Why does a bedtime routine feel so important? Anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas studies rituals, from firewalking ceremonies to family traditions. His work reveals why humans return to rituals whenever life becomes uncertain, and why parenthood may be one of the most ritual-filled experiences of all.

Shownotes: 

• Much of today's conversation draws on Dimitris Xygalatas' book The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, in which he explores why rituals are a universal feature of human life and how they shape our bodies, minds and relationships.
• Dimitris also discusses the Bayesian brain, the influential theory that the brain continuously predicts what will happen next and updates those predictions when reality surprises us – a framework that helps explain why rituals can reduce uncertainty.
• Dimitris leads the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut, where he studies rituals using tools from psychology, neuroscience and physiology, often in real-world settings rather than laboratory experiments.
• Many of the ideas discussed in this episode build on the work of anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, whose observations of the Trobriand Islanders – published in Magic, Science and Religion – helped establish the idea that rituals become especially important during moments of uncertainty.
• To explore more of Dimitris' work on ritual, cooperation and human behaviour, browse his publications.
• This podcast is part of the Early Childhood Matters platform by the Van Leer Foundation.

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Sometimes a child is looking right at you and seems completely elsewhere, and sometimes they're completely with you. Developmental neuroscientist Vicky Leong studies those moments of connection, uncovering how parents and children synchronize their minds and get ready to learn from one another.

Shownotes: 

• Victoria Leong – Publications (link)
• Leong et al. (2017), Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains (link)
• Natural Pedagogy Theory – Gergely & Csibra (link)
• Early Childhood Matters

Shownotes 2:

• Vicky’s Speaker Gaze Increases Information Coupling Between Infant and Adult Brains is the landmark study demonstrating that eye contact increases neural synchrony between adults and infants, one of the central findings discussed in this episode.
• Natural Pedagogy Theory by Gergely & Csibra is a foundational theory proposing that humans are uniquely adapted to teach and learn through social signals such as eye contact, infant-directed speech and shared attention.
• Browse Vicky Leong's research on parent–infant synchrony, learning and early brain development.
• This podcast is part of the Early Childhood Matters platform by the Van Leer Foundation.

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Why would evolution redesign a man's body after he has children? Anthropologist Lee Gettler helped uncover a surprising answer. His research on hormone changes including testosterone suggests that fatherhood doesn't just change how men think and feel, it changes their biology too.

Shownotes: 

• Lee’s landmark study Longitudinal Evidence that Fatherhood Decreases Testosterone in Human Males showed that men's testosterone levels decline after becoming fathers, helping reshape our understanding of paternal biology.
• The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) is one of the world's longest-running birth cohort studies, following thousands of families in the Philippines. Many of Lee's landmark findings on fatherhood are based on this dataset.
• Ruth Feldman's pioneering research on oxytocin, caregiving and parent–infant bonding is discussed during the episode.
• Explore Lee Gettler's research on fatherhood, hormones and human development.
• This podcast is part of the Early Childhood Matters platform by the Van Leer Foundation.

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For centuries, scientists studied what pregnancy does to the body. Almost nobody studied what it does to the brain. Neuroscientist Susana Carmona helped change that, uncovering evidence that motherhood reshapes the human brain in ways scientists are only beginning to understand.

Shownotes:

• Susana's book A Mother’s Brain brings together the latest research on how pregnancy and motherhood reshape the brain, body and identity.
• Susana leads the NeuroMaternal Lab in Madrid, where much of the research discussed in this episode is conducted.
• Browse Susana's scientific publications on pregnancy, the maternal brain and parental neuroplasticity.
• One of the world's largest biomedical databases, the UK Biobank, was used in studies showing that pregnancy leaves measurable, long-term signatures in the brain.
• Several of Susana's findings relate to changes in the brain's Default Mode Network, a network involved in self-reflection, memory and understanding other people.
• The London Taxi Driver Study is the classic neuroscience study showing that the adult brain changes in response to experience.
• This podcast is part of the Early Childhood Matters platform by the Van Leer Foundation.

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Three quarters of animal species undergo metamorphosis. Why are we so sure humans don't? Historian of science Oren Harman takes us from butterflies to starfish in search of an answer, and toward a surprising way of thinking about what happens when a baby turns someone into a parent.

Shownotes:

• Much of the conversation draws on Oren Harman's exploration of metamorphosis across the natural world in his book Metamorphosis: A Natural and Human History.
• Long before founding psychoanalysis, a young Sigmund Freud spent weeks dissecting hundreds of eels in an unsuccessful search for their reproductive organs at the Zoological Station in Trieste. 
• Oren reflects on Ludwig Wittgenstein's famous proposition: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent," from Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
• This podcast is part of the Early Childhood Matters platform by the Van Leer Foundation.

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When a baby is born, a parent is born too. But what if that's more than a metaphor? Birth of a Parent explores the emerging science of how parenthood transforms the human mind. Host Michael Feigelson speaks with leading scientists, writers, and thinkers to investigate whether becoming a parent is one of life's most profound – and least understood – developmental stages. 

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The first episodes will be available from 22 July. Follow the podcast here so you never miss an episode.

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