with Geoffrey Stone from 2023-12-13T14:37:06.060847

UChicago Law professor Geoffrey Stone has an intimate knowledge of the Supreme Court.

From his time as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan where he witnessed the deci...

Future of Higher Education and College Access with Robert J. Zimmer from 2023-12-13T14:37:06.054016

As president of the University of Chicago, Robert J. Zimmer has a unique view to the challenges and opportunities facing higher education, and one of the biggest obstacles he sees is access for ...

Vietnam and the Rise of the White Power Movement with Kathleen Belew from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.962712

The revelation for historian Kathleen Belew came while researching a 1979 anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina that turned deadly when five members were murdered by a group of K...

What We’re Getting Wrong About Millennials With Cathy Cohen from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.884649

Every election year, poll after poll tries to predict where millennials stand politically. But Prof. Cathy Cohen of the University of Chicago says some of our assumptions about what issues matte...

Lessons From Our Country’s Largest School Closing with Eve L. Ewing from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.870300

In her book Ghosts In The Schoolyard, University of Chicago scholar Eve Ewing asks a central question ...

Tiny Creatures, Big Discoveries With Nipam Patel from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.863774

Since the late 1800s, if you were serious about studying biology you went to the Marine Biological Laboratory. The discoveries made there have led to world-changing applications in biology, medi...

A Modern Medical Miracle with Drs. Valluvan Jeevanandam and Talia Baker from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.858073

Doctor Valluvan Jeevanandam says that transplantation is a “spiritual journey.” One person’s tragic loss leads to the another’s second chance at life. But not all transplants are the same.

How the Loss of Community Threatens Society With Raghuram Rajan from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.851777

UChicago economist Raghuram Rajan became infamous for predicting the 2008 financial collapse three years before it happened.

Rajan says that there are three pillars in our society: the st...

Guest Show - No Jargon from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.844660

We're taking a summer break during July, but we'll be back in August with new episodes telling the stories of leading research with some of the world's greatest minds. During the break, we'll be...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Polarization, Discrimination and Her Favorite Dissent from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.794303

One of the incredible perks of making a podcast at a place like the University of Chicago is the opportunity to feature some of the incredible guests who speak on our campus. 

This week, ...

Why Talking to Strangers Will Make You Happier With Nicholas Epley from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.785865

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Most people say they’d want to read minds. But Prof. Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business says you already hav...

Why Chasing The Good Life Is Holding Us Back With Lauren Berlant from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.779936

For most Americans, the driving force in their personal and public life is a desire to attain the “good life”. But what if our attachment to that desire is the very thing holding us back? Lauren...

Why Some Nations Prosper and Others Fail, with James Robinson from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.773975

It’s a simple question to ask, but seems impossible to answer: What causes one nation to succeed and another to fail? What exactly are the origins of global inequality?

There are few peop...

Coronavirus Shows Why We Need To Rethink Health Care, with Kate Baicker from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.753816

The coronavirus outbreak has devastated many sectors of our society, and brought many of the issues we were facing before the pandemic to the forefront. This is especially true of health care. Listen

What Historic Pandemics Could Teach Us About Coronavirus, with Ada Palmer from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.741471

What happens to the world after a pandemic? Lots of experts have been talking about what we may be able to expect after COVID-19 from the 1918 Spanish flu and The Black Death. But, as any histor...

Why We're Obsessed With Conspiracy Theories from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.692928

There have always been, and probably always will be, conspiracy theories, but we’ve certainty seen a dramatic increase this year. Misinformation around the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic h...

Why The Quantum Internet Could Change Everything, with David Awschalom from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.681643

Imagine a new technology that could create unbreakable encryption, supercharge the development of AI, and radically expedite the development of drug treatments for everything from cancer to COVI...

Correcting History: Native Americans Tell Their Own Stories from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.661339

Since their inception, natural history museums have struggled with how to represent Native Americans and their culture. People from these communities are often not included in the conversation, ...

Anthony Fauci On What We Need To Get Over COVID-19 from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.591016

Anthony Fauci has spent the past year trying to curb the worst health crisis the world has seen in a century. 

In a recent University of Chicago event, Fauci reflected on how the COVID-19...

Fighting Poverty And Pandemics, with Nobel Economist Michael Kremer from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.583107

The solutions to global poverty can appear obvious, even if they’re difficult to implement. But, as University of Chicago economist Michael Kremer has discovered, interventions that may seem lik...

