http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2010/09/10
It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But in this hour of Radiolab, we try to do just that. We speak to a woman who taught a 27-year-old man the first words of his life, and we hear a firsthand account of what it feels like to have the language center of your brain wiped out by a stroke.
If it comes to you easily, being able to read is easy to take for granted. But reading is an extraordinarily complex process, one that researchers are still working to understand fully. On today’s Please Explain we look at the science of reading. Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz and Dr. Bennett A. Shaywitz are professors in Learning Development at the Yale University School of Medicine and Co-Directors of the Yale Center for Learning.
Are new ideas and new inventions inevitable? Are they driven by us or by a larger force of nature?
In this conversation recorded as part of the New York Public Library series LIVE from the NYPL, Steven Johnson (author of Where Good Ideas Come From) and Kevin Kelly (author of What Technology Wants) try to convince Robert that the things we make—from spoons to microwaves to computers—are an extension of the same evolutionary processes that made us. And we may need to adapt to the idea that our technology could someday truly have a mind of its own.
Tagged with radiolab technology future inventions computers brain cognition science
Dr. David Bainbridge talks about how the teen brain changes and the implications
Tagged with teenagers teens developement brain cognition bainbridge biology
Brain science podcast and interview with Maryanne Wolf - how the brain processes language.
Tagged with linguistics language brain cognition reading development science
And The Winner Is…January 27, 2010 - In So Many Words
Steve Goff is one of more than 100,000 people in Canada who have aphasia. And yet the general public knows very little or nothing about it. Steve wants to change this. And although his words are broken, his message is clear. This week’s podcast features award-winning documentary "In So Many Words." It was produced for The Sunday Edition by Teresa Goff, Steve’s daughter.
20 Minutes 30 Seconds
Tagged with cbc documentary aphasia language communication disability cognition linguistics
“When I wake up in the morning I think I’ve still got two normal arms and I have to look to see which one is not there.” How do our brains work in everyday life? In the second of a four-part series examining the mind’s complexities, Professor Barry Smith explores the link between the body and the brain.
Tagged with bbc world service brain barry smith language cognition thought mystery
"Why do we like and dislike certain foods? The most important thing in the tasting process is not the tongue, nose or ears – it’s the brain." Barry Smith explores how the brain makes us capable of language, thinking and feeling.
Dr. Anna Meyer, UCSF Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, explores how hearing and speech develop and why the early years are so critical.
In this heady conversation, noted cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers a number of questions about phrases, languages, and other topics pertaining to The Stuff of Thought.
Subjects Discussed: The Starbucks coffee cup size hierarchy, L.A. Story, “divorce project” and unusual noun phrase connotations, perceptive illusions in language, connotation and denotation, polysemy, campus slang and being hip, euphemisms, the unpredictable nature of words and terminology, the origins of “spam,” the absence of specific terms, locative elements of verbs, meanings and brute memorization, “giggle” vs. “Google,” profanity, offensive language, the difficulties of the surname “Koch,” groups adopting pejorative terms, Lenny Bruce’s infamous routines, dysphemisms, whether the Internet truly reflects language, Overheard in New York, William Safire’s columns, linguists being forever behind the language curve, the origins of “not” (from Wayne’s World) and “my bad,” Jerry Fodor’s extreme nativism vs. reductionism, cultural colloquies vs. cultural status, George Lakoff and language as metaphor, the inevitability of metaphor within certain occupations, language and politics, the brain as a computer, the Declaration of Independence, syntactical memes just under the radar, spatial elements and morphemes, memorization, rigid designators and Saul Kripke, given names that are already in the human continuum, and causation within language.