Podcasts

Brain Inspired
A podcast where neuroscience and AI converge. Hosted by Paul Middlebrooks.
Recent Episodes:
Xaq Pitkow shares his principles for studying cognition in our imperfect brains and bodies
Pitkow discusses how evolution's messy constraints shape optimal brain algorithms, from Bayesian inference to ecological affordances.
Chris Rozell explains how brain stimulation and AI are helping to treat mental disorders
Rozell and his colleagues, using deep brain stimulation and explainable artificial intelligence, have developed tools to help people with treatment-resistant depression.
Jennifer Prendki explains why AI needs to emulate life
Prendki describes how her work on large artificial-intelligence models shaped her view that current AI needs inspiration from living organisms.

Audio research news
Your latest update from The Transmitter.
Recent Episodes:

The Transmitter’s reading list: Six upcoming neuroscience books, plus notable titles in 2025
Dig into an exploration of the fundamental aspects of intelligence, a new textbook about theoretical neuroscience and a memoir about memory research, among other new releases.

Long-standing theoretical neuroscience fellowship program loses financial support
Funding from the Swartz and Sloan Foundations helped bring physicists and mathematicians into neuroscience for more than 30 years.

Should neuroscientists ‘vibe code’?
Researchers are developing software entirely through natural language conversations with advanced large language models. The trend is transforming how research gets done—but it also presents new challenges for evaluating the outcomes.

Synaptic
Exploring the people, the science and the challenges in neuroscience.
Recent Episodes:

Stimulating the brain with Damien Fair
The MacArthur Foundation “genius” discusses his return to his home state of Minnesota and why it’s important to protect the developing brain.

Season 2 of ‘Synaptic’ draws to a close
Season 3 will begin next year.

Timothy Ryan on his pivotal switch from studying particle physics to decoding synaptic transmission
Dissuaded from pursuing theoretical physics and deterred by the “long feedback loop” in experimental physics, the National Academy of Sciences member took inspiration from “polymath” Watt Webb and “visionary” Stephen Smith—and learned to work “completely outside his comfort zone.”

The Transmitter stories
Stories about developments in neuroscience.
Recent Episodes:

‘Emergent and transactional’: How Jonathan Green is rethinking autism and interventions
The experienced clinician discusses writing his recent paper, and its reception in the field.

The story of autism research in Australia: A conversation with Cheryl Dissanayake
With the help of a generous benefactor, autism research in Australia is gathering critical mass.

New journals seek to fill neurodiversity gap
The two journals, although differing in initial support, both realized the need for a publication focused exclusively on the neurodiverse experience.