BJKS Podcast
BJKS Podcast
Benjamin James Kuper-Smith
A podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related. Long-form interviews with people whose work I find interesting.
119. This (audio only) podcast is dead - long live the podcast? With Dan Quintana
This is a special episode: this podcast will change after this episode, from remote audio-only interviews to exclusively in-person video interviews. Dan Quintana, professor at the University of Oslo and host of the Everything Hertz podcast, joins me to discuss why and how I'm making this change, podcasting and science communication more broadly, time management as an academic and podcaster, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, ...
Sep 29, 2025
1 hr 14 min
118. Lauren Ross: Causation, mechanism, and explanation in neuroscience
Lauren Ross is a professor of logic and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. We talk about her work on causation, mechanism, and explanation in neuroscience, Lauren's background in medicine, how to write clearly, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Why Lauren studied medicine 0:04:23: Differences between m...
Sep 22, 2025
1 hr 36 min
117. Kai Ruggeri: Global collaborations, Prospect Theory, and temporal discounting
Kai Ruggeri is professor for health policy and management at Columbia University. We talk about his global collaborations, in which they studied various important decision-making aspects, including Prospect Theory and temporal discounting. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Why Kai studied stats anxiety in his PhD, and then moved to broader policy questions 0:09:1...
Sep 15, 2025
1 hr 36 min
116. Elsa Fouragnan: Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation, brain surgery, and French Polynesia
Elsa Fouragnan is an Associate Professor and UKRI Future Leader Fellow at the University of Plymouth. We talk mainly about her work on focussed transcranial ultrasound stimulation, a new non-invasive way other stimulating (human) brains, including deep areas that can't be reached with TMS. We also discuss her childhood in French Polynesia, how she started doing research, what it's like seeing a brain during surgery, and much more. This was the first episode I recorded in-person. The audio qua...
Sep 8, 2025
1 hr 37 min
115. Melinda Baldwin: A triple history of Nature, scientific journals, and peer review
Melinda Baldwin is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland. We talk about her work studying the history of Nature, scientific journals more broadly, what it means to be a scientist, peer review, the Tyndall project, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Melinda's chemistry-history double major 0:03:...
Jun 24, 2025
1 hr 32 min
114: Steve Fleming: Lab culture, learning as a PI, and the allure of cognitive neuroscience
Steve Fleming is a professor in psychology at University College London. I invited Steve to talk about his work on meta-cognition, but we ended up spending the entire episode talking about lab culture, starting a lab, applying for funding, Steve's background in music, and what drew him to do cognitive neuroscience. There's even a tiny discussion about consciousness research at the end. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin ...
May 26, 2025
1 hr 40 min
113. Damian Blasi: Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science, linguistic diversity, and how to study a language you don't speak
Damian Blasi is a professor at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. We talk about his article 'Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science', linguistic diversity, how to study across the world's languages, his career path, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Why Damian studied physics 0:06:31: How to deal wit...
Mar 10, 2025
1 hr 41 min
112. Gordon Pennycook: From Carrot River to Cornell, misinformation, and reducing conspiracy beliefs
Gordon Pennycook is an Associate Professor at Cornell University. We talk about his upbringing in rural Northern Canada, how he got into academia, and his work on misinformation: why people share it and what can be done about it. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: Straight outta Carrot River: From Northern Canada to publishing in Natu...
Feb 17, 2025
1 hr 50 min
111. Renzo Huber: Layer-fMRI, high-resolution fMRI, and the delicate balance between gourmet chef and janitor
Renzo Huber is a staff scientist at NIH. We talk about his work on layer-fMRI: what it is, how Renzo got into it, how to do it, when it makes sense to do it, what the future holds, and much more. Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon Timestamps 0:00:00: How Renzo got into high-resolution fMRI 0:11:28: The difference between 3T and 7T fMRI 0:22:46: Is a bigger fMRI scanner always better? 0:33:35: Layer-fMRI 0:56:28: For what types of research is layer-fMRI most useful? 1:02:35...
Jan 17, 2025
1 hr 36 min
110. Ella Marushchenko: Scientific illustrations, digital vs. classic art, and how to improve scientific figures
Ella Marushchenko is a scientific illustrator who runs a studio of artists and scientists that creates cover art, scientific and illustrations, and more. We talk about her unlikely path from artist in Russia to scientific illustrator in the US, digital vs classic art, how to interact as scientists with illustrators, how to improve scientific figures, and much more. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. S...
Dec 18, 2024
1 hr 32 min
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