This episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with David Shariatmadari author of "Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language." We explore some of the common myths about language. This includes a follow up of our recent discussion on Brain Science about the evidence against the assumption that language is an instinctive.

Links and References:

• Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language by David Shariatmadari
• Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking by Cecilia Heyes
  • Interviewed in Brain Science 168
• Pullum, GK and Schultz, BC, (2002) Empirical assessment of stimulus of poverty arguments. The Linguistic Review, 19, ?.
• Hsu, H J, and Bishop, DV (2014) Sequence-specific procedural learning deficits in children with specific language impairment. Developmental Science,17(3), 352-365.
• Tomblin, J B, Shribirg, L , Murray, J, Patil, S, and Williams, C. (2004). Speech and Language characteristics associated with a 7/13 translocation involving FOXP2. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 130, 97-?.
• Both books have extensive references. For more please see show notes of BS 168.

Announcements:

• Coming in early May 2020: new expanded edition of re You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia "Ginger" Campbell, MD. Sign up for Brain Science Newsletter for updates.
• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Books and Ideas is going on hiatus until November 2020 so that Dr. Campbell can work on her neuroscience writing project. Please subscribe in your favorite podcasting app so that you don't miss the next episode.

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• Twitter: @docartemis
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Several years ago I interviewed Terrence Deacon about his fascinating book Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter. His goal was to propose a theory of how purpose evolved in a universe without purpose. His argument was persuasive, but highly technical. In this month’s episode of Books and Ideas I interview his longtime colleague Jeremy Sherman. His book Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves makes Deacon’s ideas highly accessible to a wider audience. Join us as we explore the question: How did purpose arise from a purposeless universe? (Hint: the answer is not supernatural!)

Links and References:

• Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves by Jeremy Sherman
• Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter by Terrence W. Deacon
• The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain by Terrence W. Deacon
• Books and Ideas 47 with Terrence Deacon
• Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
• The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
• Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett
• The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Announcements:

• Coming April 28, 2020: a new expanded version of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia “Ginger” Campbell, MD (links coming soon)

• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

This episode of Books and Ideas is a follow up of my previous interview of Becky Hale, past-president of the American Humanist Association (AHA). I am fascinated by the relationship between modern Humanism and Unitarian Universalism. Listen to my interview with Amanda Poppei from the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association (UUHA) to learn why.

Links and References:

• Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism, ed. by Gibbons and Murray
• Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association (UUHA)
• American Humanist Association (AHA)
  • BI 53 with AHA president Becky Hale
• The Humanist Manifesto (Wikipedia) 
• The Secular Coalition

Announcements:

• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

• Humanist Unitarians of Birmingham (Facebook Group)

This month's episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with astronomer Brian Keating about his memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor. His book is a first hand look at the hard work behind the scientific effort to determine how the universe really began, but as the title implies, it also contains a candid account of how striving for the Nobel Prize can be both motivating, but strangely counterproductive.

Links and References:

• Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor by Brian Keating

Announcements:

• Plesae complete a brief audience survy.
• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

This episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with Susan Schneider, author of a fascinating new book called Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind. Schneider's book goes beyond the question of whether AI might become conscious to issues that might affect us on a more personal level.

I am cross posting this in the feed for Brain Science because there is an obvious overlap with the issue of consciousness, which we often discuss on Brain Science.

Links and References:

• Susan Schneider (personal website)
• Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind by Susan Schneider

Announcements:

• Plesae complete a brief audience survy.
• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

This episode of Books and Ideas features Adele Brand, author of the new book The Hidden World of the Fox. Foxes are surprisingly widespread even in urban areas. This episode reveals their surprising story.

Links and References:

• The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand
• Adele Brand: mammal ecologist and wildlife photographer
  • Twitter:https://twitter.com/adeleebrand
  • Blog: https://adelebrandblog.wordpress.com

Announcements:

• Plesae complete a brief audience survy.
• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

This episode is an adapted version of the talk I gave last week at the first annual She Podcasts Live event, which was held October 10-13, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia. I was asked to share my experience of podcasting "through life's rollercoaster." This gave me a chance to reflect on what I have learned over the last 13 years. Though the talk was originally aimed at podcasters, I have adapted it for a general audience.

This is an interview with historian Liz Covart about her highly respected podcast "Ben Franklin's World." We explore what it means to be an historian in the 21st Century and the challenges of sharing early American history via podcasting.

Links and References:

• Liz Covart
• Ben Franklin's World- a podcast about Early American History
  • Facebook page
• Omohundro Institute
• Proving History: Bayes's Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus by Richard Carrier

Announcements:

• Please complete a brief audience survey.
• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• You can now support Graying Rainbows via Patreon at http://patreon.com/grayingrainbows
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Graying Rainbows in Apple podcasts or your favorite app and send me a screenshot.
• If you are interested in learning more about coaching please drop me an email.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @GrayingR
• Facebook page: https://fb.me/grayingrainbows
• Private Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/grayingrainbows

This episode of Books and Ideas features the return of Podcasting Hall of Famer, Dr. Pamela Gay. Dr. Gay is co-host of the long running show Astronomy Cast. As a professional astronomer she has dedicated her career to public outreach and she is very involved with the citizen science project Cosmos Quest. Her passion for science is contagious.

Links:

• Dr. Pamela Gay (featured on BI 14)
  • personal blog
  • Wikipedia page
  • International Astronomical Union
  • Planetary Science Institute
• Astronomy Cast
  • Facebook Group
• CosmoQuest

Announcements:

• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

Books and Ideas 68 is an interview with psychologist Dr Pete Etchells about his new book Lost in a Good Game: Why we play video games and what they can do for us. We explore both the myths and the science behind video games and consider why the effects of video games are actually quite difficult to study. It seems strange that many people in this field don't play games themselves. Most of the bad things you have heard about video games do not stand up to the basic standards of good science. Whether or not you enjoy video games yourself this is a fascinating interview.

Links and References:

• Lost in a Good Game: Why we play video games and what they can do for us by Dr Pete Etchells

Announcements:

• Send email to [email protected] or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas