The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 7 The Neuromantics revisit a favourite theme: the importance of social interaction when it comes to healthy minds. This time the starting point is a study on the mental health benefits of cultural engagement. Why is looking at art in a gallery more psychologically resonant than looking at the same pictures online? And how is it that laughing along with an audience at a live show can alleviate our anxieties? Communist-era poetry, British TV comedy and the solitary writer all come bubbling to the surface of the discussion. With Professor Sophie Scott and Will Eaves. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 6 Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves - AKA the Neuromantics - suggest you might want to reconsider what you think you know about metaphors. Are they only useful for describing existing things or can they have an earlier, more constructive role in the creative process? A scientific study which asked architects to make use of metaphor at the design stage of their projects prompts questions about meaning and objectivity. This episode’s literary contribution is a thought-provoking essay by the musician, artist and writer Peter Blegvad called Imagine, Observe, Remember, but the conversation – as ever – takes unexpected turns, including the imagined accuracy of the Crystal Palace dinosaurs and hearing the Beatles for the first time. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

An Interaction of Particles A couple in bed. She's listening to the radio. He's reading a book. But it's Christmas Eve and something special - and a little weird - happens to them every Christmas Eve. Get ready for the journey of a bedtime! Our Christmas Special this year is a celebration of forbidden love, beautiful science and good old-fashioned broadcasting. Written by Bibi Berki, performed by Mark Lingwood and Bibi Berki, with a guest appearance by Roger Sawyer, it's our seasonal gift to you, our listeners. Happy Christmas 2022! www.tempestproductions. net https://ko-fi.com/tempestproductions

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 5 The Neuromantics – writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott – return to the theme of ageing brains, this time exploring research into why some people remain cognitively intact well into their 90s and beyond. Is it simply a case of keeping our brains busy by learning new languages and musical instruments, or is there something more lobal going on? Or even social? They discover advice on ageing – and just about everything else – in the essays of 16th Century philosopher Michel de Montaigne and reflect on the challenges and even opportunities of Tier 4 lockdown. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 4 The grooming episode. Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves talk social bonds, hierarchies and connectedness. Focusing on a paper about baboon groups in Africa, they untangle the reasons why primates thrive as social animals and come a cropper when left alone. (That's where the grooming comes in.) What can these tight baboon hierarchies usefully tell us about our own social structures and interactions? Can group activities really bring people with opposing views together? Join the Neuromantics to discuss alpha males, rogue males, child escapees (courtesy of the writer M. John Harrison) and nail bars. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 3 This atmospheric episode of The Neuromantics is brought to you from London Zoo. Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves – once they’ve stopped to admire the grooming macaques – discuss the plasticity of the human brain, in particular when it comes to the ageing process. Given that we're all born with the brain cells we’ll need for the rest of our lives – 85bn of them to be precise – how do these cells change and grow as we move from childhood, through the challenges of adolescence, and into the altered landscape of old age? Basing their discussion on a scientific paper on the ageing brain, and moving on to Alice Munro's short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, they stop to consider risk-taking teenagers, dementia, the nature of romantic love and why going out into the world is the best exercise for your brain. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 2 The Neuromantics - writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott - take their usual inspired and multi-disciplined approach and apply it to the theme of journeys. Helping us unravel issues of movement and travel is an enlightening scientific paper on bird navigation and two moving short stories. With plenty of ground to cover, they discover why pigeons bob their heads, why two foveas are better than one, and how the most fascinating journey we'll ever make is our own physical and mental development. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics Season 2 Episode 1 In this constantly shifting world, with its endless novel experiences and influences, one thing we can be sure of is that we're not the same person as we were at birth. Welcome to the first episode of the second season of the Neuromantics, in which writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott juggle ideas of human response to a changing environment. Some exquisite examples of 9th and 10th century Arabic poetry suggest that early writers were trying to pin down or preserve the world around them. Meanwhile, an academic paper on mental rotation explores the relationship between physical movement and mental perception. All this flux - how fitting for an episode recorded during the Covid lockdown. Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net Find other episodes here: soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/the-neuromantics Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

Unbound 17 The Seesaw of Isolation Trapped in his house by rising flood water, an old man's life depends on outside help. The sense of menace grows along with the encroaching water in this tense tale of old-age vulnerability. Written by Dianne Bown-Wilson and read by Steven Blake. Studio production by Mark Lingwood. Unbound is Tempest's audio bookshelf, packed with original stories of every genre. Find your next literary listen here: https://soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/unbound Thank you for listening. You can help us make more episodes by buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tempestproductions www.tempestproductions.net/podcasts

Set in frozen, war-torn Leningrad, After Silence follows the story of the musicians of all backgrounds and circumstances who come together to perform Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in 1941. Described as "absorbing" and "richly sensuous," this ambitious novel by Jessica Gregson is due to be published by Deixis Press in August 2022. https://deixis.press/books/p/after-silence Trailer read by Rebecca Charles and made by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net