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PODCAST

Instant Genius

Whether you’re curious about getting healthy, the Big Bang or the science of cooking, find out everything you need to know with Instant Genius. The team behind BBC Science Focus Magazine talk to world-leading experts to bring you a bite-sized masterclass on a new subject each week. New episodes are released every Monday and Friday and you can subscribe to Instant Genius on Apple Podcasts to access all new episodes ad-free and all old episodes of Instant Genius Extra. Watch full episodes of Instant

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All Episodes

38:13

How psychedelics could kickstart the next mental...

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/23

Hippies, the Beatles, flower power, magic mushrooms, raves and festivals – that’s what most of us associate with psychedelics. But there is mounting evidence that these drugs could also be used medicinally, particularly to treat mental illnesses such as depression.In this episode, we speak to Prof David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist who has spent decades researching how drugs affect the brain. Now a professor at Imperial College London, David has published more than 500 research papers, eight

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0:34

Don't miss the upcoming Future of Food miniseries!

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/21

What will we all be eating in 2050? How will it be produced? And how can our diets keep us healthier for longer? If these are questions you'd like answered, why not check out the upcoming Future of Food mini-series.You'll discover how cutting-edge farming technology is helping us to produce food that's kinder to the environment, how overlooked foods such as algae and seaweed may soon become a common sight on our plates, and how new discoveries are uncovering the fascinating science of how our

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27:14

How our bodies are host to mysterious cells that came...

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/19

The commonly held story goes that we all begin life as a single cell in our mother’s womb and go on from there to develop into fully formed adult human beings composed of cells of our own creation. However, recent research is showing that this isn’t quite the full picture. Not all of the cells in our bodies come from this single starting point. We are, in fact, all host to cells that have migrated from the bodies of other people – our mothers, grandmothers, siblings and even, in some cases, complete

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38:04

How human consciousness emerged from the fundamental...

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/16

Thanks to hundreds of years of scientific progress we now know, that like every other living thing on Earth, human beings are simply assemblages of atoms and molecules that evolved over eons through a series of complex, iterative processes. But somewhere along this long and meandering journey we developed consciousness – the deep sense of self-awareness that allows us to think, feel and even allows us to attempt to understand what’s going on in the Universe around us.In this episode, we’re joined

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28:40

The hunt for the first stars in the Universe

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/12

Stars feel like a fundamental feature of the Universe – as essential as planets, galaxies and space itself. But since we know the Universe had a beginning (the Big Bang), there must also have been a first star. Before it, there was only darkness; after it, the cosmos as we know it began to take shape.Exactly what those first stars were like – and how they transformed everything that followed – remains one of astronomy’s great mysteries. It’s a mystery that astrophysicist Dr Emma Chapman has

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32:40

The weird and wonderful science behind why humans are...

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/09

Humanity is beautifully diverse. Some of that diversity is visible, but hidden beneath the surface, there is also a hidden web of genetic variation that collectively tells a story about how people have adapted to their environments, sometimes in weird and wonderful ways.In this episode, we speak to Prof. Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University, USA, and the author of Burn: the misunderstood science of metabolism, as well as his newest book, Adaptable: the surprising

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40:21

The key role psychologists can play in the fight...

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/05

Chances are that when most of us think about the notion of crime our minds turn to acts committed against an individual – be it theft, fraud or even physical assault. But every day ecological crimes are committed against the planet we all live on that often fly under the radar despite the significant, far-reaching effects they have on all of us.In this episode, we’re joined by criminal psychologist and bestselling author, Dr Julia Shaw to talk about her latest book, Green Crime – Inside the Minds

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25:29

The psychology of paranormal experiences

Instant Genius ·

2025/10/02

Be it a cold, drafty room in a creaky old country house or a still, quiet forest on a dark night, chances are that at one point or another we’ll all have entered an environment that for some reason made us feel uneasy. But what exactly makes a certain place or situation feel so creepy, and why do we get these feelings in the first place?In this episode, we’re joined by psychologist and magician Prof Richard Wiseman to talk about his work as a scientist who investigates the psychology behind

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34:19

Inside the hunt for life-changing medicines

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/28

Chances are when we’re treated with medicines in hospital or pick up our prescriptions at the pharmacy, we don’t give much thought about how the drugs that are so vital for our health and wellbeing came to be. The fact is the journey that a new medicine takes from its beginnings in the laboratory to finally being administered to patients can be long and arduous. It typically takes the work of countless scientists, researchers and technologists toiling away behind the scenes for decades and is often

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35:24

From asteroids to aliens - how space is threatening...

