Are Your Medications Safe And Effective?, with Jerry Avorn
For a more than a century, the Food and Drug Administration has worked to protect public health. In his research, Harvard University physician-researcher Jerry Avorn has examined how the FDA’s once-rigorous gold standard approval process has been affected by a powerful shortcut known as the Accelerated Approval Program—originally designed for desperate AIDS and cancer patients. He says that change in the 1990s has allowed more than half of all new drugs onto the market before drug companies have proven they actually help people.In his new book Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power and the Drugs We Take, Avorn cites numerous examples: from a cold medicine that doesn’t de-congest to billion-dollar cancer treatments that only shrink lab results to the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm—approved despite no clear cognitive benefits. In this episode, Avorn explores whether some prescriptions in your medicine cabinet are safe, effective and worth the money.
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Are We Making AI Too Human?, with James Evans
Prof. James Evans, a University of Chicago sociologist and data scientist, believes we’re training AI to think too much like humans—and it’s holding science back.In this episode, Evans shares how our current models risk narrowing scientific exploration rather than expanding it, and explains why he’s pushing for AIs that think differently from us—what he calls “cognitive aliens.” Could these “alien minds” help us unlock hidden breakthroughs? And what would it take to build them?
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Inside The Disease That Changes Your Personality, with Bruce Miller
When someone we know or love starts to develop psychological issues, we don't often associate it with a form of dementia. However, this trait is one of the most common signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) — the most common neurodegenerative disease in people under the age of 65. In his new book, Mysteries of the Social Brain: Understanding Human Behavior Through Science, Dr. Bruce Miller highlights his experiences observing people with FTD and what they have taught him about what he calls the "social brain."Dr. Bruce Miller has been observing people with FTD for decades in the Memory and Aging Center at the University of San Francisco, where he is also Professor of Neurology and the Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute. He shares key insights on how to keep our "social brain" healthy and how it can even unlock our creative potential.
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Meet The ‘Planet Hunter’ Searching For Alien Life, with Jacob Bean
The search for life beyond Earth is no longer science fiction—it takes a lot of data, powerful telescopes and a bit of cosmic detective work. And at the center of this search is University of Chicago astrophysicist Jacob Bean. Bean was part of the team that made history by detecting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a distant planet using the James Webb Space Telescope—a major step forward in our ability to study exoplanets.Bean uses cutting-edge tools and discoveries that are reshaping how we think about planet habitability, biosignatures and our place in the universe. From potentially habitable exoplanets like K2-18b to false hopes like Gliese 486b, Bean shares why the atmospheres of these faraway worlds might hold the key to one of humanity’s oldest questions: Are we alone in the universe?
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How To Stop Gun Violence Before It Starts, with Jens Ludwig
Despite decades of policy ideas, pouring millions of dollars into the problem, and a slow pace of gun control measures, the United States hasn’t made much progress on curbing the epidemic of gun violence in our country.For the past 25 years, Prof. Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago has examined the questions of: Why does gun violence happen, and is there anything we can do about it? In his new book, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, Ludwig—who is director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab—discusses why we've been thinking about the gun violence problem in the wrong ways.Drawing upon behavioral economics, he explains that most shootings are not premediated; rather, the result of arguments that escalate into violence. Using data-backed interventions, Ludwig introduces new ideas beyond policy and policing to get at the real root causes of gun violence today.
Big Brains explores the groundbreaking research and discoveries that are changing our world. In each episode, we talk to leading experts and unpack their work in straightforward terms. Interesting conversations that cover a gamut of topics from how music affects our brains to what happens after we die.
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