Many Minds

Many Minds

Author: Kensy Cooperrider – Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute Language: English Episodes: 100
There's a quiet revolution happening in how we understand intelligence, and it's not just about humans. Many Minds, hosted by Kensy Cooperrider of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, digs into this expansive idea. Each episode is a journey into the inner worlds of creatures and creations we share the planet with. You'll hear from researchers who decode the complex social minds of crows, who map the sensory universe of an octopus, or who grapple with the emerging cognition of artificial systems. This isn't a dry lecture series; it's a collection of thoughtful conversations that feel like pulling up a chair with experts who are genuinely redefining what it means to think, feel, and learn. The Many Minds podcast operates from a simple but profound premise: to grasp our own human experience, we need to listen to the many other kinds of minds around us. Tune in every other week for explorations that are as much about philosophy and wonder as they are about science and education, all grounded in rigorous research and a deep curiosity about the beings-animal, human, and artificial-that fill our world.
Episodes
Is Man the Hunter just a myth? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:01
There's a story about of our past that you know well. It goes like this: At some point earlier in human evolution, we started to hunt. Men in particular—perhaps channeling some deep-seated aggressive impulses—began to se…
Babies, dogs, and the riddles of word learning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:40
It's kind of astonishing, really, that kids ever learn words. Each one poses a little riddle. Does this sound string refer to a person? A category of things? Or maybe some other feature of the blooming, buzzing world? An…
The inner life of the hand [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:17
Newton saw in the human hand proof of the divine; Darwin saw a key to our species' success. Many others, too, have described the hand in hyperbolic terms, as a paragon of design, a cornerstone of human uniqueness, an eng…
From the archive: The cuttlefish and its coat of many colors [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:38
Hi friends! We're skipping a beat to take care of some spring housekeeping tasks. We will be back in May! In the meanwhile, enjoy this listener favorite from our archives! ----- [originally aired April 30, 2025] We human…
Illuminating cave art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:53
Deep in our past, in the dark depths of caves, our ancestors did something strange and beautiful. Working by firelight, some doodled little designs. Others made hand stencils. Some saw a bulge of rock, or a crack in the…
What can AI teach us about the mind? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:19
Everyone is talking about AI these days. Often these conversations are about how AI might upend education, or work, or social life, or maybe civilization itself. But among cognitive scientists and psychologists the conve…
Mutualisms all the way down [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:41
No one is an island. We all depend on each other in critical, often tangled ways. And when I say "we" and "each other" I don't just mean humans. Yes, we humans rely on other humans. But we also rely on bees, yeasts, dogs…
Seven metaphors for AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:46
If you wanted a petri dish for understanding metaphors—how they emerge and evolve and jostle with each other—it would be hard to do better than the world of AI. We talk about AI systems variously as coaches or co-pilots,…
Origins of the kiss [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:02
Humans do some pretty weird things. Some of us will sit in searingly hot rooms or jump into icy ponds. Others risk their lives trying to climb to new heights or dive to new depths. And every once in a while, two otherwis…
The aura of metaphor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:36:01
Metaphors matter. They enliven our speech and our prose; they animate our arguments and stir our passions. Some metaphors power political movements; others propel scientific revolutions. These little figures of speech de…