Mind Over Chatter

Season 3 is here, and we’re back discussing all things Health! Welcome (or welcome back) to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast. One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. In this third series, we’re talking all about Health. We’ll be exploring both physical and mental health, and we’ll discuss causes, treatments and preventions for issues like dementia, cancer, infectious diseases and obesity. We’re going to be talking to interesting people from all over the University of Cambridge, including geographers, surgeons, computer scientists, molecular microbiologists, sociologists… and many more!  We’ll cover everything from infectious diseases and how we can use vaccines to prevent them, to Tinder for bacteria; from artificial intelligence helping us tackle cancer, to Grandpa JPEG and all the Little Pixels, from adolescent mental health and eating disorders to Senua, the Pict warrior hero of the blockbuster video game Hellblade; from obesity and the gene-environment debate, to how a room full of Twixes is like a room full of Borg (resistance is futile); and from dementia and new approaches to its diagnosis and treatment, to “Tau Tangles” - the new brand of Greek noodle.Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

What role do our genes play in influencing our body weight and what we like to eat? Why do some people gain weight more easily than others, and is it all down to genes or are there other factors at play? In this episode, we talked with a clinician and scientist Sadaf Farooqi, health psychologist Theresa Marteau, and geographer Thomas Burgoine about the multitude of factors that go into influencing our eating behaviours. Along the way, we hear about the crucial importance of the environment in influencing our eating behaviour, including “zoning” - the effort to keep fast food outlets no more than 400 yards from schools, and learn how our food has become more calorific over the past 20 to 30 years. Our guests discuss how ultimately, communicating information about obesity doesn’t necessarily change our behaviour towards food, as we are much more influenced by our genes and environment than what's inside our heads. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps: [00:00] - Introductions[01:00] - A bit about the guests’ research[02:10] - Defining obesity and what it means to be obese[02:45] - Along with diabetes, how does obesity impact our health?[03:45] - What proportion of the global population are obese?  [04:25] - How these[05:25] - The many factors that contribute to obesity (genes and how our genes respond to the environment) [06:40] - Patterns of obesity. The pandemic, neighbourhoods, inequality, and how income levels affect childhood obesity?  [10:40] - How low income and poverty drains our mental capacity for cognitive tasks  [12:05] - How small amounts of income are given to the poorest households decreases stress and improves diets.[12:55] - The calorie paradox and energy-poor foods. The role of processed foods.   [14:25] - What would a ’healthy’ country/neighbourhood look like  [15:25] - Time for a recap[19:15] - What can we do at a policy level? Could hospitals be the perfect ‘role models’?[20:30] - Should policymakers be setting the food environment? Looking at examples like the experiments in Singapore. [21:40] - Translating research to improve the food environment. Changing worksite cafeterias. Reducing the amount of higher calorie meals available. Cutting portions sizes of higher calorie meals.   [24:00] - How the size of wine glasses affects how much people are drinking. What this means in terms of calorie consumption.  [25:30] - The amount of evidence that is needed for public health interventions (public vs commercial sector)[26:40] - What about education, the school environment, zoning, access to fast food, and education around obesity[29:40] - How do we respond to risks - does information change our behaviour? Does the ‘5 A Day’ work? [31:40] - From a psychology perspective, does education work to change our behaviour? [32:20] - What about from a biological and genetic perspective? The role of the environment. [34:00] - Is eating behaviour voluntary? How much...

COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of everyone, including children and young people, beyond recognition. So much so, that the proportion of children aged six to 16 with probable mental health disorders has increased from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in both 2020 and 2021. In this episode, we talked with Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Tamsin Ford, Professor of Health Neuroscience Paul Fletcher and behavioural epidemiologist Dr Esther van Sluijs about growing concern over the recent and widespread deterioration of adolescent mental health and what can be done about it. We cover everything from the prevalence of mental health problems and eating disorders, sedentary behaviour and mentally passive activities, to how mental illness is represented in video games and how video games can be used to engage the public with mental illness in the right way. Along the way, we hear about mental health before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps: [00:00] - Introductions[01:05] - A bit about the guests’ research[02:10] - How do we define and classify mental illness[06:40] - Seeing mental health as a spectrum with wellbeing at one end and illness at the other[09:00] - The criticism of the diagnostic process in psychiatry[11:15] - The scale of the problem. How much mental ill-health is out there?[12:10] - Concern around the fact that 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem [13:40] - This deterioration spreads across groups, gender, and ethnicity. Children from families facing financial or food insecurity or poor parental mental health reported worse mental health. [14:50] - The role of the pandemic and the “medicalisation” of a normal reaction to a stressful and anxious situation.[16:00] - Is it because more people are developing mental illnesses? Or is it because available services to help people have been reduced in recent years[19:00] - Time for a recap! [25:30] - The role of sedentary behaviour, physical activity and screen-based activity and how all of this interacts with mental health[27:00] - The effect of sedentary behaviours and screen-based activities that are mentally passive. [28:00] - The relationship between sedentary behaviour and eating behaviour[29:50] - How has the pandemic affected physicality levels? [34:45] - The role of physical activity in mental health and wellbeing? [35:50] -  Interventions. Treating depression through behavioural activation, which is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. [38:00] -  We are social animals. The active part of social media, keeping in touch and interacting with friends and family can be a good thing. [39:00] - Videogames, including Hellblade! And the representation of mental illness in video games. Paul’s experience of working with Ninja Theory and working with creative industries. [42:15] - Impact - the feedback from the community who played the game and the response to the representation of psychosis in the...

