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Armchair Expert: Science and technology

Find Armchair Expert episodes about science, technology, artificial intelligence, space, and innovation.

Episode 1227

Darby Saxbe (on Dad Brain)

Darby Saxbe (Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives) is a clinical psychologist, tenured professor, and researcher on family stress and the transition to par…

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Episode 1014

Rachel Zoffness (on pain)

Rachel Zoffness (Tell Me Where It Hurts: The New Science of Pain and How to Heal) is a psychologist, pain scientist, and author. Rachel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why she was draw…

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Episode 1008

Michael Pollan Returns

Michael Pollan (A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness) is a science and environmental journalist. Michael returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss why choosing surrender is liberat…

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Episode 996

Sasha Hamdani (on ADHD)

Sasha Hamdani (Too Sensitive: Rejection, Resilience, and the Science of Feeling Deeply) is a board-certified psychiatrist and ADHD clinical specialist. Sasha joins the Armchair Expert to di…

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Episode 995

Marcus Mumford

Marcus Mumford (Prizefighter, Sigh No More, Wilder Mind) is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter, singer, and producer. Marcus joins the Armchair Expert to discuss enjoying occupying the limin…

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Episode 977

Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton (Traveller, Higher, Starting Over) is a multiple Grammy award winning singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Chris joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why he looks for silence,…

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Episode 945

Cas Holman (on being playful)

Cas Holman (Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity) is a toy creator, play designer, and author. Cas joins the Armchair Expert to discuss creating…

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Episode 927

Timothy Olyphant

Timothy Olyphant (Alien: Earth, Deadwood, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) is an Emmy Award-nominated actor. Timothy joins the Armchair Expert to discuss whether he gives middle child vibes, …

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Episode 916

Nancy Segal (on twins)

Nancy Segal (Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart) is an evolutionary psychologist, behavioral geneticist, and author. Nancy joins the Ar…

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Episode 904

Alexander Skarsgård

Alexander Skarsgård (Murderbot, Melancholia, True Blood) is an Emmy Award-winning actor. Alexander joins the Armchair Expert to discuss accidentally signing up for a month-long cross countr…

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Episode 883

Cristin Milioti

Cristin Milioti (The Penguin, How I Met Your Mother, The Wolf of Wall Street) is a Grammy Award-winning actor. Cristin joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in the place of origin…

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Episode 856

Eiza Gonzalez

Eiza Gonzalez (Ash, Baby Driver, 3 Body Problem) is an actor and singer. Eiza joins the Armchair Expert to discuss whether there is human DNA in hotdogs, how she wanted braces because all t…

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Episode 840

Nikki Glaser

Nikki Glaser (Alive and Unwell, Someday You'll Die, Not Safe with Nikki Glaser) is a comedian, actor, and television host. Nikki joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why Dax's name has good…

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Episode 823

Jenny Taitz

Jenny Taitz (Stress Resets, How to Be Single and Happy) is a licensed clinical psychologist, best-selling author, and assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at UCLA. Jenny joins the Arm…

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Episode 817

Best of Wednesday 2024

On this special episode, we revisit some of our favorite moments from Wednesday episodes in 2024. Molly McNearney remembers joining Jimmy Kimmel Live, Bill Gates wishes he were smarter, Fin…

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Episode 740

Cody Delistraty (on grief)

Cody Delistraty (The Grief Cure) is a writer and journalist. Cody joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how art can differ between cultures, his experience with his mother's cancer treatment…

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Episode 731

James Patterson

James Patterson (Eruption, Alex Cross, Along Came a Spider) is a best-selling author. James joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why he likes fiction more than non-fiction, what it's like t…

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Episode 717

Charan Ranganath (on memory)

Charan Ranganath (Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters) is a neuroscientist. Charan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the mechanics of memory, how AI lear…

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Episode 696

Bill Gates Returns

Bill Gates is a businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Bill returns to the Armchair Expert (from India!) to discuss the process of partnering with governments to provide vaccines, what …

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Episode 627

Jonathan Van Ness

Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye, Getting Curious) is a hairstylist, television personality, and podcaster. Jonathan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the idea of older women having younger …

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Episode 608

Peter Attia (on longevity)

Dr. Peter Attia (Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity) is a physician, podcaster, and author. Peter joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the morality of cloning, why he wanted to be a pr…

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Episode 602

Jennifer Ackerman (on owls)

Jennifer Ackerman (What an Owl Knows, The Genius of Birds, The Bird Way) award-winning science writer, speaker, and the New York Times bestselling author. Jennifer joins the Armchair Expert…

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Episode 599

Jake Tapper

Jake Tapper (All the Demons are Here, The Devil May Dance) is a journalist, news anchor, and author. Jake joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his thoughts on Evel Knievel, what going to su…

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Episode 598

Elizabeth Banks Returns

Elizabeth Banks (Cocaine Bear, The Beanie Bubble) is an actor, producer, and director. Elizabeth returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss her feelings about using AI in film, what her expe…

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Episode 572

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda (Book Club: The Next Chapter, Grace and Frankie, 80 for Brady) is an actor, activist, and producer. Jane joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why she got involved in activism, ho…

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Episode 570

Gretchen Rubin (on happiness)

Gretchen Rubin (Life in Five Senses, The Happiness Project) is an author and podcaster. Gretchen joins the Armchair Expert to discuss what led her to the happiness space, how important rela…

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Episode 549

Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us) are researchers and authors. Susan and Ivy join the Armchair Expert to discuss how important it is to participate …

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Episode 502

Yuval Harari Returns Again

Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens, Unstoppable Us) is a historian, philosopher and best-selling author. Yuval joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how people create fantasies in their minds about …

