Dr. Dilnavaz Bhiladvala is a neurosurgeon with over 30 years of experience working in various hospitals across India and the UAE. She is the Head of Department of Neurosurgery at Al Dhaid Hospital, Sharjah, UAE…
Browsing CategoryBlog Posts
#41. ‘Ngaruroro’: Understanding Māori Wellbeing – Finley Johnson
https://youtu.be/xVI5irqlaQc Finley Ngarangi Johnson and Colleagues introduce 'Ngaruroro' which is a new model for Māori wellbeing. Fin, who is a PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington and a Researcher at the Ministry of Social…
#40. Voice of Aroha – Kodrean Eashae & Luis Perez
https://youtu.be/_E7V9yI9eg8 World Refugee Day is on the 20th of June each year and is dedicated to refugees all around the world. We spoke to Kodrean Eashae and Luis Perez from Voice of Aroha. Voice of…
#39. Reimagining the Role of the Catholic Church – Geo Robrigado
https://youtu.be/ZeI935be5-w The Catholic church is the only religious entity to hold a seat in the United Nations through the Vatican city’s status as a state. Geo Robrigado, Law graduate and former President of the Victoria…
#38. Planetary Melancholia – Prateek Shankar and Valerie Navarrete
https://youtu.be/rgpSb-AZWi8 Prateek Shankar and Valerie Navarrete are founders of the Jungle Publics, a group trying to foster interdisciplinary discussions and reimagine how we relate to our planet and each other. They come on to talk…
#37. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics – Dr. Liza Bolton
https://youtu.be/KS2pOAnq1bQ The use of stats and throwing around numbers in conversation is incredibly common, yet statistics itself is poorly understood. Dr. Liza Bolton from @universityofauckland discusses the dark art that is statistics. Using examples, she…
#36. Drugs 101: Cannabis – Professor. Tim Karl
https://youtu.be/VcopxLLrZgk Professor Tim Karl of Western Sydney University. He joined to give us a basic overview into the world of cannabinoids. He spoke about what happens in our brain when we use/abuse cannabis and all…
EA #4. Atheism After Near Death Experiences – Dr. Alex Fry
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are common amongst those coming close to death and profoundly impact how they make sense of the world. Dr. Alex Fry of the University of Bournemouth draws on interviews with atheists who…
#35. International Law and Armed Conflict – Prof. Alberto Costi
https://youtu.be/Na7-6V1OR_Q As the term “international law” is brought up frequently in discourse these days we sat down with Professor Alberto Costi to get an introduction into international law and laws of armed conflict. We cover…
#34. How Virtual Reality is Reshaping Neuroscience – Dr. Chris Maymon
https://youtu.be/AtsAGMNewHA?si=B_9XrDyk4WGK0HGu On this episode, Dr. Christopher Maymon, Head of the Virtual Reality lab at Victoria University of Wellington delves into the captivating realm of VR and emotion research. Explore with us as we dissect groundbreaking…
#33. So Emotional – Assoc. Prof. Gina Grimshaw
https://youtu.be/oS2ZlUjXFQ0?si=Wjzf5rK3LJSTdHRf Associate Professor Gina Grimshaw leads the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Victoria University of Wellington. She joins to talk about emotions and her research on how emotional states affect cognitive processes like attention,…
#32. Elite Dominance and Inequality in Academia – Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Orhan
https://youtu.be/yCMDMRCAHLM Dr. Mehmet Orhan, Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior at EM Normandie Business School joined us to talk about authorship inequality, elite dominance, and the ethical and problematic issues of doing science and…
EA #3. Unholy Catholic Ireland – Dr. Hugh Turpin
https://youtu.be/RqUhHIJPFcg Dr. Hugh Turpin of Oxford University joins Feryl and Sahir on the podcast to share his work on the decline of Catholicism in Ireland and the factors which have led to it. We also…
EJOP #1. Muslim Women’s Experiences of Identity and Belonging in Switzerland – Rachael Loxston
https://youtu.be/4mYn9tUelK4 For the very first episode of our collaboration with Europe's Journal of Psychology, Rachael Loxton joins to discuss her research paper titled “Liberty Can Be for You One Thing, and for Me Something Different”:…
EA #2. The Rise and Fall of Rituals – Dr. Martin Lang
https://youtu.be/A72VvZ3H0YM Dr. Martin Lang is assistant professor at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. And is the Director of the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA). He joins us to talk us through how rituals…
#31. AI and Māori/Indigenous Data Sovereignty – Dr. Karaitiana Taiuru
https://youtu.be/dYO5McgvKWg Dr. Karaitiana Taiuru is a Māori technology ethicist specializing in Māori rights with Artificial intelligence, Māori Data Sovereignty and Governance with emerging digital technologies and biological sciences. He brings his extensive expertise in advocacy…
#30. Unravelling the Role of Dopamine – Dr. Kate Witt
https://youtu.be/mqxHSmz1nV8 Dr. Kate Witt, lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, joins to discuss her research on Dopamine. Dopamine is an integral neurotransmitter, mainly associated with pleasure and motivation. Dr. Witt's work uses a genetically modified…
EA #1. Explaining Māori Deconversion from Christianity in Aotearoa (New Zealand) – Dr. Sara Rahmani
https://youtu.be/dd2ZI-fxIRs For the first episode of our Explaining Atheism series, Dr. Sara Rahmani from the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Wellington joins us to talk about her project exploring Māori…
EA #0. Introduction to the Explaining Atheism Project
https://youtu.be/ct_dmuvuKjQ Smooth Brain Society is collaborating with the Explaining Atheism Project to bring you a brand new series focusing on non-religion. Over the course of the series we will have multiple guests from across the…
#29. Place Cells: How we know where we are – Prof. Kate Jeffery
https://youtu.be/W-Br7q_9ZAw Professor Kate Jeffery, Head of School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. Discusses her work on our idea of place, space and navigation. We get an introduction to place cells which…