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/25

Is our planet under threat from the depths of space? In this episode, we talk to solar physicist Dr Ryan French. Normally, Ryan is busy unravelling the mysteries of our Sun, but today we’ll be delving into a slightly darker topic – the many risks posed to our delicate planet from space. In his recent book, "Space Hazards: Asteroids, solar flares and cosmic threats”, Ryan covers all the many dangers our planet faces from space rocks, the Sun and the farthest reaches of the Universe. We run through

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25:05

Why we treat our pets and possessions like human beings

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/21

Many of us treat our pet dogs or cats with the same love and attention that with give to our human babies, some of us give our cars or other prized possessions human names and may even, at times, talk to them. This is known as anthropomorphism – the tendency within many of us to assign human qualities to non-human animals and even inanimate objects.In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Justin Gregg to talk about his latest book, Human-ish – How Anthropomorphism Makes Us Smart, Weird and

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29:46

How bats became one of the planet’s most successful...

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/18

It’s a little-known fact that bats are one of the most successful animals on Earth, with almost 1,500 different species currently identified. Their agility in flight and prowess as hunters, wide-ranging diversity in size and behaviour and ability to adapt to almost any environment have allowed them to conquer almost every corner of the globe. But despite their success, many species of bats are now under threat. In this episode, we’re joined by ecologist and neurobiologist Prof Yossi Yuval to talk

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25:51

Why penguins are one of the planet’s most unique bird...

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/14

Thanks to their comical waddle-like way of walking, striking tuxedo-patterned plumage or graceful ability to seemingly ‘fly’ beneath the water, penguins are without doubt one of the planet’s most instantly recognisable animals. But the fact is that they are also one of its most endangered species of bird.In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Peter Fretwell, lead scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, to talk about his latest book The Penguin Book of Penguins – An Expert’s Guide to the World’s

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42:19

Busting the biggest myths in neuroscience

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/11

Relatively speaking neuroscience and psychology are young fields of scientific research that only really got going over the last hundred years or so. However, during this time several stubborn myths have arisen that, zombie-like, just don’t seem to go away.In this episode, we speak to neuroscientist, best-selling author and long-time BBC Science Focus contributor Dr Dean Burnett. He tells us how much of our brain we really use, explains whether polygraphs can really tell if we’re lying, and

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28:11

The positive tipping points that can help us solve...

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/07

When it comes to climate change, we often think of tipping points as having a huge negative effect. Be it the loss of ice sheets in the Arctic, the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest or the alteration of ocean currents, scientists have identified several key systems on the Earth that will be impossible to reverse if they cross a critical threshold. But if we look at the situation from the opposite side, there are also several positive tipping points that, given the correct momentum, can

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27:13

How cats became one of our most-loved domestic pets

Instant Genius ·

2025/09/04

From Lewis Carrol’s mysterious grinning Cheshire Cat and Jim Davis’s lazy, lasagne-loving comic strip tabby Garfield to the depictions of big cats found in palaeolithic cave art and the ancient Egyptian’s practice of worshipping cat-like deities, it’s clear we humans have had a long-standing fascination with felines. But how did this obsession with these charismatic animals begin?In this episode, we’re joined by Jerry D Moore, a professor of anthropology at California State University, Dominguez

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34:07

How the health of the oceans is vital for the health...

Instant Genius ·

2025/08/31

Despite being a land-based species, the fact is that we humans live on a planet that is largely covered by oceans. The oceans play a key role in regulating the Earth’s climate and provide us with many of the resources essential for our continued survival – even down to the oxygen we breathe. The sad truth is our oceans aren’t in good shape. But there is still hope. With directed effort we can all help to preserve this vital resource and improve the health of the planet and all who live on it. In

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35:15

The tiny molecules tackling the planet’s biggest...

Instant Genius ·

2025/08/28

In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Omar Yaghi – a pioneer of materials chemistry whose inventions are shaping the future of clean energy, clean air, and even clean water. He’s best known for creating metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs, and covalent organic frameworks, COFs – ultra-porous materials that can capture carbon, store hydrogen, and even pull drinking water out of desert air. His work has opened up an entirely new field of chemistry, and his breakthroughs are now being developed into

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31:59

How to build a healthier, longer-living society

Instant Genius ·

2025/08/24

The most commonly held narrative states that we’re all ultimately responsible for our own health and wellbeing. While there’s undoubtedly truth in this idea, the bigger picture shows that the societies we live in and the policies shaped by our governments also play a huge role in our quality of life and longevity.In this episode, we’re joined by Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health based at the University of Edinburgh, about her latest book, How Not to Die (Too Soon) – The Lies We’ve

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29:40

The psychology of making the most of your time

Instant Genius ·

2025/08/21

Be it due to an increasingly demanding workload or responsibilities that need fulfilling at home, these days many of feel that there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything we need to get done. For many of us this can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing. So, what can we do to improve our relationship with time?In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Ian Taylor, a psychologist based at Loughborough University, to talk about his latest book Time Hacks – The Psychology of Time

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