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Episode 471

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks (Pinocchio, Forrest Gump, Cast Away) is an actor and filmmaker. Tom joins the Armchair Expert to discuss what his approach was playing a beloved Disney character, what he loves mo…

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Episode 461

David Lieberman

David Lieberman (Mindreader, You Can Read Anyone) is an author and psychotherapist. David joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his research into the psychology of the human ego, the art of …

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Episode 434

Ed Yong (on animal senses)

Ed Yong (An Immerse World, I Contain Multitudes) is a science journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner. Ed joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how he became a science writer, how his coverage …

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Episode 430

LIVE: Ike Barinholtz

Armchair Expert Live from Los Angeles at the Wiltern. May 2nd, 2022. Ike Barinholtz (The Afterparty, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) is an actor, comedian, and producer. Ike joins …

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Episode 412

Brian Cox (physicist)

Brian Cox (Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey) is a physicist and former musician. Brian joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how we know the Big Bang actually happened, what actually h…

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Episode 398

Brené Brown Returns

Brené Brown (Atlas of the Heart) is a research professor and author. Brené joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how important language is to express our emotions, how people often incorrect…

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Episode 370

Amishi Jha

Dr. Amishi Jha is a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Miami. Amishi joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up as an Indian-American in Chicago, why she s…

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Episode 364

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is an award-winning experimental cognitive psychologist, best-selling author, and Harvard professor. Steven joins the Armchair Expert to discuss correlation versus causation, …

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Episode 360

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz (The Scaffold Effect) is a psychiatrist and founder of the Child Mind Institute. Dr. Koplewicz joins the Armchair Expert to discuss child mental health advocacy, the…

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Episode 336

Tara Stoinski

Tara Stoinski is a primatologist and President, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Tara joins the Armchair Expert to discuss studying gorillas for more than …

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Episode 318

Alexi Pappas

Alexi Pappas is a Greek-American Olympic runner, filmmaker, actor, and writer. Her debut memoir-in-essays, Bravey was published in January 2021. Alexi joins the Armchair Expert to discuss h…

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Episode 315

Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, non-profit leader, and currently running for Mayor of New York City. Andrew joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up as a firs…

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Episode 314

Macklemore

Macklemore is Grammy Award-winning rapper and songwriter. Macklemore joins the Armchair Expert to talk about growing up in a progressive neighborhood in Seattle, falling in love with music …

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Episode 311

Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman, PhD is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and science journalist. Daniel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the differences between cognitive empathy, emotional em…

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Episode 287

Robert Livingston

Robert Livingston is a social psychologist at the Harvard Kennedy School, he studies the science underlying implicit bias and racism. Robert joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the science…

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Episode 284

Jamil Zaki

Jamil Zaki (The War for Kindness) is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. Jamil joins the Armchair Expert to discuss al…

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Episode 270

Scott Kelly

Scott Kelly is a retired astronaut that set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space. Scott joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his path to becoming an astronaut …

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Episode 265

Tristan Harris

Tristan Harris is a computer scientist, the co-founder & president of the Center for Humane Technology, and co-host of the Your Undivided Attention podcast. Tristan Harris joins the Armchai…

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Episode 263

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo is an Italian-Australian Formula One racing driver. Daniel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss getting into racing when he was 9 years old, how he stays fit during the rac…

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Episode 254

Eric Lander

Eric Lander is a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician. He was a principal leader of the Human Genome Project and is the president and founding director of the Broad Institute …

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Episode 234

Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dax and Atul …

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Episode 226

David Sinclair

David Sinclair is an Australian biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard known for his research on aging and longevity mechanisms. David chats with the Armchair Expert on his field of…

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Episode 224

Jud Brewer

Jud Breweris an American psychiatrist, neuroscientist and author. He studies the neural mechanisms of mindfulness using fMRI technology and has used his findings to treat addictions. Jud ch…

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Episode 221

Nina Vasan

Nina Vasan is a professor at Stanford University and the Founder and Executive Director ofBrainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation. She is the Chief Medical Officer ofReal,…

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Episode 214

Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi is an American author and historian who teaches at American University. From July 2020, Kendi will join Boston University to launch the BU Center for Antiracist Research. Ibr…

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Episode 209

Laurie Santos

Dr. Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast. Laurie chats with the armchair expert to discuss 5 ways to i…

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Episode 197

Andrew Marantz

Andrew Marantz is a journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. Andrew …

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Episode 193

Lydia Denworth

Lydia Denworth is a science journalist and author. She is the contributing editor for Scientific American and writes for Psychology Today. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Newswe…

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Episode 187

BJ Fogg

BJ Fogg is an author and social science research associate at Stanford. BJ sits down with the Armchair Expert to discuss his approach to changing behavior, growing up in the Mormon faith an…

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Episode 185

Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Waiting for Daisy and Boys & Sex. Peggy sits down with the Armchair Expert to discus…

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Episode 155

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Unders…

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Episode 147

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

Nadine Burke Harris is an American pediatrician who is the 1st and current Surgeon General of California. She is known for her work in adverse childhood experiences. Nadine visits the Armch…

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Episode 138

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock From the Sun, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) is an American actor, filmmaker, singer, and entrepreneur. Joseph visits the attic to disc…

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Episode 103

EXPERTS ON EXPERT: Bill Nye

Bill Nye (Bill Nye the Science Guy) is American science communicator, television presenter, and mechanical engineer. Bill sits down with the Armchair Expert to discuss the importance of fac…

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Episode 75

XPERTS ON EXPERT: Todd Rose

Todd Rose is the co-founder and president of the Populace, author of multiple books and a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Todd sits down in the attic to discuss …

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