What causes dementia? And how do we diagnose and treat it? Is there anything we can do to stop ourselves from developing dementia? These are the crucial questions we’ll be exploring with clinical neuropsychologist Barbara Sahakian, sociologist Richard Milne, and neurologist James Rowe. In this episode, we’ll find out more about what dementia actually is, some surprising factors that increase a person’s risk of developing dementia, and computer games that can actually help detect and diagnose dementia.This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps: [00:00] - Introductions[01:10] - A bit about the guests’ research[02:20] - Defining dementia and what causes it[03:10] - Dementia and Alzehiemers [03:10] - What we mean by the term neurodegenerative and tau proteins  [04:15] - How Dementia is different from normal aging  [05:15] - Who does dementia impact and the number of people in the UK who have dementia[05:45] - One in three will get dementia. One in six over the age of 80 have dementia in the UK. WHO estimates 55 million people worldwide and this figure is set to rise to 78 million by 2030.  [07:10] -The impact on families and carers. What is the cost to the economy? Trillions globally. [08:45] - The lifespan of dementia. How the combination of our genes puts us at a higher or lower risk of dementia. How this proceeds through adult life.  [10:20] - Normal ageing vs dementia [12:35] - Time for a recap! [16:40] - How do we detect dementia? Declines in cognition and the importance of episodic memory.   [18:35] - CANTAB: a tool to detect early Alzheimer’s disease[20:05] - Establishing the value of early detection and early diagnosis.  [21:10] - APOE tests and the debate around if early diagnosis is useable information. Does it cause more worry and anxiety? What can be people do with the information? [23:00] - Does this argument focus too much on the stigma associated with dementia. We should all want to know as we can do something around our own personal risk. [24:40] - Should these risk factors simply be explained as steps that we should do anyway. Do we have to be given information about risk?[25:15] - How can we reduce our risk of dementia? Early detection also allows people more time to get some treatments and their finances together. [27:10] - Is there a way to look for the clumps of proteins in your brain? Physical test options. [27:40] - it is less about technology. The bigger question is about how we use the information to reduce personal risk. Diagnosis, screening and preventative interventions. [29:30] - The possibility for behaviour change? How do we put in place systems that change behaviour. Policy and health system change. [31:00] - The risk factors - depression, social isolation, hearing loss, cognitive inactivity, air pollution. [31:30] - Time for another recap! [36:40] - Dementia isn’t just a problem for people over the age of 65. 42,000...

Is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) the greatest threat to human health? In this episode, we discuss how the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in humans and agriculture have accelerated bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens’ ability to mutate and develop resistance against the treatments designed to curb and control them. We talked with molecular biologist Stephen Baker, virologist Ian Goodfellow and infectious disease epidemiologist Caroline Trotter about the magnitude of the problem and how it is not a problem of the future, but of the now. Along the way, we discuss whether post COVID19, are we in a better position now to deal with the next pandemic? Can we predict when it might happen? And if it does happen, will we deal with it any differently?This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps: [00:00] - Introductions[01:10] - A bit about the guests’ research[02:03] - What are antimicrobials and what is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?[03:00] - How do antimicrobials kill bacteria? How do the chemicals interact and stop a process? How were they discovered? [04:20] - Antibiotic means anti-life. How long have they been around? [05:10] - How does the process of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) work?[06:40] - What are the consequences of antimicrobial resistance? The example of drug-resistant typhoid[08:50] - How do you use vaccines to prevent diseases like drug-resistant typhoid? Vaccines, sanitation, and how vaccination is implemented and reformulated. [10:15] - Is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) the greatest threat to human health? Do we underestimate the impact that antibiotics have had?[11:15] - Do we understand the scale of the resistance out there? What about mortality and morbidity because of antimicrobial resistance?[13:00] - Antimicrobial resistance-specific diseases. What about meningitis? The power of early action?[13:45] - The magnitude of the problem. The terrifying realisation that antimicrobials are irrelevant in some countries because of the sheer amount of biomass of drug resistance out there. [15:00] - The overuse of antimicrobrials, human microbiome and the community of bacteria that live in your body. [15:50] - Does the human microbiome recover from an antibiotic. How antibiotics work -  basically an atomic bomb going off. [17:00] - Do we have a full picture of how important a microbiome is. Links to obesity and the long-term effects of early exposure to antibiotics. [17:45] - What is the impact of microbiome variation on vaccines? [19:10] - Have we misused antibiotics? Is this on us? Or is inevitable? [19:45] - Resistance is inevitable. Resistance is reported within two years of a drug being licensed and used. We created is this arms race. This will be known as the antimicrobial era.   [21:05] - Do we need a better diagnosis before we administer antimicrobials? [21:45] - The volume use of antimicrobials - healthcare vs agriculture. [22:35] - The overuse of antimicrobials. gentamicin being spread on...

What’s cancer got to do with crabs, artist Jackson Pollock, and artificial intelligence? It’s not a riddle; these are some of the things we’ll explore with surgeon Grant Stewart, computer scientist Mateja Jamnik and radiologist Evis Sala from the Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine.In this episode, we’ll discover how artificial intelligence is making it easier for doctors to diagnose and treat cancer and we’ll share some cancer facts that are both amazing and disturbing. We also learn about the WIRE clinical trial for kidney cancer. WIRE evaluates the effectiveness of giving a short course of drug treatment to patients in the one-month “window of opportunity” between diagnosis and surgery. Patients on the WIRE trial also undergo a suite of new imaging techniques that have been brought together for the first time globally in this clinical trial.This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, Naomi Clements-Brod and Annie Thwaite. Please take our survey!How did you find us? What do you like about Mind Over Chatter? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps: [00:00] - Introductions[01:15] - A bit about the guests’ research[02:45] - The origins of cancer.  Why Hippocrates is known as the father of medicine. [04:00] - How cancer starts [05:05] - How many types of cancer are there? What are the most common types of cancer? [06:10] - How do cancers develop? The lifecycle of cancer. [09:00] - How early in the lifecycle can we see or detect cancer? What size does the cancer cell need to be for us to see it?[10:15] - What improved machines and AI help with detection and characterisation? [11:00] - Can we turn imaging into a virtual biopsy?[12:20] - Defining Artificial Integiilence (AI) [14:20] - AI and machine learning and how they interlink. [15:10] - Deep learning and statistical learning. [16:10] - Origins of AI in medicine and healthcare. [17:15] - Intro to AI and cancer imagery [18:30] - How the AI algorithm assists the radiologist[20:10] - AI and prepared models. How the data is trained to understand what cancer looks like. [21:20] - The importance of sharing the data set. [22:00] - Time for a recap![28:40] - Ai and surgical robots[29:30] - AI and screening kidney cancer. Grant’s and Evis’s work using models, imagery, automation to screen for kidney cancer  [31:50] - Explaining the types of imaging in oncology  [33:10] - How Evis uses AI in her imagery [34:10] - How to scan for ovarian cancer [35:20] - Comparing images of tumours to paintings. Comparing Jackson to a Mark Rothko painting. Homogeneous or heterogeneous [37:40] - Describing what the images actually look like from a non-radiologist perspective. Grades of grey. What CT scans and MRI scans look like. [41:10] - How AI is used throughout the imagery process, not just for clarification. [42:30] - Comparing the AI in oncology imagery to an Instagram filter. Do we lose any information when we use AI?[43:15] - Time for another recap! [48:15] - How do we create and ensure a high quality of data in a...

Welcome (or welcome back) to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast! One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. In this second series, we’re talking all about the future. We’ll explore the nature of time itself  - What even is the future? And is it in front of or behind us?  - and we’ll also cover some of today’s most pressing questions, like how will artificial intelligence impact democracy?We’re going to be talking to people from all over the University of Cambridge… from linguists and philosophers to historians, biologists, demographers and many more besides!We’ll cover everything: from the physics of time to Sapir-Whorf, the first linguistic theory to join Starfleet; from the fabulous fabulations of futures past to Elon Musk, Mars, and James’ measly net worth; from the future of wellbeing and mental health to an overabundance of Pop Tarts; from using participatory research to help create a more just future to the unequal distribution of My Little Ponies; from the future of artificial intelligence to animism and Hello Barbie; and from the future of reproduction to the maternal instincts of Darth Vader.Please take our survey.How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.

Hello and welcome back to Mind Over Chatter! Please fill out our survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9 to tell us what your mind thinks about our chatter. Knowing what you think will really help us make the podcast even better… Now, on to the episode!This second series is all about the future - and in this first episode we’re going to be considering what the future even is… Have you ever wondered how time works? It turns out, the answer is a lot more complicated than we thought.Join our wondering and wonderful conversation with philosopher of science Matt Farr, professor of psychology Nicky Clayton, and professor of linguistics and philosophy, Kasia Jaszczolt. We’ll be talking about everything from physics to linguistics… and from broken eggs to Einstein’s theory of relativity. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2. [00:00] - Introductions[02:10] - A bit about the guests’ research[04:28] - Does time actually go from past to present to future? And does time really ‘flow’?[06:04] - The A-theory of time and John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart[07:53] - The B-theory and C-theory of time (and a little bit more about the A-theory too)[09:53] - How do B-theorists deal with entropy? Can you un-break an egg?[10:44] - The difference between the A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time - does time have a direction? And does energy/entropy have a direction?[14:12] - Recap of the first portion of the episode, reviewing A-theory, B-theory and C-theory of time[18:58] - How the mind understands the subjective concept of time[24:24] - How languages talk about time differently and why these differences matter[27:11] - The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how the way you talk about language affects the way you perceive and think about things[30:21] - Recap of the second portion of the episode [34:02] - How do the mental and linguistic concepts around time fit with philosophical  concepts and physics of time?[40:45] - How mental time travel works and how thinking about the past is different to thinking about the future[41:40] - All biological organisms are subject to the laws of thermodynamics so we can’t remember the future or act towards the past[42:55] - Cultural and linguistic differences in mental time travel and whether the past is behind us or in front of us[45:46] - Is there a conflict between the psychological and linguistic models of time and the way physics handles time?[48:20] - Recap of the last portion of the episode[52:44] - Closing and thank you’sIf you want some more information about the different theories of time we discussed in this episode, this article by Matt helped us understand some of what was said: https://aeon.co/essays/the-c-theory-of-time-asks-if-time-really-has-a-direction GUEST BIOSProf Kasia Jaszczolt @KJaszczoltProf Kasia Jaszczolt is a linguist and philosopher of language, interested in meaning in language, in the mind, and in conversation – how it is composed and conveyed.She has written five books (most of them for Oxford University Press) and over 90 articles on these topics. Some of her favourite research topics include time in language and thought and their relation to ‘real’ time, semantic ambiguities, theories of meaning and communication, and representing beliefs. She gives lectures

We all have theories about what the future might look like. But what did the future look like in the past? And how have the advent of new technologies altered how people viewed the future? We talked with curator of modern sciences and historian of Victorian science Dr Johnua Nall, professor of Digital Humanities and director of Cambridge Digital Humanities Professor Caroline Bassett, and Junior Research Fellow in the history of artificial intelligence Dr Jonnie Penn in our attempt to understand how the future was thought of in the past. Along the way we discussed utopias and dystopias, the long history of science fiction, and how the future might come back to haunt us!This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Guest biosProfessor Caroline Bassett is Professor of Digital Humanities and Director of Cambridge Digital Humanities (@CamDigHum). Caroline’s research explores digital technologies in relation to questions of knowledge production and epistemology (how does 'the digital' change scholarship, transform understanding, produce new scales or perspectives?) and in relation to cultural forms, practices, and ways of being (how can we understand the stakes of informational capitalism, what are its symptoms, how can we understand its temporalities, the forms of life it enables, and those it forecloses?). Dr Jonnie Penn @jonniepenn is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, technologist, activist, and public speaker. He writes and speaks widely about youth empowerment, the future of work, data governance, and sustainable digital technologies. He explores the Future of Work for Millennial and Post-Millennials in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A Research Fellow at St. Edmund’s College and at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, and as an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Dr Joshua Nall Is the curator of Modern Sciences at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. His research focuses on mass media and material culture of the physical...

Our wellbeing is essential to our overall quality of life. But what is wellbeing? Why is it so hard to pin down? How is it different to mental health, and what can we do to understand, measure and improve it? We talked with psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Amy Orben, psychiatrist Dr Tamsin Ford, and welfare economist Dr Mark Fabian to try and get to grips with wellbeing. In doing so, we learnt about the negative (and positive!) effects of the pandemic, how wellbeing differs for children and adults, and the influence of ever-evolving technology on our wellbeing.  This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2. Please take our survey.How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. In this episode:0:00 - Introductions - meet the guests03:00 - What's the difference between well being and mental health?05:49 -  What role does culture play in well being?06:30 - Wellbeing and economics. How do we think about wellbeing outside of psychology? 09:35 - How do we measure wellbeing?13:15 - Could we measure wellbeing from moment to moment? 15:01 - We’ve reached the recap point19:04 - Can wellbeing be factored into factors that measure societal progress, like productivity GDP? 21:25 - How has COVID19 affected wellbeing at a policy level? 24:35 - Do the well being needs of children and adults differ? 26:30 - What about adolescents, how do their needs differ?  29:35 - How is wellbeing research going to change in the future? Could we use life satisfaction to measure social progress?32:00 - Is there a link between technology and well being or mental health? 35:35 - How do we react to technological change as a society? The debate around screen time. 37:20 - Time for another recap! 43:15 - Measuring student experiences during the pandemic45:40 - How we might think differently about wellbeing after the pandemic47:45 - Are we all in the same boat? How do we make sure people aren’t left behind? 50:05 - How is this new thinking about well being going to shape our lives in the future?For individuals and for governments and policymakers? 55:45 - What is it to live a good life?57:30 - What do you look forward to thinking about the future?59:05 - Recap three. Let’s close this thing out. Guest Bios: Dr Amy Orben  @OrbenAmyAmy’s research uses large-scale data to examine how digital technologies affect adolescent psychological well-being and mental health. She uses innovative and rigorous statistical methodology to shed new light on pressing questions debated in policy, parenting and mental health. She also campaigns for better communication of trends in data and the wider adoption of Open Science.Amy is a College Research...

