In a Nutshell

Why are candy bars so tempting? What makes the

The ninth episode of In A Nutshell is all about

Esther Aarts is a Principal Investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour of the Food and Cognition group and a Professor of Nutritional Neuroscience. She examines how our brain impacts our eating behavior and how the food we consume impacts our brain and vividly explains her findings to her audience.

Do you want to know more about the link between food and our brains? Follow Esther’s tip and read The Psychobiotic Revolution by Scott Anderson.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book and thought: ‘I’d like to read more of this’? Then you are in luck because there probably is – in the form of fanfiction. And PhD student Julia Neugarten studies them.

The eighth episode of In a Nutshell is entirely dedicated to this fascinating piece of online subculture and literary genre. And from its origins in the 1960s to the more than 14 million works published on the fanfiction open-source repository Archive of Our Own today – Julia knows all about it.

So, what makes people write and publish stories for free? What has Star Trek to do with homoerotic fanfiction? And what do authors think about fanfictions of their work? Listen in and find out.

Would you like to learn more about fanfiction? Then have a look at Julia’s tip and read Francesca Coppa’s book The Fanfiction Reader: Folk Tales for the Digital Age (2017) – or dive in directly with the fanfiction of your choice on Archive of Our Own.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

What makes Long Covid traumatic? Which role do politics and society play in this? And why should we follow the Germans?

The seventh episode of In A Nutshell is all about Long Covid. This week’s guest Vivienne Matthies-Boon will tell us about her personal struggle with the sickness and about how her experience has been heavily affected by political structures.

Vivienne Matthies-Boon is a professor of Philosophical Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. Her primary interests are phenomenological experiences of injustice and in her work, she deals with fragility, trauma, death, illness, and health. In her newest research, Vivienne examines Long Covid through her philosophical lens and elaborately explains how and why the sickness is traumatic.

Do you want to know more about Long Covid and trauma? Follow Vivienne’s tip and watch 'Unrest' by Jennifer Brea or read up on Long Covid here https://www.bmg-longcovid.de/.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

From 25-year-old single women being historically referred to as ‘spinsters’ to Bridget Jones singlehood jokes of the early 2000s – singles don’t always have it easy. And, until recently, they were also neglected when it came to being academically studied

The sixth episode of In a Nutshell is entirely dedicated to this rising global demographic of singles. For this, we have invited the ‘accidental’ singlehood researcher Ea Utoft into the studio. Together, we talk about the drawbacks and the benefits of modern singlehood – and everything in between.

Ea Utoft is an assistant professor at Radboud University and an expert in singlehood studies. She started writing about singlehood during her Ph.D. research and especially during the pandemic, when many single people were outside of any social bubbles and largely isolated, and has been fascinated with the topic ever since.

Would you like to learn more about the science behind and experiences of being single? Follow Ea’s tips and read Rebecca Traister’s book All the Single Ladies or Glynnis MacNicol’s memoir No One Tells You This. Or have a listen to the podcasts Solo – The Single Person’s Guide to a Remarkable Life and Spinsterhood Reimagined.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

How risky is playing the lottery? Why would anyone go free solo climbing? And most importantly, do we need to risk it to get the biscuit? 

The fifth episode of In a Nutshell is all about risking it. From gambling to putting one’s life on the line – this episode will take you onto the uncertain paths of life. And this week’s guest Kim Fairley will be the navigator on this exploration of risk.

Kim Fairley is an assistant professor of Economics with specific expertise in behavioural economics at the Nijmegen School of Management. Unlike most people, Kim does not avoid risks but instead investigates them to share her useful findings with her audience.

Do you want to know more about risk, uncertainty, and insecurity? Follow Kim’s tip and listen to the podcasts Freakonomics Radio and ParentData with Emily Oster.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

In the fourth episode of In a Nutshell, host Antonia Leise

In this episode, we go below ground and have a close look at the

Rosa Boone is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Science and

Want to know more about soil health? Follow Rosa's tip and watch the documentary Planet Soil (2023; Dutch: Onder het Maaiveld) or read the book Nose Dive (2022) by Harold McGee.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

In the third episode of In a Nutshell, host Jara Majerus

In this episode, we dive into the riddles of randomness. What is randomness? Which role does it play in the universe, and what does Einstein have to do with it? Klaas Landsman knows all the answers and explains why he is utterly excited about everything random.

Klaas Landsman is a Professor of Mathematical Physics and the winner of the Spinoza Prize 2022. He has investigated randomness and chance thoroughly and does not lose his enthusiasm to share and explain his findings to people around him.

Want to know more about chance? Follow Klaas’ tip and read "Ten Great Ideas about Chance" by Brian Skyrms and Persi Diaconis (2018) or "Naar alle onwaarschijnlijkheid" (Dutch Edition, 2018) by Klaas himself.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

In the second episode of In a Nutshell, host Antonia Leise invites assistant professor and historian of emotion Anneleen Arnout into the studio. This episode is all about the material that we walk through the world on – and mostly tend to forget about. Guest Anneleen Arnout introduces the surprisingly emotional history of asphalt paving. Including an exploration into horse accidents of the 19th century, asphalt's prior history as a make-up component – and why people used to boil eggs on streets.

Anneleen Arnout is an assistant professor of Cultural History at Radboud University. Fascinated by the history of emotion, her current project, for which she received a VENI grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), focuses on the urban emotional experience in Amsterdam, London, and Paris of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Would you like to know more about the emotional history of asphalt paving and the making of the modern metropolis? Follow Anneleen's tip and watch the movie Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927; trans.: Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis).

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

In the first episode of In a Nutshell, host Jara Majerus invites the PhD scholar and folktale enthusiast Arjan Sterken into the studio. 

This episode is all about monsters. What are monsters? Where do they come from, and what are they trying to tell us? Arjan Sterken knows all the answers and lets us in on the mythical meaning of uncanny creatures.

Arjan Sterken is a teacher and PhD scholar in Comparative Religious Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. He is utterly fascinated by folktales and myths and loves to pass this fascination on to his audience.

Want to know more about monsters? Follow Arjan's tip and watch the movie The Shape of Water.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise

Welcome to the podcast In a Nutshell that is brought to you by Vox - or more precisely, by Jara Majerus and Antonia Leise. Every two weeks, we will explore the most interesting topics that a hundred years of Radboud University have brought forward. Do you want to learn more about stories you might have never heard of? Make sure to subscribe and check out the first episode on the 9th of October!

Hosts: Antonia Leise & Jara Majerus

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise