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Big Brains

University of Chicago Podcast Network

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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  • 23 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 35 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • #182
    Nov 24, 2025 · 38 min

    How Wearable Tech Will Heighten Our Senses and Abilities, with Pedro Lopes

    Can you imagine a world in which a wearable device, like a smartwatch, could move your fingers to strum the guitar or play the drums? That kind of technology is part of the innovative research coming out of the Human-Computer Integration Lab at the University of Chicago, led by renowned computer scientist Pedro Lopes. His lab is developing a new generation of gadgets that use haptics (or tactile sensations like the buzz of your smartphone) to move your body, replicate your sense of smell and eve

  • #181
    Nov 13, 2025 · 32 min

    Why Are More Women Saying No To Having Kids? With Peggy O'Donnell Heffington

    More and more women in the United States are saying no to motherhood. In 2023, the U.S. fertility rate reached the lowest number on record. But the idea of non-motherhood is actually not a new phenomenon, nor did it come out of the modern feminist movement. For centuries, women have made choices about limiting births and whether or not to become mothers at all. This history is documented in a new book, "Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother," by University of Chicago Assistant

  • #180
    Oct 30, 2025 · 34 min

    How Full-Body MRIs Could Predict Your Long-Term Health, with Daniel Sodickson

    What does it mean to see beneath the surface — of the human body, the brain, or even the universe itself? In his new book, The Future of Seeing: How Imaging Is Changing Our World, Prof. Daniel Sodickson of NYU explores the future of imaging: How technology is transforming not just medicine, but our very ways of perceiving the world. With the rise of AI-driven “digital vision,” Sodickson, a pioneer of MRI innovation, argues that imaging is no longer just a diagnostic tool — it’s becoming a new la

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes