Brain Stories

In this special Halloween episode of Brainstories, Selina and Caswell speak with Dr Jenny Lange (UK DRI at UCL) about the gothic history of neuroscience — and how scientific experiments shaped gothic literature.

 Date of episode recording: 2025-10-02
 Duration: 00:47:48
 Language of episode: English
 Presenter: Steve Fleming, Selina Wray
 Guests: Caswell Barry, Lucy Unwin
 Producer: Patrick Robinson

Caswell Barry and Lucy Unwin talk about the neuroscience behind their new children’s book – Inside Your Brain. Inside Your Brain takes readers on an irreverent gallop through history to uncover ten ground breaking discoveries that led to our current understanding of how the brain works.

 Date of episode recording: 2025-10-02
 Duration: 00:47:48
 Language of episode: English
 Presenter: Steve Fleming, Selina Wray
 Guests: Caswell Barry, Lucy Unwin
 Producer: Patrick Robinson

Selina and Caswell chat with Professor Adrian Isaacs from the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL to talk Frontotemporal Dementia — from how fruit flies are helping, to the role of DNA repeat expansions in disease, and why lipids might protect the brain.

Presenters:  Caswell Barry and Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Adrian Isaacs
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Date of episode recording:  2025-07-28
Duration:  00:38:48
Language of episode: English 

Professor Tali Sharot talks to Caswell and Selina about why we're easy to influence and overly optimistic 

 Date of episode recording: 2024-07-19T00:00:00Z
 Duration: 00:49:49
 Language of episode: English
 TAGS: as before
 Presenter: Caswell Barry; Selina Wray
 Guests: Professor Tali Sharot
 Producer: Patrick Robinson

Professor Sonia Gandhi talks to Steve and Selina about her research into the biology of Parkinson's disease, and how this understanding could lead to new treatments. 

 Date of episode recording: 2024-06-14T00:00:00Z
 Duration: 00:47:53
 Language of episode: English
 Presenter:Steve Flemming; Selina Wray
 Guests: Professor Sonia Gandhi
 Producer: Patrick Robinson
 

The first ever live recording of the UCL Brain Stories podcast live from the Bloomsbury Studio at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio on 18th October 2023. Caswell and Selina spoke to Diksha Gupta, Rick Adams, and Benedetto De Martino on all things Neuro AI.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-10-18T
Duration: 01:35:46
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Selina Wray
Guests: Diksha Gupta; Rick Adams; Benedetto De Martino

Professor Jenny Bizley talks to Caswell and Steve about how different sounds are perceived by the brain.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-08-29
Duration: 00:38:23
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Flemming
Guests: Professor Jenny Bizley
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Peter Kok talks to Selina and Steve about how the brain determines our visual experience of the world and how his research aims to understand the neural circuit underlying this.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-08-17
Duration: 00:42:40
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Selina Wray; Steve Flemming
Guests: Peter Kok
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Professor Sarah Garfinkel talks to Caswell and Steve about her research exploring emotion and how brain body interactions may go awry in clinical conditions.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-07-14
Duration: 00:41:21
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry ; Stephen Flemming
Guests: Professor Sarah Garfinkel
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Kate Jeffery talks to Steve and Caswell about memory, how place cells might be the neural basis of our sense of space, the joys of training rats to climb around in three dimensions, and what all this has got to do with architecture.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-01-31
Duration: 00:49:55
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Steve Flemming; Caswell Barry
Guests: Professor Kate Jeffery
Producer: Patrick Robinson