Show Notes
Sex is simple. Or so we're taught; animals can be male or female. But even the briefest glance at the animal kingdom tells us that this simply isn't true. Some creatures have only one sex; some have three; some have none at all. Some animals are two sexes at the same time; some flip flop between them when the time is right. When evolution came to solve the problem of procreation, she did it in a myriad of mind-blowing ways. When it comes to humans, it's even more complicated - we have this thing called Gender, too. It's often defined as the social and cultural side of sex, distinct from the biological. But that's not the full story. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight travel back to the dawn of human culture, and into the tangled depths of our genetic code, to try and unravel why we are the way we are, and why it matters so much that we understand it all properly. Featuring Professor Jenny Graves, geneticist at La Trobe University, and the writer and scholar Meg-John Barker.
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The mystery of consciousness has been one of the most unsolvable problems across neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. How can a lump of matter come to be aware of itself? Is consciousness real, or an illusion? And even if I'm pretty convinced by my own conscious experience, how can I possibly know if something else is conscious too? Are you conscious? Is my dog conscious? Is the universe conscious, in a way we don't yet understand? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight wrestle with one of the biggest questions there is, with the help of some some surprisingly intelligent plants. Featuring Paco Calvo, cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, Universidad de Murcia, and Anil Seth, neuroscientist and professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
For African Wild Dogs in the Okovango Delta, living with the pack has its ups and downs. You get help with the hunting, and there's safety in numbers, but there's also a lot of compromise. When the pack leaves, you leave, even if you were in the middle of a nap. All social-living animals from ants to zebras (and humans) have to figure out how to make decisions as a group, and the dogs have a particularly interesting strategy. They vote. By sneezing. Of course, humans have much more sophisticated ways of collaborating in group decision-making, but sometimes we're not very succesful at doing what's genuinely best for everyone. Even the most sophisticated systems of modern democracy have a hard time discovering, and enacting, the actual Will of the People. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight wonder if the dogs might do it better. Featuring Andrew King, Professor of Animal Behaviour at Swansea University, and Helen Margetts, Professor of Internet and Society at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
Jackpot! Lights are flashing, bells are ringing, and you collect your big reward. No, this isn't Vegas, but it might as well be. We're in a specially designed casino for rats, where they gamble in pursuit of the Big Win: delicious sugar pellets. For both rats and humans, a finely tuned ability to assess risk against reward is essential for navigating an unpredictable world. We're pretty good at it. But why are we so easily derailed by the toxic allure of the Big Win, the roll-over Jackpot, the risk-it-all-on-black strategy which makes no rational sense? The answer may surprise you, and may also give you some insight into why you can't stop late-night doom-scrolling on your phone. Featuring Catharine Winstanley, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and Natasha Schull, cultural anthropologist and associate professor at New York University. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
What if all the ideas and values surrounding our lives are like pieces of sediment in a river? Some never quite settle and get swept away, lost to the currents of time. But some take hold, solidify, become part of the cultural bedrock that underpin our lives. With the help of a geologist and a philosopher, Becky Ripley and Emily Knight dig deeper into this metaphor, to unearth the sedimented histories shape our lives. Featuring geologist Chris Jackson, Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College London, and philosopher Julian Baginni, author of 'How the World Thinks'. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the animal world to question why we "power pose". Anteaters are masters of it. When feeling threatened, they rear up on their hind legs and extend their arms out wide to show off their huge claws. It is a posture that is designed to make them look more intimidating to predators or competing rivals. Does it work like this for us? If we take up more space in a power pose, are we perceived to be more powerful in the eyes of others? Featuring Arnaud Desbiez, president and founder of ICAS (The Wild Animal Conservation Institute), and Dr Daniel Gurney, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.