x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

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

84:23

37 | Why do people disagree?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/10/29

How can we make sense of the variety of beliefs that are prevalent in society?Peter Steiglechner joins the podcast to talk about the role of identity and group belonging in understanding why people believe what they believe. We chat about modeling belief networks and understanding the role of bias in our engagement with information. We also cover how disagreements emerge and when consensus is possible, and more generally about existing in a group and dealing with a diversity of opinion. Guest:

en

86:14

36 | What makes us engage with content?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/10/15

Why do we engage with information online?Hannah Metzler joins the podcast to talk about the role of emotions and personal identity when investigating the spread of misinformation. We chat about a lot of the myths surrounding misinformation, the circumstances that make certain beliefs appealing to people, and why engaging with negative content is so much more tempting than positive content. Guest: Hannah Metzler Monkey Dance Podcast Website

en

99:51

35 | Why do some conflicts become violent?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/10/02

Why do some resistance groups resort to armed struggle? And when do those groups decide it's time to put down arms?Barbora Valik joins to talk about the factors that can lead to the violent mobilization of resistance movements, particularly as a strategy to call attention to their cause, and what needs to change for the violence to end. We speak specifically about self-determination movements of indigenous peoples in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. We chat about how states have many means of

en

95:28

A2 | What does it mean to have power?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/09/03

Inequality seems to be a fundamental aspect of the society we've created. Is an unequal power dynamic endemic to any interaction between a set of individuals?In this episode from 2 years ago, Guilherme and I talk about how to define the concept of power, the function of unequal power dynamics, and how it manages to generate stable systems that perpetuate inequities that last for generations. On a small break from the podcast and have been thinking a bit more about power again, particularly in

en

01:29:49

34 | How do infants process information?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/07/23

How do infants treat information they come across?I sit down with Velisar Manea to chat about how the infant mind develops, the types of biases evolution might have built in, and how they manage to be so adaptive. We also chat a good bit of theory, particularly about whether we need to attribute mental states to others or whether statistical prediction is enough. We chat about the evolutionary usefulness of biological constraints, the caloric demands of cognition versus the energy demands of

en

01:22:45

33 | Early childhood memories and visual cognition

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/06/26

Nicolas Goupil joins me to chat about his work spanning everything from forming early childhood memories, to visual cognition, to hierarchies in groups. It's a fun, wide ranging conversation and we cover a good bit of ground.In Copenhagen for a few months, so the next several episode will be on the road. Sorry if the audio quality is not as good as usual!

en

01:40:53

32 | When curiosity is limited by our biases

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/06/11

How do our biases interfere with our willingness to learn?Pelin Kasar and Juliette Vazard both return to the podcast for a chat at the intersection of beliefs, biases, and curiosity. We talk about curiosity -- how to define it, its emotional role, and its relationship with learning -- and about biases -- what a bias is, its implications in society, and its relationship to curiosity. The conversation covers a lot of ground as we work through definitions and reach mutual understandings of each of the

en

01:40:19

31 | Who has the rights to resources?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/05/28

Resource management is a difficult problem. Deciding who gets access to certain resources, and how much of it they have access to, can often be existential struggle. This is complicated with issues of historical access of particular groups, over exploited ecosystems nearing collapse, and geopolitical shifts that lead to changes in demand.We sit down with Arev Papazian to chat about the difficulties of delegation and determining permissions. We cover some of the ground regarding the challenges of

en

01:27:15

30 | How do we decide who to learn from?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/05/14

What makes someone a good source to learn from?Melissa Koenig explains how we learn from others: from the strategies we use to the biases we lean on when making epistemic decisions. We chat about the emergence of racial and gender biases and how we often seek information from sources that we identify with, covering the dynamics of of social identities and justice. And we end with chatting about the role of science in society and the importance of not separating work and activism. Melissa Koenig is

en

01:24:49

29 | Satisfying curiosities

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/05/02

Joining the podcast is Reto Schneider, veteran science journalist who has dealt with everything from the science of opinion formation to the origins of land ownership and seemingly everything in between.We talk about a variety of things that have become mild obsessions for him over the years including things like his decades long monthly column on obscure science experiments, data scientists trying to predict the future, and the arbitrariness of prison sentences. For more, check out: Reto's

en

01:42:30

28 | Whose fault is it?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/03/28