Our society is more unequal than ever, as the top 1% control over 44% of the world’s wealth while 689 million people are living on less than $1.90 per day. In this episode, we asked our guests what the future of fairness, justice, and equality should look like, and how their research can help to bring about a fairer society. Alexa Hagerty and Natalie Jones shared how injustice can be thought of as an existential risk to humanity, while Esra Ozyurek introduced us to the importance of understanding that different people have different needs, making equality insufficient to bring about justice. We cover topics ranging from distributive justice, the virtues and vices of empathy, and the role AI will play in shaping equality in the years to come. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps[00.00]- Introductions[02.07]- what do we mean by fair when it comes to societies?[03.28]- fairness as contributions[05:00]- Justice requiring a plurality of understandings of peoples’ wants and needs[05:58]- deficit model of justice[06:45]- the difference between fairness, justice, and equality[07:53]- justice is the most powerful out of the three concepts[08:45]- The downside of empathy[10:18]- being empathetic can encode a problematic power dynamic[12:50]- who gets to feel compassionate is unequal in political dialogues[13:13]- cognitive empathy and emotional empathy distinction[13:50]- Time for recap 1: summary so far[15:00]- the deficit model in more detail[15:54]- example of medical needs explaining the difference between justice, fairness, and equality[17:35]- cognitive empathy recap and explanation[18: 15]- inequality and existential risk[19:34]- existential risks can be localised to particular civilizations e.g. the threat of climate change and colonization[20:21]- how to link global injustice and different voices to existential risk[20:44]- participatory futures intro[21:21]-global justice causing existential risk[23:22]- we are all in the same boat but on different decks.[24:24]- COVID-19 vaccine distributions and justice [25:13]- Time for recap 2: summary so far[26:49]- participatory futures explanation[28:05]- AI can impact inequality and injustice[28:59]- algorithmic red lining[30:11]- AI displacing workers of certain skill sets[31:13]- AI and the platform economy[32:37]- AI perpetuates inequalities, multiplies inequalities, and creates new inequalities[33:29]- facial recognition, skin colour, and questions of whether it would be just to implement facial recognition tech across societies[35:20]- AI having liberatory potential[36:43]- the importance of the underlying structure within which AI is used[37:57]- the materiality of...

Artificial Intelligence can be found in every aspect of our lives. From A-level grade predicting algorithms to Netflix recommendations, AI is set to change the choices we make and how our personal information will be used. In this episode, we explore the future of AI - its potential benefits and harms - with our three guests. Beth Singler told us about the different cultural consequences of AI, and how the way we think about the future of AI reflects more about society today than the future itself. John Zerilli shared his views on the consequences of AI for democratic decision-making, and Richard Watson urged us to conceive of the future of AI in terms of ‘scenario planning’, rather than predicting the future directly. We cover topics ranging from how to make AI ‘ethical’, how the media representation of AI can colour the public’s perception of what the real issues are, and the importance of an international AI regulatory system. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.Timestamps:[0:00] - Introductions[01:22] - guest research introductions[01:55] - what is AI?[02:46] - machine learning and AI as the same thing? [04:31] - Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)[04:47] - AI in our everyday lives- it’s everywhere![06:07] - effect of different patterns on AI e.g. COVID-19 anomalies[06:46] - we need human flexibility to respond to these changing patterns[07:27] - what is a futurist in residence?[08:37] - the only certainty with the future is that it is uncertain. There are lots of futures out there. Being a futurist is all about debating and scenario planning[09:41] - should every organization have an AI and futurist officer?[10:09]- how we think about the future as reflecting on what we think about the present[10:54]- Alvin Toffler and 20th-century futurism[11:55]- futurism and AI. AI dialogue needs to be about its impact on the future[12:54]- running out of humans?[13:33]- AI in care homes[13:38]- Time for the first recap! [17:55]- the relationship between AI and religion, and the cultural impact of AI[19:58]- cultural animation and AI receptivity- not a simple relationship[20:35]- being ‘blessed’ and ‘cursed’ by the algorithm[22:04]- democracy and AI. How are we to expect citizens to be informed enough to exercise their voting rights in the best way?[23:28]- Cambridge Analytica and drastic changes in voting. How much does and should the public know?[25:45]- what opportunities do people have to get informed about AI?[27:30}- what do the people who are creating AI need to hear?[27:40]- ‘open AI’ and the need for public access to AI algorithms[28:59]- Digital trust and who gets to own data[29:27]- AI and moral responsibility. This is where the religious aspects enter the AI debate.[30:25]- the ‘deontological approach: building an AI ‘rulebook’[31:25]- problem with ‘ethical AI’ is that we don’t really know what an ethical human is.[32:27]- Time for recap number...

Our reproductive capabilities are changing in exciting ways, altering our fundamental understanding of fertility, reproduction, and even parenthood. In this episode, we asked our guests what the consequences of novel reproductive technologies are likely to be, and how they will impact the future of human reproduction. Alice Reid told us about how reproduction has changed over the last 200 years and the likely demographic impact of assisted reproduction, while Lucy Van de Wiel introduced the important ways in which reproductive technologies must be considered in the context of wide social and political issues. Thorsten Boroviak shared his exciting and cutting-edge research on developing new reproductive technologies. We cover topics ranging from egg-freezing, so-called ‘three-parent-babies, and the importance of studying the embryonic development of primates.This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provide crucial research and production support for Series 2.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Timestamps[0:00]- introductions[2:10]- change of human reproduction over the last 200 years[3:05]- the Demographic Transition[4:00]- importance of changing ideas in family planning[5:01]- introduction to egg freezing[5:45]- egg freezing and changing meaning of what it means to be ‘fertile’[6:24]- who is freezing their eggs?[9:10]- ability to get pregnant versus quality of eggs[9:59]- societal and demographic impacts of egg freezing[10:19]- egg freezing and inequality: who gets to use this technology?[11:24]- impact of gender equity in the workplace and the home[12:05]- higher levels of gender equity can produce higher levels of fertility[12:57]-beginning of first breakout[20:17]- the importance of research in embryonic development of primates [21:09]- introduction to single-cell transcriptomics[22:10]- impact of embryonic research on fertility treatments[22:24]- Induced pluripotent cells and taking cells ‘back in time’[23:19]- generating eggs and sperms from any human cell[24:02]- can a man produce an egg?[25:00]- “three-parent-babies”[27:09]- the specialization of gametes [28:00]- impact of when novel technologies become clinically safe?[29:19]- small demographic impact of assisted-reproduction at the present[30:55]- how can we do this scientific work while being informed about the societies in which these technologies will play a role?[31:30]- regulation of egg freezing and when society thinks the ebay age for having children is[32:30]- importance of thinking about where the eggs for assisted reproduction technologies[33:53]- the problem of false hope? [35:48]- the different ways people get information about their reproductive options[38:31]- egg freezing at career fairs[40:37]- when should one freeze their eggs?[41:00]- second breakout[48:31]- young womens’ complex decisions when it comes to choosing to have kids[49:10]- changes in fertility are about decisions surrounding when to have children[51:15]- the science behind choosing...

One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. In this first series, we’ll explore climate change. Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… like a toddler with sticky fingers. But how did it become this way? What are we doing about it now? And what does the future hold?We’ll ask smart people some simple questions and see what happens!New episodes every Thursday.From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero

Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… but how did we get to this point? When and why did we first take notice of climate change? And why has climate change evaded our collective attention and action for so long?We talked with professor of human geography, Mike Hulme, science historian and journalist Dr Sarah Dry and environmental economist Dr Matthew Agarwala to try to figure all of this out. Along the way, we discovered new ways of thinking about climate change, from a tragic story where the issue is constantly caught between opposing forces, to more hopefully thinking of it as a source of generative change and innovation. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. From the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Zero.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.Thanks very much.In this episode:0:00 - Intro 03:15 - What was the starting point for human made climate change? 08:30 - Recap point10:10 - The economics of climate change and modelling for the future.14:45 - The tragedy and politics of climate change16:05 - The concept of values20:25 - Recap point22:10 - Can we find a single answer or a single story to solve climate change? 25:50 - The concept of the wealth economy28:00 - Denialism and climate optimism 32:35 - What we've learned from COVID33:35 - Recap point35:20 - Has democracy helped, or hindered climate change? 37:15 - Are there any reasons to be optimistic? 40:45 - In the next episodeGuest Bios: Dr Sarah Dry (@SarahDry1)I write about the history of science. I have written about Victorian fishermen and risk, epidemics and global health policy, the life and loves of Marie Curie, and the history of Isaac Newton’s manuscripts. That last project has just been published in paperback: The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts.My latest book is Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers and Atmosphere–and Made the Planet Whole. It tells the stories of the scientists who have uncovered the mysteries of our oceans, atmosphere, icesheets and glaciers, and in doing so, helped us see the earth as an interconnected globe. https://sarahdry.com/home/Dr Matthew Agarwala (@MatthewAgarwala)Matthew Agarwala is an environmental economist interested in wealth-based approaches to measuring and delivering sustainable development. The pace of globalisation, innovation, and social, environmental, and economic upheaval leaves no doubt: 20th century statistics can’t capture 21st century progress. Matthew joined the Bennett Institute’s wealth economy...

Last episode, we talked about how we got to where we are now with climate change, but do we even know what’s going on with climate change right now? In this episode we’ll talk about what tipping points we’re approaching, how and why we’re still struggling to gain momentum toward action on climate change, and what difference it would make if carbon dioxide was a brown smelly substance.To figure all of this out, we talked to a mathematician, Emily Shuckburgh, an engineer Hugh Hunt and a psychologist, Sander van der Linden. Along the way, we discuss solutions like geoengineering, creating a fake news ‘vaccine’ and opportunities for businesses to be more transparent about how their activities contribute to climate change. If you’re curious to find out more specific ideas about how we can build a greener future, check out Cambridge Zero’s Green Recovery Report here: https://www.zero.cam.ac.uk/green-recovery-report This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod. Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help. Thanks very much.In this episode:0:00 - Intro3:21 - How healthy is the planet at the moment?4:35 - Are we approaching any tipping points?6:45 - Do people understand the risk of climate change? 9:10 - Would a better understanding of the numbers help? 10:55 - What if co2 was a brown, smelly substance, would we treat it differently?14:55 - Recap17:30 - So how is fake news affecting action around climate change?23:30 - We found solutions to the CFC problem and the whole in Ozone layer. 24:15 - Where do we think the responsibility lies?26:15 - How can technology contribute to solving climate change?29:50 - Can individuals make a difference? 31:15 - Recap34:40 - What about societal level change? 37:45 - What are some of the more risky ways in which we could tackle climate change?42:50 - Reasons to be optimistic?Guest Bios:Professor Sander van der Linden (@Sander_vdLinden)Sander van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making, including social norms and networks, attitudes and polarization, reasoning about evidence, and the public understanding of risk and uncertainty. He is especially interested in a) the social influence process and how people gain resistance to persuasion through inoculation and b) how people form (mis)perceptions of the social world, including the emergence of social norms in shaping human cooperation and conflict in real-world collective action problems such as climate change and the spread of fake news and misinformation. His research is regularly featured in the popular media, including outlets such as the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, The Economist, NPR, the Washington Post and Time Magazine.For recent profiles on Dr van der Linden's research see here, here, and

The future is becoming harder to predict thanks to climate change and a global pandemic. But a large part of what the future will look like is in our own hands. The biggest challenge to creating a better future may be political rather than scientific or technological. In this episode, Diane Coyle, professor of public policy, Laura Diaz Anadon, professor of climate change policy, and architectural engineer, Ruchi Choudhary, join us to talk about how we can build a future that might not be anything like the past.We cover topics like innovation, GDP, and how the uncertainty created by climate change can help propel policy and economic decisions. Plus, we look at some of the benefits that come with building a greener future together. In this episode: 0:00 - Intro03:50 - What a sustainable future could look like07:15 - What economic, political and institutional changes do we need? 09:45 - Informing behavioural change11:15 - Recap point13:05 - How important is innovation in resolving climate change? 17:55 - The importance of measuring wellbeing. 19:50 - What metrics speak to policymakers? 23:17 - International coordination. Distributing the burdens of climate change27:05 - Recap point30:39 - What impact will COVID have? 35:35 - What will be the legacy of 2020? What changes are here to stay? 40:00 - Circling back to what a sustainable future might look likeThis episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod. Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.Thanks very much.Guest Bios: Professor Diane Coyle (@DianeCoyle1859) (@bennettInst)https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/about-us/team/diane-coyle/ Professor Diane Coyle is the inaugural Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Diane co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity, and has been a government adviser on economic policy, including throughout the covid-19 pandemic. Her latest book, ‘Markets, State and People – Economics for Public Policy’ examines how societies reach decisions about the use and allocation of economic resources. Research Interests: Economic statistics and the digital economy: lead researcher on the Measuring the Modern Economy programme at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence. Competition policy and digital markets. Economics of new technologies. Natural capital; infrastructure.Professor Laura Diaz Anadon (@l_diaz_anadon) (@CEENRG)Professor of Climate Change Policy and Director, Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG)Prof. Diaz Anadon has three main areas of research: The...

How and what we eat, and where our food comes from, these everyday choices that we often think very little about, have become increasingly relevant to climate change. With a global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, it is not unreasonable to ask: how are we going to feed all these people... and without causing more damage? In this episode we’ll cover everything from how climate change will affect the way we grow and eat food, to the pros and cons of ‘non-poo’ fertiliser. Sound appetising?Giles Oldroyd, professor of plant science at the new Cambridge Crop Science Centre, Helen Anne Curry, lecturer in the history of modern science and technology, and developmental economist, Shailaja Fennell, helped us connect the dots between food and climate change. They discuss how we ensure people around the world will still have food to eat as the climate becomes more unpredictable.In this episode: 0:00 - Intro01:30 - Why food production is relevant to climate change. 03:15 - Are we eating more? And are we eating more of the wrong kind of things? 05:30 - The reliance on the chemical industry and the role of inorganic fertilisers08:30 - What are the main crops that we currently rely on globally?13:15 - Are we eating less varieties of these crops? 14:35 - Why is it so important to maintain a wide genetic diversity of crops? 18:10 - Recap 21:02 - What crops are at risk due to climate change? 22:25 - How will agriculture adapt to a changing climate? 26:45 - The carbon footprint and the water footprint of agriculture. 29:33 - What can we learn from history and the past 100 years? 31:30 - Will food become more expensive? 35:35 - Recap38:30 - Will there be a shortfall between what we produce now and what we will need to produce by 2050? 39:50 - Can we address global inequities in the food system? 44:15 - What do we need from leaders and policymakers? 45:50 - Reasons to be optimistic50:00 - Recap and what's next. This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod. Please Take Our Survey. (Please)How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.Thanks very much.Guest Bios: Dr Helen Anne Curry (@hacurry)My current research focuses on the history of efforts to understand and use crop diversity as a resource for agricultural development. In August 2020 I launched the project 'From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security'. This project has its origins in my investigation of history of genetic conservation, especially the preservation of seeds and other plant materials in seed and gene banks. It is also the subject of my current book project, Endangered Maize: Indigenous Corn, Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction. Dr Shailaja Fennell (@shailajafennell) Shailaja Fennell is a Co-Investigator on TIGR2ESS, a research programme to study how to...

In this last episode of the series, we’ll be exploring how stories work for and against climate change. We cover a lot of ground: from hippos and polar bears to how many times ‘sex’ and ‘tea’ were mentioned on TV between 2017 and 2018… so what’s all of this got to do with sustainability and climate change? Join us to find out!Our storytelling experts this time are Richard Staley (lecturer in the history and philosophy of science, Sarah Dillon (author, researcher and broadcaster) and Martin Rees (cosmologist, astrophysicist, and Astronomer Royal).This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan, and Naomi Clements-Brod.Please take our survey. How did you find us? Do you want more Mind Over Chatter in your life? Less? We want to know. So we put together this survey. If you could please take a few minutes to fill it out, it would be a big help.Thanks very much.In this episode: 0:00 - Introductions 04:05 - When and how did we start telling stories about the environment? 08:30 - What is the purpose of a story and how do they work? 10:30 - Climate models and climate fictions. 12:53 - Models as fiction. The reliability of models. 13:30 - The climate in the past. Modelling the future to think long-term. 15:45 - Recap19:00 - How we experience the weather and the climate.20:05 - The importance of Indigenous stories. 22:55 - How does storytelling differ across the world 25:10 - Could there be one story to save them all? 26:55 - How frequently is climate change mentioned in mainstream stories? 29:10 - Engaging with climate change, without engaging with climate change. 30:15 - Do we think about climate change as climatic change? 31:25 - Can we use stories to communicate to policymakers? Guest Bios:Martin Rees (@LordMartinRees)Martin Rees (Lord Rees...

In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, close to 1.6 billion children and youth were out of school due to temporary closures, representing more than 90% of students around the world, according to the United Nations. In this episode, we take an international perspective with our guests Arif Naveed, Aya Waller-Bey, and Sara Allen. We discuss the double-edged sword of education systems around the world, for example, the US and Pakistan: how education both preserves inequality and how it can help us to overcome inequality. Arif Naveed explores how the underlying social hierarchy that shapes day-to-day living also impacts the economic outcomes of schooling. Aya Waller-Bey talks about quality as opposed to simple access to education. Access depends on deep structural factors that mean opportunity is not equally distributed. Sara Allan gets us thinking about changing the way that institutions organise instruction and the role of the teacher. Would more of a student-centered approach improve access and inclusion in schools?This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, Lucy Allen, and Rachel Gardner Dalton. Timestamps[00:00]- Introductions[02:50]- What does access to education actually mean? [03:50]- Access depends on deep structural factors that mean opportunity is not equally distributed[04:50]- What are the long-standing, institutional barriers to equitable distribution of resources?[07.35]- What does access to education look like in the Global South?[08:20]- The economic outcomes of schooling[11:05]- Does access mean inclusion?  [13:15]- Access for who? Who has access to what? [14:25]- The importance of social relationships between students and teachers at schools [14:55]- Can we design schools to be student-centered?[17:10]- Where are we now..? Is it possible to improve learning at scale, but also learn from experience at the local level?  [22:05]- Are we at a moment of reckoning. Who is the education system set up to serve? [25:10]- The justification for investment in education has predominantly been through its economic returns[27:05]- The return on investment and student loan debt[30:15]- How do we fund education going forward? [38:45]- The value of social capital at the institutional level?[41:15]- Where does cultural capital fit into the puzzle? [43:50]- How do you define success for yourself? How much do students value their own identities? [45:00]- Can institutions become more student-centered?  [45:35]- Social hierarchies and critical race theory[47:50]- OutroGuest Bios: Aya M. Waller-Bey (@Aya__Marie) is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Michigan. Her current research examines the identity narration of Black students in college personal statements when applying to predominantly white institutions. In 2015, she was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to the University of Cambridge. Aya has shared her insights on postsecondary access, diversity, and inclusion in op-eds in the Huffington Post UK, University World News, the Hechinger Report, the 2016 White House Summit for Advancing Postsecondary Diversity and Inclusion, and as a...