328 | Mary Roach on Replacing Parts of Our Bodies
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Release Date: 09/15/2025
AMA | Feb 2026
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Welcome to the February 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: Note that Mindscape now has a new hosting provider, . (Actually a return home, as that was my first host when...
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342 | Rachell Powell on Evolutionary Convergence, Morality, and Mind
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Rachell Powell about how minds and social forms arise under evolution.
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341 | Stewart Brand on Maintenance as an Organizing Principle
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with technologist Stewart Brand about the importance of taking maintenance seriously.
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340 | Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on What Matters and Why It Matters
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein about what it means for us to matter to ourselves and others.
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339 | Ned Block on Whether Consciousness Requires Biology
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Ned Block about whether machines can ever truly be conscious.
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Holiday Message 2025 | The Romance of the University
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Happy Holidays everyone!
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AMA | December 2025
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape for December 2025.
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338 | Ryan Patterson on the Physics of Neutrinos
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with physicist Ryan Patterson about how we detect neutrinos and what we have learned from them.
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337 | Kevin Zollman on Game Theory, Signals, and Meaning
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Kevin Zollman about how game theory helps us understand the human and biological worlds.
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336 | Anil Ananthaswamy on the Mathematics of Neural Nets and AI
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a little bit into the mathematical and algorithmic structures underlying these techniques. Anil Ananthaswamy takes up this challenge in his book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI. In this conversation we give a brief ove
info_outlineLike any machine, bodies occasionally break down, and it's natural to go in search of a replacement part. Ancient societies featured simple prosthetics for teeth, noses, and limbs, while modern medicine pursues more advanced ways of replacing internal organs and microbiomes. But what is striking is not just the impressive ingenuity of our attempts to replicate human anatomy, but the surprising level of difficulty involved in doing it well. I talk with author Mary Roach about the many ways in which humans have chosen to replace bits of themselves, as told in her recent book Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy.
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/09/15/328-mary-roach-on-replacing-parts-of-our-bodies/
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Mary Roach received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Wesleyan University. Her books include multiple New York Times bestsellers and have appeared on numerous best-of lists. She was a guest editor in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series, and received the Rushdie Award from the Harvard Secular Society.