The key role psychologists can play in the fight against ecological crime
Chances are that when most of us think about the notion of crime our minds turn to acts committed against an individual – be it theft, fraud or even physical assault. But every day ecological crimes are committed against the planet we all live on that often fly under the radar despite the significant, far-reaching effects they have on all of us.
In this episode, we’re joined by criminal psychologist and bestselling author, Dr Julia Shaw to talk about her latest book, Green Crime – Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet, and How to Stop Them.
She breaks down the factors that drive individuals and organisations to commit acts that are damaging to the environment and explains how understanding the psychology that underpins these acts can help us to keep our planet healthy for generations to come.
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The psychology of paranormal experiences
Be it a cold, drafty room in a creaky old country house or a still, quiet forest on a dark night, chances are that at one point or another we’ll all have entered an environment that for some reason made us feel uneasy. But what exactly makes a certain place or situation feel so creepy, and why do we get these feelings in the first place?
In this episode, we’re joined by psychologist and magician Prof Richard Wiseman to talk about his work as a scientist who investigates the psychology behind paranormal phenomena.
He tells us how ghostly experiences may actually have evolved to help keep us away from dangerous environments, how our brains are primed to see faces that aren’t really there, and how the state of consciousness that exists between waking and sleeping can lead us to feel the presence of threatening entities lurking in our bedrooms.
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Inside the hunt for life-changing medicines
Chances are when we’re treated with medicines in hospital or pick up our prescriptions at the pharmacy, we don’t give much thought about how the drugs that are so vital for our health and wellbeing came to be. The fact is the journey that a new medicine takes from its beginnings in the laboratory to finally being administered to patients can be long and arduous. It typically takes the work of countless scientists, researchers and technologists toiling away behind the scenes for decades and is often fraught with failure. So exactly how does a new drug make the grade?
In this episode, we’re joined by oncologist and drug researcher Dr William Pao to talk about his latest book, Breakthrough – The Quest for Life-Changing Medicines.
He tells us how fundamental academic scientific lays down the bedrock for the development of a new drug, runs us through the vital importance that clinical trials play in the whole drug development process, and tells us the fascinating story of how the common everyday drug paracetamol was discovered by accident.
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From asteroids to aliens - how space is threatening our planet
Is our planet under threat from the depths of space? In this episode, we talk to solar physicist Dr Ryan French. Normally, Ryan is busy unravelling the mysteries of our Sun, but today we’ll be delving into a slightly darker topic – the many risks posed to our delicate planet from space. In his recent book, "Space Hazards: Asteroids, solar flares and cosmic threats”, Ryan covers all the many dangers our planet faces from space rocks, the Sun and the farthest reaches of the Universe. We run through some of the most pressing threats and find out just how worried we should be.
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Why we treat our pets and possessions like human beings
Many of us treat our pet dogs or cats with the same love and attention that with give to our human babies, some of us give our cars or other prized possessions human names and may even, at times, talk to them. This is known as anthropomorphism – the tendency within many of us to assign human qualities to non-human animals and even inanimate objects.
In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Justin Gregg to talk about his latest book, Human-ish – How Anthropomorphism Makes Us Smart, Weird and Delusional.
He tells us how we’ve bred our pets to look and behave in more and more human-like ways, the benefits we can all gain from attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects such as cars or musicalminstruments, and how AI chatbots are expanding the phenomenon of anthropomorphism further than ever before.
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