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PODCAST

The Monkey Dance

The Monkey Dance

Everything society: from science and philosophy to politics and art. Cognitive scientists, philosophers, political scientists, anthropologists, and more sit down to make sense of the world.

science philosophy

All Episodes

01:37:58

18 | On Symbols: Constructing reality and...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/10/10

How do we use symbols to construct and reconstruct our internal realities? We sit down with the two new cohosts of The Monkey Dance, Mariem Diané and Xueyi Yao, to talk about the relationship between language and memory and the importance of symbols in abstract thought. We cover a lot of ground, going from temporal perception and learning to social dynamics and the mitigation of uncertainty from early childhood to adulthood.Full show notes

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01:47:13

17 | Does imagination help us learn about the world?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/09/25

Why do we have imagination? We sit down with Maria Fedorova to chat about what imagination is, ways to describe imagination as a process and a capacity, and whether it differs from perception and hallucination (if at all). We also discuss how imagination helps us navigate our realities, its relationship to our beliefs, and its role in empathy and understanding the perspectives of others.

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01:30:46

16 | Can we increase democratic empowerment through...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/08/22

How can we balance knowledge transfer and democratic empowerment? We sit down with Kristina Vasić and Ákos Szegőfi in a wide ranging discussion about the importance of access to information in a democracy, the need for institutions for knowledge transfer, and how decentralization can help deconstruct entrenched power structures. The conversation spans types of dialogue, the usefulness of rhetoric, whether any argument can be free of bias, and a bunch of other related topics on power, information,

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01:47:23

15 | On Nostalgia: Memory, personal histories, and...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/08/01

What is the function of nostalgia? We sit down with Manu Sharma and talk about what makes a memory, what functions thinking about the past serves, and the impact of broader societal narratives on our senses of self. We discuss the construction of personal histories, their relationships to cultural histories, and also how historical narratives can be constructed by political movements to embolden and dehumanize groups of people.

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01:48:27

14 | Elements of thought: Carving out reality through...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/07/18

How does the engineering of concepts impact how we think about them? We sit down with Bojin Zhu to discuss what makes a concept, how concepts change over time, and what it means to build a methodology for understanding conceptual change. We chat about the intersection of the value and meaning of concepts with their pragmatic and societal implications. Our conversations spans concepts like liberty (whether it's a useful term), free will (what to make of it), truth (whether it exists), and pain (and

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01:53:24

13 | On Collaboration: How we work together on...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/06/12

How is it that human beings achieve collaboration? We sit down with Arianna Curioni and chat about the cognitive science of joint action in its many forms. We talk about human robot interactions, how moving a couch is not the same as boxing, and the difference between a hammer, a neural implant, and a teammate. We also chat a bit about collaboration in society at large and the implications for work on policy.Show notes on the website Or you can also watch on youtube

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01:36:23

12 | On Lying: Deception through media past and present

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/05/29

What differentiates lying from other examples of communicative intent? We sit down with Akos Szegofi and talk about misinformation, institutional trust, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying information processing. We chat about skepticism, how the media has changed over time, and why the intent to deceive is as old as communication itself.Show notes on the Monkey Dance website You can also watch the podcast on Youtube

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01:42:01

11 | On Governance: What does Democracy get us?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/05/15

Does Democracy have intrinsic value or is it only as good as what it helps us achieve? We sit down with Kristina Vasic and chat about what Democracy is, whether it is for individual autonomy or collective autonomy, and the individual's place in systems of power. We chat about disenfranchisement, inequality, and what kids of political structures are best suited to challenge the status quo.Show notes on the Monkey Dance website!

