Highbrow Drivel

For Valentine's Day we look at the way sex robots, bereavement tech, algorithms and more will impact the future of dating. Joining me on this episode is crowd favourite Juan Miles and dating coach Rachel New. In the episode we also discuss the way one clever dater hacked the OkCupid algorithm to get 5 dates per day. You can learn more about that at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJod9kRYyao

Juan Miles
Juan is an Argentinian born, Berlin based stand-up comedian who I met living in Melbourne. You can catch more of Juan on Instagram.

Rachel New
Rachel promotes #ethicaldating: treating each other well, resisting unconscious bias and broadening your horizons in your love life. You can learn more about Rachel at:
Website: rachelnewdatingcoach.co.uk
Facebook: @rachelnewdatingcoach
Twitter: @RNewDatingCoach
Instagram: @racheldatingadvice

Rachel was kind enough to provide some books, articles and resources she recommends for anyone looking to learn and upgrade their love life. 

Novels: 
Real Life by Brandon Taylor 
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 
Machines like us by Ian MacMillan
Lab-grown meat bites back by Christian Darkin



Autobigraphical: 
Queer Sex by Juno Roche  
Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang 
Sex Power Money by  Sara Pascoe
Sex Robots and Vegan Meat by Jenny Kleeman 

Articles: 
How dating is making us mix more and breaking down barriers https://rachelnewdatingcoach.co.uk/2020/10/07/can-dating-change-the-world/

https://rachelnewdatingcoach.co.uk/2020/09/14/can-you-help-who-youre-attracted-to/

https://rachelnewdatingcoach.co.uk/2020/10/28/why-you-should-talk-to-your-white-partner-about-race/

Why do we dream? How can you learn to lucid dream? How do you prevent nightmares and why in the hell do random people end up in your dreams? We discuss all that and more  in this week's episode.

Expert guest: Dr Caroline Horton.
Caroline directs the DrEAMSLab at Bishop Grosseteste University. She is also the host of of the Sleep Science Pod.  You can stay up-to-date with her on Twitter at @sleepandmemory

Comedian Guest: Neil O'Rourke
Neil O’Rourke is the funniest comedian to come out of Cork. Neil has been a finalist in pretty much all the most important comedy competitions: So You Think You’re Funny, Leicester Square etc. 

We're off to infinity and beyond with the mind blowing Jenifer Millard (soon to be Dr.) and the hilarious Eve Ellenbogen.
In this episode we discuss how scientists can almost, but not quite see the big bang, whether or not the universe can die, whether Elon Musk will get to live out his fantasy of owning space slaves (or just what it will take for us to set up a colony on Mars), the three Mars missions that are taking place, whether we should be talking back to aliens and so much more.

Our guests

Jenifer Millard
Is our expert who's literally submitted all the work for her PhD and is now just awaiting the confirmation. She is the host of the Awesome Astronomy podcast and the kind of science communicator who makes massive concepts easy to understand (step aside Brain Cox and Neil DeGrasse Tyson).

Eve Ellenbogen
Eve is an effortlessly funny New Yorker formerly based in Melbourne, Australia. She hosts the Everyone is Doing Better Than Me podcast. When it's safe and legal I highly recommend you check her out live and on-stage, but until then, listen to her podcast :) 

In this week's episode we talk dating.

Expert guest:
Hayley Quinn is an internationally recognised dating coach and founder of the UK’s largest dating coaching company. She has over 2 Million views on her TED talk and over 100,000 YouTube subscribers.

She is the spokesperson for Match, the biggest online dating platform in the world. She has been featured on BBC1, Sky and Channel 4 and is a regular columnist for Cosmopolitan.

Her goal is to bridge the gap with modern dating and help inspire people to learn to love dating.

Guest comedian
Alexandra Haddow is an effortlessly hilarious comedian who is always a joy to watch. She's also one third of the School for Dumb Women podcast which explains things you’re too proud to admit you know nothing about.

In this week's episode I talk to Dr Bradley Wiggins about the pervasive power of memes. From a way to shame school friends who were too excited about their Goosebump books to becoming a way to communicate serious political ideals, including many problematic ones, the meme has evolved rapidly over the last decade.

Dr Bradley Wiggins is  the Associate Professor and Department Head of Media Communications at Webster Vienna Private University. He is one of the people leading the research into the evolution and impact of memes on the current standard of discourse.

For more information on the topic check out some of his  2019 book, which I highly recommend:
Wiggins, B.E. (2019). The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, semiotics, and intertextuality. Routledge. You can find a review of this book here.

Bradley's most recent article which is mentioned during the episode is below:
Wiggins, B. E. (2020). Boogaloo and Civil War 2: Memetic antagonism in expressions of covert activism. New Media & Society. 

Poll after poll has shown that most people believe climate change is an important issue that we need to act on. And yet, for more than 3 decades the response to this from governments around the world has been inadequate. So, on today's episode, instead of talking about how to convince climate change deniers that it's real I ask a politician who is passionate about climate action why his colleagues have been so slow to act

Ross Greer, was the youngest Member of Scottish Parliament, and is a representative of the Scottish Greens party and is incredibly passionate, charming and insightful when explaining what the problem is, how much time is left to address it and what needs to be done.
Ross is a brilliant person to follow on Twitter, and you can learn more about the work of the Scottish Greens Party on their website. You can stay in touch with Ross on Facebook and Instagram.

Our comedian guest for this episode is a brilliantly witty political comic, Alex Kealy. You can follow Alex on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence already play a huge role in our life.  From trivial things like what movies and songs are recommended to us, to important things like politics (or vice versa depending on your perspective) machines are shaping what we discover and how and that's only set to grow. So who decides how this happens? Should we be concerned and how do we make sure the impacts of these machines is monitored to prevent harmful impacts? Or, do we just welcome our new robot overlords?

On this episode of the podcast, the brilliantly funny and incredibly intelligent Alice Fraser, and Ben Byford, a machine ethics pundit with a wealth of first hand experience, join me  to look at all the above and more.

About the guests:

Alice Fraser is one of the most intelligent, creative and funny comedians and podcasters on the planet. You can watch her critically acclaimed special 'Savage' on Amazon Prime. You can also hear her on The Last Post Podcast. For more information on Alice visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

Ben Byford is a machine learning consultant and host of the fantastic Machine Ethics Podcast. I highly recommend you check it out here. For more information on Ben, visit his website or follow him on Twitter. 

Conspiracy theories spread like wildfire in 2020, which is unfortunate, because wildfire also spread like wild fire in 2020 and some of the conspiracy theories downplayed the impacts of climate change, which scientists agree leads to an increased chance of wildfires. ]

If that intro seemed a little confusing to you, you're not alone. Conspiracy theories from Qanon to the cause and severity of the coronavirus gained mainstream attention in a way that hasn't been seen since claims that 'George Bush did 9/11.'

Some may argue that the ability to change your mind and hold an unpopular position is a sign of independent thought and intellectual rigour. In today's episode we talk about why conspiracy theorists who claim to want to question everything are so bad at holding their own conspiratorial beliefs to critical analysis.

We also look at why conspiracy theorists are able to hold contradictory theories on the same event, even when it's obviously true that one of those theories has to be incorrect.

We look at the dangers of allowing people to fall into conspiracy theory groups, and the increased risk of violence believing in a conspiracy theory creates.

Lastly, we discuss how to talk to people who you believe to be falling for a conspiracy theory. 

In this episode I'm joined by Dr Daniel Jolley,  a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University. His expertise is in the psychology of conspiracy theories.  The guest comedian is Juan Miles. We discuss what people are drawn to about conspiracy theories, how to talk to someone who has become a conspiracy theorist and how this all could be stopped if people remembered to hug their kids and encouraged runners.



You can learn more about Dr Daniel Jolley and his work on his website (www.danieljolley.co.uk) or Twitter (@DrDanielJolley). 

Dr David Luke a leading researcher into the benefits of psychedelics on the brain joins guest comedian James O'Donnell to discuss what to tell your parents about using psychedelics, when you might be able to get a prescription of magic mushrooms, weirdest tripping stories and more. 


Guest information:
James O'Donnel is a brilliant comedian and one of the co-runners of Angel Comedy. 
- https://www.instagram.com/jamesodcomedy/
-https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/

Dr David Luke is a researcher into the impacts of psychedelics on the brain at Kings College London and Senior Lecturer of Psychology at Greenwich University.
- https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-education-and-health/dr-david-luke

In this episode, we're joined by the hilarious Mitch Alexander, and Catherine Dawkins from the Southwark Greens Party. We discuss why the left should start lying to old people and how we can win people over with hummus.

Catherine Dawkins:
Catherine is a member of the Southwark Greens. You can learn more about them at https://www.southwarkgreenparty.org.uk and you can contact them about getting involved at [email protected]
Make sure you follow the Southwark Greens on Instagram and Twitter

Mitch Alexander:
Mitch is a host of the Not Good Enough podcast. You can find their episodes at https://notgoodpod.com/