With skyrocketing rates of depression, increasing rates of poverty, hostile political radicalism, and so much more, it’s obvious that our modern society is failing us. Unfortunately, we’re struggling to navigate these many personal and social challenges because of a culture that promotes binary thinking (us vs them, black vs white, etc) & influences us to undermine our own well-being. Through controversial freethought, philosophical inquiry, and intellectual rigor, we seek to empower individuals to shape a better world by embracing the challenges and nuances of life's most important questions.
#43 - Michael Levin: Revolutionizing Biology with New Informational Theories
Today I’m joined by Professor of Biology at Tufts University, Michael Levin. On the surface, Michael studies information processing inside biology, technology, and a combination of both, often with the goal of addressing health issues such as aging and cancer. But on a deeper level, Michael is a researcher whose name I hear whispered with a sort of reverence amongst the truly nerdy. And this seems to be because Michael is driving extremely cutting-edge work that either answers or completely upends some of the long-standing questions and assumptions that we’ve had about biology. One example is his creation of what are known as xenobots–living robots made from frog cells. Or perhaps most notably, his work with flat-worms that shows how information can be passed between generations of organisms without using DNA, leading to seemingly impossible feats such as growing a lineage of organisms with two heads. Much of this work can be found in numerous conversations Michael has had elsewhere, such as on TED or Lex Fridman’s podcast. So in this episode I try to dig much deeper into the underlying theory driving all of Michael’s work–focusing more heavily on how information and intelligence occur in reality. This leads to some truly remarkable revelations, including ideas that Michael has seemingly not talked about elsewhere–such as the idea of platonic forms and their influence on biological intelligence.
Find out more about Michael and his work at https://drmichaellevin.org/ (https://drmichaellevin.org/)
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Host: Steven Parton (https://curiousapes.com/steven-parton/) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-parton-2572a814/) / Twitter (https://twitter.com/StevenEParton)
Watch video episodes on Youtube.com/@CuriousApes (http://www.youtube.com/@CuriousApes)
Join me on our brand new Discord Server for weekly conversation: https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz (https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz)
23 Feb 2025
#42 - Adam Zeman: Aphantasia - Life Without a Visual Imagination
On this episode we're joined by British neurologist Adam Zeman. Adam is most known for his pioneering work that led to the development and on-going refinement of the condition known as aphantasia–the inability to visualize inside our minds eye.
In this conversation with Adam, we explore what we know about this condition. How common is it? What evidence in the brain tells us this is a real phenomenon? And what are the implications? How does it change our relationship to stress, emotion, memory, and even PTSD? Does it change how we dream or experience psychedelic drugs, and can one have no visual imagination and still be an artist? We explore these questions and more. Enjoy!
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Host: Steven Parton (https://curiousapes.com/steven-parton/) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-parton-2572a814/) / Twitter (https://twitter.com/StevenEParton)
Watch video episodes on Youtube.com/@CuriousApes (http://www.youtube.com/@CuriousApes)
Join me on our brand new Discord Server for weekly conversation: https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz (https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz)
16 Feb 2025
#41 - Nick Enfield: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists
On this episode, I’m joined by Nick Enfield, a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Sydney.
We discuss Nick’s journey into the field of linguistic anthropology, the significance of multilingualism, how language affects our cognition, and how language serves as a tool for social coordination. We particularly focus on an idea that’s at the heart of Nick’s 2022 publication, Language vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists.
This discussion highlights Nick’s belief that language primarily evolved as a way for us to socially coordinate, and not as a way to find truth. Following this trail of this topic takes on a journey into the realm of linguistic relativity, also known as the sapir-whorf hypothesis, where we explore the degree to which language shapes our perception and reasoning. The discussion also delves into the constraints language imposes on social behavior, the role of nudge theory in communication, and finally the implications of AI and language models on human interaction.
**
Host: Steven Parton (https://curiousapes.com/steven-parton/) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-parton-2572a814/) / Twitter (https://twitter.com/StevenEParton)
Watch video episodes on Youtube.com/@CuriousApes (http://www.youtube.com/@CuriousApes)
Join me on our brand new Discord Server for weekly conversation: https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz (https://discord.gg/Ek6pKcY8vz)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
8,144
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.1 / 5
7 ratings
Spotify
4.2 / 5
14 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
17
Social presence
0
YouTube
74
Engagement
50
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