How do we decide whether someone should be held responsible for something?We sit down with cognitive scientist Katarina Kovačević to talk about ascribing responsibility, and how our intuitions about responsibility shape behavior. We chat about the differences between knowing and not knowing what we're doing is wrong, versus the grey area of having had access to the knowledge but avoiding it. We also cover Katarina's work on victim blaming, what all of this means about our relationship with the

en

01:01:47

27 | Student protests in Serbia

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/03/12

This episode was recorded at 11:30 on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.Yesterday (March 10), students blocked access to the state-run Serbian public television headquarters, accusing it of biased coverage. As of this recording, hundreds of students continue to block access to the building. There is a major protest scheduled for Saturday, March 15. Since November of 2024, students in universities across Serbia have been organizing mass protests across the country against the corrupt, autocratic

en

01:51:23

26 | How does the brain understand comic books?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/03/07

Making sense of a series of graphic representations is not simple, but our brains manage to do it with little effort.Our conversation with Neil Cohn starts out with a rethinking of language, moving from an understanding built solely on spoken language to the ability to express meaning across a range of modalities. This moves us into Neil's work on how we develop the ability to understand visual narratives and what this means for our understanding of language as a whole. We chat about emojis,

en

01:35:31

25 | How does toxicity shape conversations?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/02/17

And how can complexity science help us understand them?We sit down with Gabriela Juncosa to discuss how political discourse unfolds in online spaces and whether toxic interactions shut conversations down or keep them going. We chat about the structure of online discussions, how social media algorithms influence engagement, and whether the way we talk online differs from in-person interactions. This takes us to the role of network structures in polarization, the ways AI might intervene in online

en

01:44:18

24 | What does it mean to be open minded?

The Monkey Dance ·

2025/01/24

We use the terms open mindedness and gaslighting a lot, but do we really understand what they mean?We sit down with Phyllis Pearson to discuss what it means to engage honestly with information and with others. We chat about curiosity and agency, empathy and perspective taking, and the blurry line between being open to the beliefs of others versus maintaining skepticism and asking for justification. This takes us to what honest dialogue looks like, whether gaslighting is always malicious, and what

en

01:28:19

23 | Why do we show emotion?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/12/20

What is the function of emotional displays?We sit down with Thomas Ganzetti and discuss the role emotions serve in social contexts and how we use the displays of others to gather information about our realities. We chat about the evolutionary trajectory of emotional displays, how they help us navigate our environments, and what we learn about ourselves and those around us as we observe each other (whether we intend to or not). Guest: Thomas Ganzetti Co-Host: Xueyi Yao (to hear more from Xueyi,

en

01:38:22

22 | How do we perceive music?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/12/06

How does the brain process music and how has the perception of music changed over time? We sit down with cognitive neuroscientist Anja-Xiaoxing Cui to chat about how we relate to music, music's role in social interactions, and how music might be used as a tool for regulating emotions. We cover theories of the emergence of music in human history, the relationship between music and other art forms, and whether reading sheet music is at all similar to hearing it.My co-host this episode is Arianna

en

01:29:37

21 | How can we resist narratives that justify...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/11/22

What makes systemic inequality such a hard problem to tackle?We sit down with cognitive anthropologist Angarika Deb and cognitive psychologist Ákos Szegőfi and chat about their research on different aspects of the problem. We chat about the cognitive mechanisms involved in perpetuating systemic inequality both on the part of those benefiting from such systems and those who are marginalized by them. We also discuss the importance of narratives and access to information when it comes to both

en

01:33:41

20 | How do emotions impact cognition?

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/11/08

What are emotions and how do they impact cognition? We sit down with philosopher Juliette Vazard to talk about what we can learn from our emotions, the relationship between emotions and beliefs, and how emotions can shape our behavior. We cover everything from learning and curiosity, to the epistemic value of emotional states, to their impact on how we relate to the world.Joining me as a co-host is philosopher Maria Fedorova, our guest on Episode 17. As always, you can check out the show notes on

en

01:43:27

19 | Manipulating memory: How event structure impacts...

The Monkey Dance ·

2024/10/23

Does everybody experience memory in the same way? We sit down with Andreas Arslan to chat about what we spontaneously imagine when we read or actively remember, and how everything from inferring causal relationships to the salience of symbols can impact recall. We also talk about how the structure of experience impacts and possibly even determines what and how we remember.Show notes on the website Or watch on youtube

en

39 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter