Brain Train Podcast show

Brain Train Podcast

Summary: Every week in Brain Train, an expert is asked about their specialist subject - then the following week, the expert becomes the novice, asking an expert in a totally different subject what they've always wanted to know. This process repeats in a glorious Brain Train!

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  • Artist: Martin Zaltz Austwick and Alice Bell
  • Copyright: All rights reserved

Podcasts:

 Brain Train #18 - James Coglan gets inside the mind of Bees with Elli Leadbeater | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:01

This episode, killer robot designer James Coglan wants to know whether he can harness the power of insect intelligence to carry out his evil plans. Elli Leadbeater from Royal Holloway University stalls for time until the cops arrive.

 Brain Train #17 - Rachel Souhami asks James Coglan about Killer Robots | File Type: audio/x-m4a | Duration: 00:28:57

Brain Train driver Alice Bell steps aside and hands her whistle over, as our new co-host, museums polymath Rachel Souhami, steps up to the plate. It’s like when The Doctor regenerates. In her inaugural episode, Rachel asks programmer James Coglan whether computers are going to kill us all, and host Martin Zaltz Austwick worries about robots kicking down his door.

 Brain Train Podcast #16 - Charlotte Riley talks voting and fairness with Chris Good | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:08

On the eve of the Scottish Referendum, (thoroughly) modern historian Charlotte Riley ask pure mathematician Chris Good about the fairness of voting systems, host Alice Bell steers them onto sewage, badgers and her aunts, and Chris wonders aloud whether he'll ever see a locally compact first countable Dowker Space in ZFC his lifetime. There is literally something for everyone.

 Brain Train Podcast #15 - Justin Bates and Charlotte Riley | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:29:22

This episode, tenancy lawyer Justin Bates asks Charlotte Riley why cold war USA and USSR came together to condemn Britain in 1956 over an Egyptian canal. What happened next may surprise you*. Alice Bell hosts and writes clickbait tweets. *she provided a really fascinating explanation of the Suez crisis

 Brain Train Podcast #14 - Caitjan Gainty and Justin Bates | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:27:39

Caitjan Gainty is guided by housing lawyer Justin Bates through the tangled wreckage that once was tenants' rights in England and Wales. Brain train engineer Martin Zaltz Austwick cracks his knuckles loudly on-mic and nibbles bourbons despondently.

 Brain Train Podcast #13 - Camilla Sutherland and Caitjan Gainty | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:25:04

This episode artist Camilla Sutherland diagnoses the state of American health insurance with medical historian Caitjan Gainty, in a touching and personal story of baby scans and economics.

 Brain Train Podcast #12 - Martin Zaltz Austwick and Camilla Sutherland | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:38

This episode sociable physicist Martin Zaltz Austwick asks art historian Camilla Sutherland why people get so excited about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Alice Bell hosts and brings jaffa cakes, the quietest of all recording snacks.

 Brain Train Podcast #11 - Alexandra Lamont and Jonathan Williams | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:23:48

This episode Alexandra Lamont asks NPL standards expert Jonathan Williams "where are you going with that massive silicon ball?" and other pressing questions about kilograms, seconds, mols and candelas. Martin Zaltz Austwick is this week's biscuit sourcer and audio sourcerer.

 Brain Train #10 - Emily Dawson and Alexandra Lamont | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:29:42

Sociologist Emily Dawson asks Music Psychologist Alexandra Lamont why Bourdieu, Jolene and Natalie Merchant make her cry. Extra long episode of Brain Train this time, as host and editor Martin Zaltz Austwick could not bring himself to cut out any more fascinating music chat. Saucer of biscuits Alice Bell was otherwise engaged, Brain Train went hungry.

 Brain Train #9 - Joanne Cole and Emily Dawson | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:11

Back after a lengthy hiatus, Brain Train returns as whizz physicist Jo Cole asks Science Education expert Emily Dawson why there aren’t more women whizz physicists. Martin Zaltz Austwick provides the experimental control as a stereotypical white male physicist whose childhood obsession with Levar Burton propelled him into science.

 Brain Train #8 - Vincent Plagnol and Joanne Cole | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:21:49

In which Geneticist Vincent Plagnol wonders out loud what on earth a Higgs Boson is and why do physicists need to keep on doing experiments now they've found it, and Particle Physicist Jo Cole is more than happy to tell him. Alice Bell helms (and provides jaffa cakes).

 Brain Train #7 - Jeremy Ashbee and Vincent Plagnol | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:25:47

Castle expert Jeremy Ashbee wants to understand genetics, evolution and identity - and geneticist Vincent Plagnol has the insight to fuel this episode of Brain Train, helped by usefully simple-minded interjections from this week's host, Martin Zaltz Austwick.

 Brain Train #6 - Shiloh Fetzek and Jeremy Ashbee | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:23:54

Today the Brain Train takes a detour through Wales, admiring its palaces, fortifications and English occupiers. Jeremy Ashbee is King of Castles and Shiloh Fetzek is the dirty rascal. Hosted by Alice Bell, who manages not to bring “castle toilets” into the discussion.

 Brain Train #5 - Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen and Shiloh Fetzek | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:10

"How was Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow influenced by the political effects of climate change in Greenland?" I hear you ask. Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen is asking that question too and it's up to Shiloh Fetzek to shout answers from the footplate of the speeding Brain Train, hosted by Martin Zaltz Austwick.

 Brain Train Podcast #4 - Nina Power and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:24:42

Philosopher Nina Power asks crime fiction scholar Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen about sociopathy and the relationship between crime writing, mental health and society.

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