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01:01:28

10 | On Corruption: Building tools to identify and...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/04/25

How can we build better tools to identify and predict large scale corruption? We sit with Irene Tello Arista and chat about everything from what corruption is to the systemic pressures that bring it about, and discuss how grand corruption and petty corruption are different not only in scale but in methods. We cover a bit of Irene's background in Mexico starting an NGO to uncover corruption networks, human behavior more generally, and how corruption looks different in different places.Full show

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01:32:15

9 | How does art impact cognition?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/04/09

Should we consider art beyond its utility? We sit down with Emily Kay Williamson to chat about what aesthetics can tell us about art's role in society and its impact on cognition. We talk about whether there is a difference between art and everyday objects, whether art has any boundaries, what there is to learn from art, and where things like journalism fall in discussions about art.Full show notes here

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01:38:48

8 | Should different scientific fields work to...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/03/27

How we as a species define ourselves and what we do? We sit down with Aleksandra Knežević and chat about the work to integrate different fields in science and whether anybody is making a genuine attempt to do so. This takes us to questions of what science is and what it does, and how feminist thinkers have helped to improve science as an institution. We also talk about definitions of human nature, what evolutionary psychology can and can't give us, and whether essentialism has anything to offer

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01:14:48

7 | On Culture: From systems to components

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/03/13

How do cultures change over time? We look at the framework of cultural evolution, picking apart some of its aspects and trying to build a framework we can both agree on. We look at how you can take a systems level approach of looking at culture, which is looking at the mechanisms of culture itself, or a component level approach, which looks at individual belief dynamics.Full show notes here

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01:29:19

6 | On Responsibility: The ethics of complex machines

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/02/28

Who is responsible for the actions of machines? Questions around who is responsible for the behavior of generative statistical algorithms, like large language models, have direct implications for our daily lives. Particularly as they become increasingly "intelligent". We chat with Pelin Kasar about the current state of philosophical debates around how to approach the ethical considerations of machines that seem to think.Check out the show notes

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01:57:25

5 | On Collaboration: The evolution of self and society

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/02/14

What can evolutionary anthropology teach us about ourselves? We sit down with Nikhil Chaudhary and chat about everything from the formation of the self to societal pressures. We cover cooperation and collaboration, hunter-gatherer societies, how to think about thinking, managing uncertainty, cultural narratives, and everything in between. Show notes on the website!

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01:25:33

4 | On Fairness: How to study it and why its relative

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/02/06

What does it mean for a situation to be fair and how does this relate to notions of equality, equity, and justice? We sit down with Angarika Deb, a cognitive anthropologist, to chat about what fairness means and how to think about it. This takes us to conversations about political movements, the communication of information, social justice, and the fundamentally relative nature of fairness. Show notes on TMD site!

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01:31:16

3 | On Identity: How it’s constructed and what shapes us

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/01/12

What makes us who we are? We discuss definitions of identity, how it helps us understand the phenomenon of selfhood, and what it means for us as we navigate our social environments. Show notes at: https://www.monkeydancepod.com/episodes/episode-3

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01:35:28

2 | On Power: What it is, how it functions, why it’s...

The Monkey Dance ·

2023/12/21

We talk about power. What it is, its different forms, and all of the related tangents: from beliefs, to social dynamics, to one's conception of themselves. Full show notes at: https://www.monkeydancepod.com/episodes/episode-2

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01:39:03

1 | On Navigating Information: What information is...

The Monkey Dance ·

2023/12/15

We set a loose goal as a topic: navigating the massive amount of information in today's media environment and, more broadly, what information is. That takes us from media ownership and politics, to philosophy, epistemology, and the purpose of science. Full show notes at: https://www.monkeydancepod.com/episodes/episode-1

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01:46:10

0 | On Cognitive Science: What led us to it and how...

The Monkey Dance ·

2023/12/15

An introduction to Guilherme and Ohan. We cover a range of topics and positions and give a general overview of what we want to do with the podcast. We also wanted to give everyone a sense of our positions on broad topics to lay the groundwork for what is to come, from society and politics to philosophy and art. Full show notes at: https://www.monkeydancepod.com/episodes/episode-0

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39 results

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