The Psychosphere

Join Melanie in conversation with neurobiologist, Kevin Mitchell, as they discuss how animals came to behave in intelligent, purposeful ways, and why this matters. Kevin is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He blogs at Wiring the Brain and Tweets at: @WiringtheBrain.Books include INNATE – How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are (2018) and Free Agents: How Evolution Gave us Free Will (2023).

This week, Melanie is joined by plant scientist Paco Calvo to discuss the intelligence of the greenery that surrounds us. Are plants intelligent and how can we understand or study this? Paco is the head of the MINT (Minimal Intelligence) lab and a leading figure in the philosophy of plant behavior and signalling (plant neurobiology). He is also a philosopher concerned with issues at the intersection of plant biology and cognitive science. He is the author of the book Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence (2022).

Together with world-renowned philosopher, Daniel Dennett, and biologist, Michael Levin, Melanie discusses the idea that the intelligence and agency of a living being may be better understood as distributed or present throughout the body of an organism. You can find out more about their work at Tufts University, and read about their ideas on Cognition All the Way Down here.

How smart is a slime mould? In this episode, Melanie is joined by Nirosha Murugan to discuss the weird and wonderful lives of slime moulds. Nirosha is Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences department at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, where she studies tissue biophysics and cancer biology. In her prior work, she studied regenerative biology and comparative cognition, with a focus on slime moulds, an almost unclassifiable set of single cell organisms, famed for their seemingly paradoxical abilities to be intelligent in the absence of a brain... You can learn more about Nirosha here.

A discussion on the intelligence of octopuses and cuttlefish, and on the origins of consciousness, with celebrated writer and philosopher, Peter Godfrey-Smith. Peter is Professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He is the author, among others, of Other Minds and Metazoa. You can read more about his work here: https://petergodfreysmith.com/

In this episode, Melanie discusses animal minds and animal ethics with Professor Francoise Wemelsfelder. Francoise is Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Scotland's Rural College. She pioneered a methodology for the study of animal expressivity (body language) and subjective experience, generally referred to as ‘Qualitative Behaviour Assessment’ (QBA). Her research focuses on the application of this method as a practical tool for welfare assessment and management in farm, zoo, and companion animals. Research interests associated with this work are animal boredom and environmental enrichment.

Melanie discusses group psychology and the psychological bases of racism with psychologist Steven Roberts. Roberts is Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. You can find out more about his work here: https://profiles.stanford.edu/177091

Bestselling author and self-confessed flint-knapping nerd, Rebecca Wragg-Sykes discusses her research on neanderthals with Melanie. Why were our fellow humans dismissed as a brute, dumb creature for so long, and what can recent research tell us about the minds of this lost but separate species of human? Rebecca is the author of Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death and art, and her work can be found at: https://www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/

Renowned neuroscientist Anil Seth discusses his work on selfhood and the emergence of consciousness. Melanie and Anil consider whether consciousness is solely a human phenomenon or whether new science suggests that consciousness is widespread among animals.

Melanie discusses the idea of personhood in non-human animals with science writer Brandon Keim. How can we recognize personhood in other species, and what does this mean for their moral considerability?

Avi Loeb discusses the possibilities of alien intelligences with Melanie. Have other intelligences already contacted us and would we know how to read the signals if they had? Why is alien intelligence associated with crank science, and what are the rational routes through to considering the possibilities of off-Earth minds?

Neuroscientist and animal advocate Lori Marino discusses the intelligence of cetaceans with Melanie, and the consequences of captivity on these extraordinary minds. Why are whales and dolphins some of the smartest animals around, and how could we reimagine a world for their wellbeing?

Science writer Jo Wimpenny takes us into the world of animal fables, discussing with Melanie what these old, mythical intuitions have to tell us about animal minds.

Calum Brown is a pioneer researcher on fish cognition. He brings Melanie up to speed on the latest research on the diverse intelligences of fishes, the prejudices that still hold us back from acknowledging the mental attributes of sea creatures, and what this might mean morally.

Best-selling science writer Sy Montgomery discusses the idea of the psychosphere with Melanie. Sy has written about the minds and intelligence of a diverse range of animals from octopuses to goshawks. Do we need new paradigms for our understanding of the intelligence in nature and how it matters?

Well-known scientist and animal advocate Carl Safina discusses his work on animal cultures with Melanie. Carl makes a case for why humans aren't the only species with cultures. Are the cultures of other species overlooked in conservation? What would it mean not to only work to save animal populations but their ways of life too?

Science writer Philip Ball discusses his writing life and his work on diverse kinds of minds and on the biological studies of agency in nature.

In this episode, Brandon Keim and Melanie talk about the new science on animal personhood. How do other animals relate to one another as subjects, and how do we relate to them as intelligent beings?

Novelist and psychologist Charles Fernyhough discusses his fascinating research on the phenomena of hearing voices. Some people have a "voice in their head" and others don't. Some people "hear voices" other than their own and don't view it as a pathology. Others find it distressing. This episode considers what the research has to say about human consciousness and subjectivity.

Do honeybees dream? When bees perform their famous waggle dance, is it a form of swarm intelligence? Is it a kind of language? In this episode, Melanie discusses insect intelligence with pioneer and veteran researcher Randolf Menzel. Honey will taste even sweeter...