This Is Your Brain on Podcasts

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/science/this-is-your-brain-on-podcasts.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

by dnetesn • 10 years ago

73 41 10 years ago

nytimes.com

mapleoin• 10 years ago

This is what I got from this article: Researchers looked at MRI scans of people listening to a Podcast on their daily commute. The researchers don't know what any of it means.

revelation• 10 years ago

Functional MRI scans are the equivalent of looking at what transistors are switching in a chip at any given moment, only more useless since the brain is much more generalized.

"Oh! Cache is lighting up!"

Balgair2• 10 years ago

http://www.wired.com/2009/09/fmrisalmon/

It's from 2009, so things have improved, but still.

wimagguc• 10 years ago

The paper this article references has not much to do with listening to podcasts while commuting. It's about how "the meaning of language is represented in regions [of the brain]".

Wonder if the post would have received the same attention with the more precise title "This is your brain on stories".

johnchristopher• 10 years ago

I certainly would like to read an article on "This is your brain on stories" that would highlights and explores escapism, role of story-telling, etc. That would make a nice book as well.

I recently got into listening to podcasts. I noticed that I really don't like the "get together to discuss a topic" kind or the "here's a 2 minutes segment from the radio news" but really do enjoy one-hour long political, history and documentary podcasts.

civilian• 10 years ago

Just wanna make sure you have these in your feed: Revolutions Podcast, History of Rome podcast (finished, but with 5 years of content), Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.

Idk, the "get together and discuss" podcasts vary widely in quality. I find that the way the hosts talk really determines whether I like it. I really enjoy My Brother My Brother and Me (A comedy podcast around answering YahooAnswers questions), and listening to Boars, Gore and Swords helps me solidify and digest what I watched in Game of Thrones.

But some of the discussions podcasts are just babbly. "One bad mother", "Throwing shade". There's very little content.

Even RadioLab does me wrong sometimes, but that's probably just because I have a basic science education and Robert Krulwich is an idiot. Radiolab suffers from the balance fallacy, argument to moderation, and false dilemma.

agumonkey• 10 years ago

Podcasts are my tool of choice for bike riding smooth cardio sessions. They drive my mind off the effort, it makes my rhythm more regular and the experience more pleasurable. Sometimes I'm even thinking "hard" while pedaling.

travelbyphone• 10 years ago

I do the same when running. Much better than music

ecuzzillo• 10 years ago

Link to paper full text?

slashcom• 10 years ago

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v532/n7600/full/nature1...

hgh2• 10 years ago

Article itself is pretty light on the details, but good opportunity to ask the HN community -- which podcasts really fire your neurons?

bognition• 10 years ago

I used to listen to the "classics":

- This American Life

- 99% Invisible

- Serial

- Invisibilia (sp?)

- TED Radio Hour

- Radio Lab

But after a few years they all feel very boring.

Aleman360• 10 years ago

Agreed, they're all same-ish now.

icebraining3• 10 years ago

I feel a bit of that from 99%, but not from TAL and Serial. Though I'm still mourning the loss of David Rakoff.

j_s• 10 years ago

This discussion 2 weeks ago was filled with recommendations:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11509835

hgh2• 10 years ago

Nice, missed that. Thanks!

alemontree• 10 years ago

A lot of it depends on what you're into. If you like history I'd suggest "Hardcore History" by Dan Carlin or "Revolutions" by Mike Duncan.

For economics, there's NPR's "Planet Money" and WNYC's "Freakonomics".

If like the tech/startup scene (as I assume many of HN readers are) I'd suggest "Startup" by Gimlet Media.

daodedickinson• 10 years ago

We Hate Movies

randycupertino2• 10 years ago

I'm not into podcasts but I am VERY into audiobooks via audible. I listen to them while commuting, while doing chores around the house and while walking the dog. I used to read voraciously and never had time any more. I alternate fiction and non fiction. Some recommendations: 14 by Peter Cline, the Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, and The Like Switch by an ex-FBI agent about likability.

Changed my life immensely for the better. I read about 5 books a month now.

xirdstl• 10 years ago

I enjoy audiobooks also, particularly when paired with the Kindle book. I can fairly seamlessly switch back and forth between reading and listening.

Interestingly - the price of a Kindle book on Amazon + adding audio to it (which comes from Audible) is frequently less than buying the audiobook from Audible.

goldenkey2• 10 years ago

I'd argue that listening to the book is quite different from reading it.

richdougherty• 10 years ago

I subscribe to quite a few podcasts. Here are the ones I consistently enjoy listening to.

- EconTalk - Interviews on many topics with an economics focus. - http://www.econtalk.org/

- In Our Time - Experts discuss an important idea, person or event. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl

- Software Engineering Radio - Probably the best technical podcast I've found. - http://www.se-radio.net/

- Switched On Pop - I don't know much about music theory but I enjoy listening to these guys discussing it! - http://www.switchedonpop.com/

icebraining3• 10 years ago

+1 for Econtalk; while they're interviews, Russ Roberts doesn't try to pass as an "unbiased" journalist, which might grate some people, but I find it makes for more interesting discussions.

dacohenii• 10 years ago

I listen to a lot of the popular ones that have already been mentioned (Serial, Radiolab, This American Life, etc), but here are some others I listen to:

- Freakonomics Radio (WNYC). Favorite episode so far: "The Economics of Sleep" [1] - 60 Second Science (Scientific American). Short synopses of new science. - Developer Tea (spec.fm). Targeted towards developers, and episodes generally revolve around tech work and/or career development. Generally around 20 minutes. Good place to start: Interview w/ Sam Lambert, Director of Systems at GitHub [2] - StarTalk Radio (American Museum of Natural History, I guess). Astronomy/Science. I'm especially a fan of the "Cosmic Queries" episodes. - Reply All (Gimlet Media). Tech related, but no specific target audience. 30ish minutes. Favorite episode so far: #53, "In the Desert" [3] - Planet Money (NPR). Economics. Lots of good stuff. - Stuff You Should Know (How Stuff Works). Usually informative, but generally conversational and not heavily edited. - Gastropod (Radiotopia). Food. Also generally conversational with little editing. - Codebreaker, by Marketplace and Tech Insider (NPR). Tech/Ethics.

[1] http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-economics-of-sleep-part-... [2]: http://spec.fm/podcasts/developer-tea/30505 [3]: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/

Edit: spelling

a-saleh• 10 years ago

Not really podcast, but similiar enough:

RollPlay shows by twitch streamer JP McDaniels. I really like PnP, but sheduling my own games is tricky and this gives me the weekly fix. It can be kind of slow-paced, but some of the character arcs rival the best I have seen on any media.

jsz0• 10 years ago

BSD Now is the most intellectually stimulating tech podcast I listen to. As the name suggests they focus on covering BSD operating systems and related projects but you don't have to be a BSD user to enjoy the in-depth technical discussions. For example this week's show included an in-depth discussion of copy-on-write file systems and an interview about the CHERI research CPU.

http://www.bsdnow.tv

prdonahue• 10 years ago

Joe Rogan Experience: http://podcasts.joerogan.net/. No HTTPS, sadly.

exception_e• 10 years ago

Software Podcasts: Software Engineering Radio, .NET Rocks!, JavaScript Jabber

Mind-opening Podcasts: Reply All, TED Radio Hour, Radio Lab

Comedy Podcasts: Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast, The Complete Guide to Everything, Joe Rogan Experience, Duncan Trussell Family Hour

...does anyone know of a good Java podcast? Seems like the main one is offline now.

dionidium• 10 years ago

I'll leave off the ones that others have already mentioned.

General

- Waking up with Sam Harris. This might be my favorite thing going. No other podcast makes me examine what I believe about the world, spirituality, religion, world politics, consciousness, and so on, like this one does. Just fantastic.

Tech

- The Talk Show with John Gruber. Not much to say here. It's Apple-centric navel-gazing.

- The Stack Exchange Podcast. It's too bad they don't record more often, because this is one of my favorites.

- Accidental Tech Podcast. Another favorite. Perhaps I just like hearing Siracusa tell the others they're wrong.

- a16z. A more valley-focused-let's-talk-about-software-eating-the-world type show. But still good.

I also listen to most of Carolla's podcasts. Adam and Drew -- now five days a week -- and Reasonable Doubt are sometimes better than the flagship show, but his schtick isn't for everyone.

Man, I wish Norm would bring back Norm Macdonald Live.

SyneRyder2• 10 years ago

I listen to a ton of podcasts, but the one I enjoy the most that gets mentioned the least often is Risky Business [1]. It's an information security podcast that is well produced, entertaining but also intelligent. They tend to not just repeat the news, but often go into more detail about the methods used and defensive lessons learned from the various hacks.

[1] http://risky.biz

Amorymeltzer• 10 years ago

Amusingly, I heard about this research on the Nature podcast.

I was skeptical at first — these fMRI studies are a dime a dozen these days, with dubious results — but this one is pretty robust. The use of training data is nice, and definitely adds a level of verifiablility to it. It's a nice step toward actually understanding how the brain processes not just language but ideas. There is definitely a future where we can understand what people are thinking by observing their brain.

svensken• 10 years ago

Isn't it just the bloodflow within the brain that we're observing?

We'll never be able to read a mind based on fMRI-style data any more than we'll be able to judge the ongoings of America by the headlights on the highways.

Dowwie• 10 years ago

EconTalk The RSA events London School of Economics events CATO Institute Events Commonwealth Club of California Big Ideas produced by Australian Broadcasting Corp Stanford Entrepreneurship Series Inquiring Minds BBC Thinking Allowed Science Friday Both US and UK Intelligence squared debates

Edge.org talks are great, too, but I don't think they're offered as podcasts yet. Minor inconvenience..

For stories, there's Radiolab, Freakonomics, Snap Judgment, and The Moth

towlejunior• 10 years ago

C++ podcasts, anyone?

A niche request, yes, but my podcast app's search won't respect the plus characters. :(

lexap• 10 years ago

Incredible that they were able to predict areas of the brain that would light up.

This Is Your Brain on Podcasts

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