Taking Aliens Seriously, with Avi Loeb from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.577010

The possibility of alien life has captivated the human imagination for decades and has been at the center of some of our most popular fictional stories. But one scientist has made a controversia...

Solving The Biggest Mysteries Of Our Universe, With Dan Hooper from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.571279

Why does our universe work the way it does? What are its laws? How did it start with the Big Bang‚ and how will it end?

Scientists like Prof. Dan Hooper from the University of Chicago use...

A Scientist’s Beef With The Meat Industry, With Impossible Foods’ Pat Brown from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.565860

Even if you’ve never eaten an Impossible Burger, you’ve probably heard of them. But you may not know the science and story behind those meatless products.

Pat Brown is a University of Chi...

How a Genetic Breakthrough Could Address Global Hunger from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.558290

By 2050 humanity is going to have to produce 50% more food in order to feed a growing population. That’s a lot, especially given that we currently have trouble feeding the current global populat...

The Science Behind Forming Better Habits, With Katy Milkman from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.541461

Why is it so hard for us to form good habits—and so easy to form bad ones? Most people turn to the self-help section to find answers, but this is really a question for behavior science. Katy Milkm...

Combating Our Global Water Crisis Using AI, with Junhong Chen from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.492324

There are a lot of problems in our world today, but if our water systems aren’t working, everything else takes a backseat. From a lack of freshwater to droughts on the West Coast to contaminants li...

Do Your Genes Determine Your Success In Life? With Kathryn Paige Harden from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.487821

Experts say we’re living through a renaissance in genetics research. The Human Genome project has explained our most fundamental genetics, CRISPR gene editing can be used to shape genetic code, and...

Best Of: Why Talking to Strangers Will Make You Happier With Nicholas Epley from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.472962

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Most people say they’d want to read minds. But Prof. Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business says you already have t...

Confronting Gun Violence With Data, With Jens Ludwig from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.468802

There’s something strange happening with violent crime in America. Incidents are reaching levels they haven’t hit in decades, and nobody seems to know why. But, to go even deeper, what causes viole...

The Overlooked History Of Black Cinema, With Jacqueline Stewart from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.463865

Prof. Jacqueline Stewart’s career has examined the histories of overlooked Black filmmakers and Black audiences. Last year, the University of Chicago film scholar Stewart won a prestigious MacArthu...

Could Personalizing Laws Make Society More Just? With Omri Ben-Shahar from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.457155

Big data has created a world of personalization. We have personalized medicine, personalized education, personalized advertising. Now, one University of Chicago Law School scholar is asking: Why no...

The Man Who Fought To Sanction Putin And Russian Oligarchs, with Bill Browder from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.447651

As Vladimir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine, Western nations have come together in unprecedented fashion to condemn his actions, in the form of economic sanctions against Putin and his Russ...

How Tax Dodging And Corporate Secrecy Found A Home In Delaware, With Hal Weitzman from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.433692

When you think about corporate secrecy, nefarious shell companies and conspiratorial tax dodging, the state of Delaware probably doesn’t come to mind. We often think of exotic places like Panama or...

Extreme Heat Waves: Why Are They Surging? with Noboru Nakamura from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.397307

It’s not your imagination, summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in...

The Crucial Race To Build A Better Battery With Shirley Meng from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.385452

Batteries have revolutionized our lives, especially the invention of rechargeable batteries, which have enabled us to have cellphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But as we transition to more f...

The Imbalance In Our Society With Raghuram Rajan from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.379965

Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highli...

The Afterlife Of Mass Incarceration With Reuben Jonathan Miller from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.375510

Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highli...

Why Quantum Tech Will Change Our Future: The Day Tomorrow Began from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.355234

In the last few years, we’ve witnessed the birth of an entirely new field of science: quantum technology. With the power to create unbreakable encryption, supercharge the development of AI, and r...

Is The U.S. Headed Toward Another Civil War? Feat. William Howell from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.347551

As we approach the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, we wanted to reflect on a few questions that many Americans are asking these days: Is democracy on the brink of the c...

The Scientific Secret To A Happy Life, With Marc Schulz from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.339176

What is the key to living a happy and fulfilling life? The answer is actually quite simple, according to the two scholars behind the longest scientific study of happiness every conducted.

...

Why Mourning Is Essential To Our Well-Being, With Jonathan Lear from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.296919

Mourning is an inevitable part of our human existence. But what exactly does it mean to mourn, and why is it an essential part of our well-being and survival? These questions have long fascinated P...

Providing Basic Health Insurance For Every American, With Katherine Baicker from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.279110

If there is something both sides of the political aisle can agree on, it’s that there is something deeply wrong with health insurance in the United States. What they can’t agree on is how to fix...

The Health Costs of Air Pollution from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.269316

Many cities in the US have been experiencing smoky and hazy skies lately. Some of you have probably been affected by poor air quality due to the ongoing wildfires in Canada that are causing poll...

Why The Secret To Health Lies In The Mind-body Connection, with Ellen Langer from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.254872

Can you heal faster just by tricking your brain? Could you lose weight with only a change of mindset? Could you think yourself into being younger? If you think the answer to all these questions ...

Will Political Violence Destroy Our Democracy?, With Robert Pape from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.247028

Since the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, University of Chicago Prof. Robert Pape has been closely observing the threats to our democracy. Now, the renowned terrorism expert says that v...

Are We Worse People Than We Used To Be? With Adam Mastroianni from 2023-12-13T14:37:05.237877

How many times have you heard this phrase: “Back in the day, people were nicer” or “People aren’t as kind as they used to be?” Most of us have experienced the feeling that people are becoming me...

A Radical Solution To Address Climate Change, with David Keith from 2023-11-30T13:00

Climate change can feel like an impossible crisis these days. Every week there is some new report about the irreversible damage we’re doing to our planet and the havoc it will bring to people’s ...

How PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Are Harming Our Health, with Linda Birnbaum from 2023-11-16T13:00

By now, you've probably heard about the dangers of PFAS “forever chemicals.” These chemicals are all around us—they're in waterproof hiking boots, electronics, nonstick pans and even our drinkin...

Freakonomics’ Steven Levitt On The Secret To Making Tough Choices from 2023-10-19T12:00

Of the academic books that have become household names, “Freakonomics” must be at the top of the list. The 2005 book by University of Chicago scholar Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner ...

Defending Campus Free Speech In A Polarized Age, with Paul Alivisatos and Tom Ginsburg from 2023-09-22T12:00

Free speech is probably one of the most polarizing public topics of debate. And those arguments only become more intense when it comes to free expression on college and university campuses. Shou...

Phonics Vs. Whole Word: The Science Of Reading, With Adrian Johns from 2023-08-24T12:00

Reading is one of the most significant practices in the modern age of information, but it has a complicated history. Scientists began studying reading over a century ago; they built eye movement...

How AI Is Transforming Scientific Research, With Rebecca Willett from 2023-08-10T12:00

One of the first areas to be affected by AI has been science. Researchers have already started to integrate these new technologies into their work, but what does it mean to let these systems int...

How AI Could Change The Law from 2023-07-27T12:00

AI promises to change every part of our society, but one area that has already started to be affected is law. And AI may do more than just upend the profession of lawyers. One professor here at ...

How AI Can Predict Future Scientific Discoveries from 2023-07-20T12:00

Science is facing a perplexing problem. Although there are far more scientists today than ever before, publishing research at a faster and faster pace, new and novel advancements have slowed not...

The Uncovered History of Space Travel&Its Privatized Future from 2023-07-13T12:00

Everyone is talking about the upcoming summer blockbuster, Oppenheimer. We are always incredibly captivated by behind the curtain looks at some of the most momentous events in our history. Uncov...

How Your Brain Benefits From Music, With Larry Sherman from 2023-06-29T12:00

Music plays an important role in all of our lives. But listening to music or playing an instrument is more than just a creative outlet or hobby — it’s also scientifically good for us. Research s...

Magic words: Can What You Say Help You Get Your way? with Jonah Berger from 2023-06-15T12:00

Everyone wishes they had a superpower. Well, it turns out you’ve had a secret power since you were a child, you just don’t know how to use it yet. That’s the power of language. In a fascinating ...

Why We Fight, With Christopher Blattman from 2023-05-25T12:00

Why do we fight? It’s a seemingly simple question, but it turns out the answers are surprising, deep and crucial to understanding our world. Considering how costly any conflict is in lives and m...

The Hidden Truths About Sexuality And Gender In The Medieval World, with Roland Betancourt from 2023-05-11T12:00

We often think our debates around sexuality and gender are a modern phenomenon. Some people argue that identities like trans and non-binary have only existed recently. But could the evidence for...

How We Could Regrow Limbs And Organs, with Michael Levin from 2023-04-27T12:00

In the near future, birth defects, traumatic injuries, limb loss and perhaps even cancer could be cured through bioelectricity—electrical signals that communicate to our cells how to rebuild the...

A Nobelist’s Controversial Approach To Solving Inequality, With James Heckman from 2023-04-13T12:00

Over his distinguished career, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has dedicated his research to und...

How The Food Industry Created Today’s Obesity Crisis, With Marion Nestle from 2023-03-30T12:00

In today's grocery stores, you can find more sugary snacks, artificial ingredients, and ultra-processed packaged foods. At the same time, the United States has seen an increase in obesity, which...

Why Your Gut Health Is So Important, With Cathryn Nagler And Eric Pamer from 2023-03-16T12:00

Link to the advertised Chicago Booth Review podcast:Listen

The History of Black Cinema Re-examined, With Jacqueline Stewart from 2023-02-16T13:00

Unraveling Sleep’s Greatest Mysteries: The Day Tomorrow Began from 2023-01-19T13:00

Almost a century ago, the origins of sleep science research began at the University of Chicago with the opening of the world's first sleep laboratory. Since then, sleep science has evolved into a m...

Follow Through On Next Year's Resolutions Using Science With Katy Milkman from 2022-12-22T13:00

As we head into 2023, many of us are setting our new year's resolutions and new goals for the year. It can be hard to stick to these resolutions or accomplish these goals, but there's a techniqu...

Fighting Global Hunger Through Genetics With Chuan He from 2022-11-24T13:00

We’re taking the week off to spend the holidays with our families, but we think this is a perfect moment to re-release one of our most important episodes. As we all dig into our delicious Thanksgiv...

The Origins Of Civilization And The Future Of Archaeology: The Day Tomorrow Began from 2022-11-10T13:00

When you name your special series The Day Tomorrow Began, you inevitably have to ask yourself: just how far back are we going to go? If there’s one group of scholars who could tell us what the earl...

Can We Predict Your Capacity To Focus? With Monica Rosenberg from 2022-10-28T12:00

It can seem like our culture is obsessed with our ability to focus. Why can’t we focus, how we can focus better, why is our lack of focus ruining society? There are best-selling books and apps that...

The'Legendary'Discovery Of Black Holes: The Day Tomorrow Began from 2022-10-13T12:00

Sometimes the biggest moments in scientific history happen in the most unlikely places. There’s no better example than the story of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a longt...

Celebrating Our 100th Episode from 2022-09-29T12:00

This episode marks the official 100th episode of the Big Brains podcast. To celebrate this milestone, our Senior Producer Matt Hodapp joins host Paul M. Rand for a behind-the-scenes conversation ab...

The Science Of Speech&Identity With Katherine Kinzler from 2022-09-22T12:00

Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highli...

Life’s Mysterious Origins With Jack Szostak from 2022-09-15T12:00

Hello Big Brains listeners! Our podcast is coming up on an important milestone … our 100th episode! As part of the month-long celebration, we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes—highli...

Does Welfare Reduce Crime? With Manasi Deshpande from 2022-08-18T12:00

There have been myths and tropes about welfare since it was created. We often hear critics say that welfare discourages people from working — but are these claims really true? This debate often pla...

Do Animals Dream? With David M. Peña-Guzmán from 2022-07-21T12:00

Do animals dream? If you’re a pet owner, it may seem obvious that your furry friends dream. Most of us have seen dogs running in their sleep or cats meowing during a nap. But this is an academic po...

Why Air Pollution Is Cutting Years Off Our Lives, With Christa Hasenkopf And Anant Sudarshan from 2022-06-23T12:00

We can’t always see the consequences of air pollution around us, but it’s costing us years off our lives. According to a new Air Quality Life Index report from the Energy Policy Institute at the Un...

Why Countries Choose War Over Peace, With Chris Blattman from 2022-05-26T12:00

War is costly, deadly and destructive. So, why do we do it? In his new book Why We Fight: The Roots of War and The Paths to Peace, Prof. Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago lays out the fiv...

How Death In America Is Changing With Shannon Lee Dawdy from 2022-05-12T12:00

What does our relationship with the dead tell us about the living? Anthropologists learn about ancient cultures by studying their burial sites, but could we do the same with contemporary America? T...

Why We Need To Invest In Parents During A Child's Earliest Years, With Dana Suskind from 2022-04-28T12:00

The United States is an outlier when it comes to parents. Compared to similar countries, the U.S. has the largest happiness gap between the 63 million parents and the child-free. This statistic is ...

The Troubling Rise Of Antibiotic-resistant Superbugs, With Christopher Murray from 2022-04-14T12:00

For nearly a decade, public health experts have been warning that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. In 2014, the World Health Organization even said the post-antibiotic era is near. D...

Is Scientific Progress Slowing? with James Evans from 2022-03-31T12:00

There are far more scientists in today’s world, and they’re publishing research papers at a much faster pace. However, all of this growth hasn’t translated to more scientific progress. As Universit...

Could We Vaccinate Against Opioid Addiction? With Sandra Comer And Marco Pravetoni from 2022-03-17T12:00

The United States recently hit a grim milestone: More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between May 2020 and April 2021. The majority of those deaths were due to synthetic opioids, wh...

Why Big Ideas Fail To Scale—And How To Fix It With John List from 2022-02-17T07:00

Solving problems like poverty, education inequality or discrimination require policy interventions that can scale, but they rarely do. Why do some scale, while others have little success? It's not ...

How To Stick To Your Resolutions, With Ayelet Fishbach from 2022-01-20T09:00

Every year many of us set New Year’s resolutions, and almost none of us actually follow through on them. In a year when fulfilling our goals and resolutions feels more pressing than ever while our ...

Engineering A Cure For Cancer With Melody Swartz&Jeffrey Hubbell from 2021-12-23T07:00

The race to cure cancer has been running a long time, but two University of Chicago scientists are working to bring it closer to the finish line. Thinking like engineers rather than doctors, Profs....

Unlocking The Secrets Of Black Holes, With Andrea Ghez from 2021-11-18T07:00

If you know anything about black holes, it may come as a surprise to learn that there’s actually one lurking at the center of our galaxy. It was uncovered by UCLA astrophysicist Andrea Ghez, and in...

How The UN Aims To Save Humanity, With Chris Williams And Luis Bettencourt from 2021-10-21T11:49:56

It feels like our world has never faced so many crisis all at the same time, and trying to solve them at once seems impossible. But, in 2015, the United Nations came together to develop a list of 1...

Revolutionizing Technology at the Nanoscale, with Paul Alivisatos from 2021-09-23T07:00

Sometimes, the biggest discoveries have to do with the smallest things. In this case, we’re talking nano. Specifically, nanocrystals. World-renowned chemist Paul Alivisatos has changed the field of...

The Secret Nazi Past and Billionaire Future of U.S. Space Innovation with Jordan Bimm from 2021-08-19T11:34:37

Most people think they know humanity’s history of space exploration, from Sputnik to NASA to our recent shift toward privatized space travel. But what if there was a lost history of our origins ...

Introducing: Entitled from 2021-07-29T12:07:38

The University of Chicago Podcast Network is excited to announce the launch of a new show, it’s called "Entitled" and it’s about human rights. Co-hosted by lawyers and UChicago Law School Profes...

The Deadly Flaw In Our Judgment, With Cass Sunstein from 2021-07-15T11:53:02

Many of the most important moments in our lives rely on the judgment of others. We expect doctors to diagnose our illnesses correctly, and judges to hand out rulings fairly. But there’s a massiv...

A Surprising Economic Solution To Climate Change With Michael Greenstone from 2021-06-17T12:00

When was the last time you heard a positive story about climate change, a story about someone with a new idea or innovative solution to help reduce our carbon footprint?

This is that stor...

Why You’re Likely Paying An Unfair Share of Property Taxes, with Christopher Berry from 2021-05-20T10:30

When’s the last time you thought about property taxes? We mostly accept them as a part of society, and assume that they’re being calculated fairly. But a leading University of Chicago scholar sa...

The ‘Five Horsemen of the Techpocalypse’ with Kara Swisher from 2021-04-22T11:31:14

The so-called “Big Tech” industry has dramatically improved our daily lives, but at what cost? Few people have gotten a closer look at these companies than Kara Swisher, writer for The New Y...