最佳Science History播客 (2025)

1
Disability and the History of Science (Osiris, Vol 36) 1:28:29

13h ago1:28:29

1:28:29

This volume of Osiris places disability history and the history of science in conversation to foreground disability epistemologies, disabled scientists, and disability sciencing (engagement with scientific tools and processes). Looking beyond paradigms of medicalization and industrialization, the volume authors also examine knowledge production abo…

1
Circulation! [William Harvey Part 3] 23:51

15h ago23:51

23:51

Contact: thecompletehistoryofscience@gmail.com Twitter: @complete_sci Music Credit: Folk Round Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License由Gethin Richards

1
Episode 87 - REPOST Happy Earth Day 14:07

3d ago14:07

14:07

Due to the L.A. fires, I am reposting an older podcast about the history of Earth Day. It is sad to note that in my intro, you will hear alarming sirens in the background, which juxtaposes the beautiful sound of the birds chirping in the reposted podcast I recorded five years ago. If you want to donate to help those affected by the L.A. fires, I ha…

1
Episode 86. Quantum Mechanics: Jim Baggott 2:15:56

6d ago2:15:56

2:15:56

Humanity's understanding of the universe radically altered with the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century. The theory of quantum mechanics describes how nature behaves at or below the scale of atoms, and the road to that theory was littered with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With us to discuss the development of quantum mechan…

1
Patchen Barss, "The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius" (Basic Books, 2024) 35:16

13h ago35:16

35:16

When he was six years old, Roger Penrose discovered a sundial in a clearing near his house. Through that machine made of light, shadow, and time, Roger glimpsed a “world behind the world” of transcendently beautiful geometry. It spurred him on a journey to become one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, philosophers, and physicists. Penr…

1
Melissa B. Reynolds, "Reading Practice: The Pursuit of Natural Knowledge from Manuscript to Print" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:09:53

1d ago1:09:53

1:09:53

What do you do when you feel an itchy throat coming on? You probably head online, first to search for your symptoms and then to evaluate the information you found — just as ordinary 15th and 16th century English people would have sifted through information in their almanacs, medical recipe collections, and astrological tracts. As Reading Practice: …

1
Mariam Motamedi Fraser, "Dog Politics: Species Stories and the Animal Sciences" (Manchester UP, 2024) 1:05:34

4d ago1:05:34

1:05:34

Do dogs belong with humans? Scientific accounts of dogs' 'species story,' in which contemporary dog-human relations are naturalised with reference to dogs' evolutionary becoming, suggest that they do. Dog Politics: Species Stories and the Animal Sciences (Manchester UP, 2024) by Dr. Mariam Motamedi Fraser dissects this story. This book offers a ric…

1
Nancy Reddy, "The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025) 51:55

6d ago51:55

51:55

Timely and thought-provoking, Nancy Reddy's The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom unpacks and debunks the bad ideas that have for too long defined what it means to be a "good" mom. When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother—a woman who was consta…

1
Be Still My Beating Heart [William Harvey Part 2] 20:57

8d ago20:57

20:57

In 1602, William Harvey joined the College of Physicians to secure his medical career, but behind the scenes, he was conducting bold anatomical research. Through dissections, vivisections, and innovative experiments on blood flow and the heart, Harvey began challenging Galen’s teachings. His relentless curiosity would soon lead to the groundbreakin…

1
Rebecca Charbonneau, "Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain" (Polity, 2024) 55:17

11d ago55:17

55:17

In the shadow of the Cold War, whispers from the cosmos fueled an unlikely alliance between the US and USSR. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or SETI) emerged as a foundational field of radio astronomy characterized by an unusual level of international collaboration—but SETI’s use of signals intelligence technology also served military…

1
Joel Whitebook, "Freud: An Intellectual Biography" (Cambridge UP, 2017) 57:26

12d ago57:26

57:26

We interview Dr. Joel Whitebook, philosopher and psychoanalyst about his book Freud: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge UP, 2017). Dr. Whitebook works in Critical Theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School, developing that tradition with his clinical and philosophical knowledge of recent advances in psychoanalytic theory. The life and work o…

1
Rachel Louise Moran, "Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 57:12

17d ago57:12

57:12

New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman’s life; for some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering. By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental illnesses sought…

1
Camille Robcis, "Disalienation: Politics, Philosophy, and Radical Psychiatry in Postwar France" (U Chicago Press, 2021) 1:04:45

17d ago1:04:45

1:04:45

On this episode, J.J. Mull interviews scholar and historian Camille Robcis. In her most recent book, Disalienation: Politics, Philosophy, and Radical Psychiatry in Postwar France (University of Chicago Press, 2021), Robcis grapples with the historical, intellectual, psychiatric and psychoanalytic meaning of institutional psychotherapy as articulate…

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Frederick Crews, "Freud: The Making of an Illusion" (Picador, 2018) 1:02:08

19d ago1:02:08

1:02:08

The figure of Sigmund Freud has captivated the Western imagination like few others. One hundred and twenty-five years after the publication of Studies on Hysteria, the good doctor from Vienna continues to stir controversy in institutions, academic circles, and nuclear households across the world. Perhaps Freud’s sharpest and most adamant critic, Fr…

1
Michael Bresalier, "Modern Flu: British Medical Science and the Viralisation of Influenza, 1890-1950" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) 1:07:43

23d ago1:07:43

1:07:43

Ninety years after the discovery of human influenza virus, Modern Flu: British Medical Science and the Viralisation of Influenza, 1890—1950 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) by Dr. Michael Bresalier traces the history of this breakthrough and its implications for understanding and controlling influenza ever since. Examining how influenza came to be define…

1
Aristotle My General, Fabricius My Guide [William Harvey Part 1] 18:47

23d ago18:47

18:47

In late 1599, William Harvey, having completed his B.A. at Cambridge, sought further education abroad. His father, a successful businessman, funded his journey to Padua, a renowned center of medical learning. At Padua, Harvey encountered the teachings of Aristotle, particularly the idea of understanding the "final cause" of things, which influenced…

1
AI: How We Got Here in Three Powerful Tales 1:07:03

24d ago1:07:03

1:07:03

This episode is based upon three readings: Alan Turing’s Computing Machinery and Intelligence aka The Turing Test paper. Turing starts his paper by asking “can machines think?” before deciding that’s a meaningless question. Instead, he invents something he calls “the imitation game” - a text conversation where the player has to guess whether they a…

1
Donald R. Prothero, "The Story of Earth's Climate in 25 Discoveries: How Scientists Found the Connections Between Climate and Life" (Columbia UP, 2024) 41:15

1M ago41:15

41:15

Over 4.5 billion years, Earth's climate has transformed tremendously. Before our more temperate recent past, the planet swung from one extreme to another--from a greenhouse world of sweltering temperatures and high sea levels to a "snowball earth" in which glaciers reached the equator. During this history, we now know, living things and the climate…

1
Renée Bergland, "Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science" (Princeton UP, 2024) 1:06:40

1M ago1:06:40

1:06:40

Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin were born at a time when the science of studying the natural world was known as natural philosophy, a pastime for poets, priests, and schoolgirls. The world began to change in the 1830s, while Darwin was exploring the Pacific aboard the Beagle and Dickinson was a student in Amherst, Massachusetts. Poetry and scien…

1
David J. Collins, SJ, "Disenchanting Albert the Great: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Magician" (Penn State UP, 2024) 1:07:26

1M ago1:07:26

1:07:26

David J Collins, SJ joins Jana Byars to talk about Disenchanting Albert the Great: the Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Magician (Penn State Press, 2024). Albert the Great (1200–1280) was a prominent Dominican friar, a leading philosopher, and the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. He also endorsed the use of magic. Controversial though that stance would h…

1
Episode 85. SWOPSI: Joel Primack & Robert Jaffe 1:43:49

1M ago1:43:49

1:43:49

Societal problems big and small typically have a scientific element, often in a central way, yet most scientists are not directly involved in policy. My guests sought to change that in 1969 when they created the Stanford Workshops on Social and Political Issues, or SWOPSI. SWOPSI was founded by three students, two of whom are with us today: Joel Pr…

1
The Winter when People Ate Tulips 19:30

1M ago19:30

19:30

It’s the 80th anniversary of the Dutch Hongerwinter during World War II, which led to widespread starvation, and an inadvertent breakthrough in treating deadly celiac disease. Podcast season finale below: Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy…

1
Caroline Winterer, "How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America" (Princeton UP, 2024) 1:05:53

1M ago1:05:53

1:05:53

In How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America (Princeton UP, 2024), Caroline Winterer, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University, takes her reader on a journey through the historical strata of the United States’ relationship with deep time. From the early days of the republic to th…

1
S4 Ep 12 - Joshua Eisenthal et al. on 'Philosophy of Science in Practice' 28:42

1M ago28:42

28:42

Today we have not one, not two, but five fabulous guests who all presented at this year’s conference for the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice, or SPSP24 for short. Many philosophers of science we have featured on the podcast, including Hasok Chang, Rachel Ankeny and Sabina Leonelli, were founding members of SPSP. Also, our earlier epis…

1
Why Keep a Diary of a Toxic Snakebite? 17:09

2M ago17:09

17:09

After 40 years of studying snakes, Karl Schmidt finally suffered his first bite. And when he did, he kept a gruesome diary to document the suffering and danger—right up to the edge of death... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy由Sam Kean

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Episode 86 - Elizebeth Friedman: Codebreaker Legacy 29:23

2M ago29:23

29:23

In 1916, Elizebeth Smith Friedman's, a budding literary analyst, was visiting Chicago when her career took an unexpected turn. Taking a job at Riverbank Laboratories analyzing Shakespeare, she eventually went on to be one of our most prominent codebreakers. To read the podcast's transcripts, please visit me at www.MathScienceHistory.com. To buy my …

1
S4 Ep 11 - Redux: Fiona Fidler on 'Collective Objectivity' 20:41

2M ago20:41

20:41

"It wouldn’t make sense to leave the entire burden of upholding objectivity in science on the shoulders of fallible individuals, right?" Prof. Fiona Fidler Today, we return to one of our favourite episodes, with the person who first came up with the idea for our podcast – Professor Fiona Fidler. Fiona is head of our History and Philosophy of Scienc…

1
Katherine C. Epstein, "Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:07:34

2M ago1:07:34

1:07:34

At the beginning of the twentieth century, two British inventors, Arthur Pollen and Harold Isherwood, became fascinated by a major military question: how to aim the big guns of battleships. These warships—of enormous geopolitical import before the advent of intercontinental missiles or drones—had to shoot in poor light and choppy seas at distant mo…

1
Ken Krimstein, "Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 31:51

2M ago31:51

31:51

Between 1911 and 1912, Prague was home to Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka, two of the twentieth-century’s most influential minds. During this brief but remarkable period, their lives intertwined in surprising ways, driven by a shared intellectual restlessness and a desire to confront life’s most profound questions. Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert…

1
Fiona Smyth, "Pistols in St Paul's: Science, Music, and Architecture in the Twentieth Century" (Manchester UP, 2024) 35:03

2M ago35:03

35:03

On a winter's night in 1951, shortly after Evensong, the interior of St Paul's Cathedral echoed with gunfire. This was no act of violence but a scientific demonstration of new techniques in acoustic measurement. It aimed to address a surprising question: could a building be a musical instrument? Pistols in St Paul's: Science, Music, and Architectur…

1
History in Reverse Sci. Fi. Podcast - Ep. 26 - "The Wild Robot" 54:02

2M ago54:02

54:02

Back after a long hiatus, Caroline and Richie discuss the recent children's movie "The Wild Robot". We both liked the movie, as in the themes it reminded us a bit of the book "A Psalm for the Wild Built" - which also featured a robot in nature. "The Wild Robot" was enjoyable, at times funny and heartwarming story - except for few big battle scenes …

1
S4 Ep 10 - Erika Milam on 'Colloquial Science' 30:02

2M ago30:02

30:02

"These conversations are the focus of fierce debate, not because scientists lack authority, but because these are the intellectual battles worth fighting. These are the stakes on which modern society depends" Our guest today is Erika Milam, Charles C. and Emily R. Gillispie Professor in the History of Science at Princeton University. Through her re…

1
Machiavellian Microbes 18:38

2M ago18:38

18:38

Parasites can force animals to do nefarious things by manipulating their minds—including, uncomfortably, the minds of human beings. Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy…

1
Episode 85 - Francois Viete: The Mathematical Lawyer 24:07

2M ago24:07

24:07

François Viète was a lawyer and a cryptanalyst. As Spain was encroaching on France, his cryptography skills revealed how Spain would take down his beloved country. He did more than just alert the King. To read the podcast's transcripts, visit me at www.MathScienceHistory.com. You can buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon at https://a.c…

1
Ian Miller, "Self-Esteem: An American History" (Polity Press, 2024) 42:29

2M ago42:29

42:29

By the end of the twentieth century, the idea of self-esteem had become enormously influential. A staggering amount of psychological research and self-help literature was being published and, before long, devoured by readers. Self-esteem initiatives permeated American schools. Self-esteem became the way of understanding ourselves, our personalities…

1
Adam Bobbette, "The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java" (Duke UP, 2023) 43:08

2M ago43:08

43:08

In The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java (Duke UP, 2023), Adam Bobbette tells the story of how modern theories of the earth emerged from the slopes of Indonesia's volcanoes. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, scientists became concerned with protecting the colonial plantation economy from the unpredictable bursts and shudders of …

1
S4 Ep 9 - Holden Thorp on 'Teach History and Philosophy of Science' 30:35

2M ago30:35

30:35

“This is Holden Thorp. I'm the Editor in Chief of Science and thanks to Sam and Carmelina for all they're doing to get the word out about the history and philosophy of science” Today's guest is Holden Thorp, professor of chemistry at George Washington University and Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals. In April of this year, Holden pu…

1
The Woman Who “Turned Back a Plague of Old Testament Proportions” 19:15

2M ago19:15

19:15

In refusing to approve the drug thalidomide, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey spared thousands of babies from deadly birth defects and revolutionized drug research. But was her legacy all good? Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://…

1
Fallopio and Fabricius 22:10

2M ago22:10

22:10

Contact: thecompletehistoryofscience@gmail.com Twitter: @complete_sci Music Credit: Folk Round Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License由Gethin Richards

1
Anthony Grasso, "Dual Justice: America's Divergent Approaches to Street and Corporate Crime" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 58:03

2M ago58:03

58:03

The United States incarcerates its citizens for property crime, drug use, and violent crime at a rate that exceeds any other developed nation – and disproportionately affects the poor and racial minorities. Yet the U.S. has never developed the capacity to consistently prosecute corporate wrongdoing. This disjuncture between the treatment of street …

1
Episode 84. The Academy: Bret Stephens 1:51:22

2M ago1:51:22

1:51:22

Institutions of higher education, especially in the United States, have received a great deal of attention over the past two generations regarding their ideological march to the left, and the impacts, real or imagined, on society at large. Criticism of American universities has sharpened since Oct. 7, 2023, as the Hamas attack on Israel was closely…

1
S4 Ep 8 - Nicole C. Nelson on 'Ethnographies of Science' 27:28

2M ago27:28

27:28

Today, Carmelina is joined by Dr. Nicole C. Nelson, Associate Professor in the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nicole is an ethnographer of science and a familiar face to many within both Science and Technology Studies, and Metascience. Today, Nicole explains how ethnographic studies can help us t…

1
Stuart Anderson, "Pharmacopoeias, Drug Regulation, and Empires: Making Medicines Official in Britain's Imperial World, 1618-1968" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2024) 1:04:37

2M ago1:04:37

1:04:37

The word "pharmacopoeia" has come to have many meanings, although it is commonly understood to be a book describing approved compositions and standards for drugs. In 1813 the Royal College of Physicians of London considered a proposal to develop an imperial British pharmacopoeia - at a time when separate official pharmacopoeias existed for England,…

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