Ben Kuebrich


Ben Kuebrich is a reporter for High Plains Public Radio, an NPR station in Western Kansas. He spent 10 years studying neuroscience and working in laboratories at institutions such as Emory University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo. During that time, he also fell in love with listening to podcasts. He started his career in audio doing research and fact-checking for the Gimlet podcast “Science Vs.” You can also listen to his podcast “Selects,” which highlights the work of independent podcast producers.

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‘Friction-maxxing’ in school: Students should read primary literature, not AI summaries

Trainees need to learn how to identify a neuroscience paper’s major takeaways and integrate them into their understanding. This skill doesn’t come from outsourcing the work to large language models.

By Nora Bradford
26 March 2026 | 5 min read

Head direction cells stably orient mice to outside world

The cells’ representations show little drift over time—unlike those of other navigation system neurons—and may provide a “rigid backbone” for more flexible sensory and cognitive responses.

By Angie Voyles Askham
25 March 2026 | 0 min watch
Thumbnail of Juan Gallego.

Juan Gallego discusses how manifolds are transforming our understanding of the coordination of neuronal population activity

A wealth of evidence supports the view that neural manifolds are real and useful, Gallego says, even if they may not completely solve the age-old mind-body problem.

By Paul Middlebrooks
25 March 2026 | 121 min listen