Not too long ago, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana starred in a (loose) adaptation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film)] of Homer's epic poem The Iliad; next month, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche will headline a film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_(2024_film)] based on The Odyssey. Given that the originals were written (or at least written down) in the 8th century BCE, that is some impressive staying power. But they were also written in a very different time than ours, with different cultural context and narrative expectations. We talk about the issues of translation in general, and these Greek classics in particular, with Emily Wilson, whose recent translations of The Iliad [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-iliad-homer/17147944?ean=9781324001805] and The Odyssey [https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Homer/dp/0393089053] have garnered worldwide acclaim.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/25/297-emily-wilson-on-homer-poetry-and-translation/

Emily Wilson received her Ph.D. in classical and comparative literature from Yale. She is currently Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Among her awards are the Charles Berheimer Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association, a Rome Prize fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships.

 * Web site [https://www.emilyrcwilson.com/]
 * UPenn web page [https://www.classics.upenn.edu/people/emily-wilson]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Wilson_(classicist)]
 * Amazon.com author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Emily-R.-Wilson/author/B001H6S1IE]
 * YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@emilyrcwilson1796]
 * Substack [https://substack.com/@emilyrcwilson]
 * BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/emilyrcwilson.bsky.social]



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297 | Emily Wilson on Homer, Poetry, and Translation

Biological evolution via natural selection is a simple idea that becomes enormously complicated in its realization. Populations of organisms are driven toward increased "fitness," a measure of how successfully we reproduce our genetic information. But fitness is a subtle concept, changing with time and environment and interactions with other organisms around us. We talk with biologist Brandon Ogbunu about the best mathematical and conceptual tools for thinking about the messy complexities of evolution, and how modern technology is changing our way of thinking about it.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/18/296-brandon-ogbunu-on-fitness-seascapes-and-the-course-of-evolution/

Brandon Ogbunu received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Microbiology from Yale University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale, and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He has been awarded a Fullbright Fellowship and was the Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT. He has contributed to a number of publications, including Wired [https://www.wired.com/author/c-brandon-ogbunu/], Undark [https://undark.org/undark-author/c-brandon-ogbunu/], and Quanta [https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/c-brandon-ogbunu/].

 * Lab web site [https://ogbunulab.yale.edu/]
 * Yale web page [https://eeb.yale.edu/people/faculty/c-brandon-ogbunu]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rHUzZs0AAAAJ&hl=en]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Ogbunu]
 * Public talk: What is Lyfe? Towards a Biology of Context & Complexity [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rRNbiYg7fs&ab_channel=SantaFeInstitute]



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296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution

Emergence [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/] is a centrally important concept in science and philosophy. Indeed, the existence of higher-level emergent properties helps render the world intelligible to us -- we can sensibly understand the macroscopic world around us without a complete microscopic picture. But there are various different ways in which emergence might happen, and a tendency for definitions of emergence to rely on vague or subjective criteria. Recently Achyuth Parola and I wrote a paper trying to clear up some of these issues: What Emergence Can Possibly Mean [https://philarchive.org/rec/CARWEC-6]. In this solo podcast I discuss the way we suggest to think about emergence, with examples from physics and elsewhere.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/11/295-solo-emergence-and-layers-of-reality/

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

295 | Solo: Emergence and Layers of Reality

Welcome to the November 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/11/04/ama-november-2024/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AMA | November 2024

Erwin Schrödinger said that the important characteristic of life is that it "goes on doing something... for a much longer period than we would expect an inanimate piece of matter to keep going under similar circumstances." Living organisms are in constant motion inside; so where does this stability and persistence come from? Addy Pross points to a novel kind of chemical phenomenon -- "dynamic kinetic stability" (DKS), a feature that enables a chemical "fountain" to persist in the presence of an energy source. This suggests an interesting perspective on the question of life's origin, and perhaps on the origin of consciousness.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/28/294-addy-pross-on-dynamics-stability-and-life/

Addy Pross received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Sydney. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University. He has held visiting positions in the University of Lund, Stanford University, Rutgers University, University of California at Irvine, University of Padova, the Australian National University Canberra, and the University of Sydney. He is the author of What Is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/what-is-life-9780198784791?cc=us&lang=en&].

 * Web page [https://tzin.bgu.ac.il/~pross/]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Addy-Pross/author/B001HPOVA2]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iERuab8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate]

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294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life

A large economy is one of the best examples we have of complex dynamics. There are multiple components arranged in complicated overlapping hierarchies, out-of-equilibrium dynamics, nonlinear coupling and feedback between different levels, and ubiquitous unpredictable and chaotic behavior. Nevertheless, many economic models are based on relatively simple equilibrium principles. Doyne Farmer is among a group who think that economists need to start taking the tools of complexity theory seriously, as he argues in his recent book Making Sense of Chaos: [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/284357/making-sense-of-chaos-by-farmer-j-doyne/9780241201978] A Better Economics for a Better World.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/21/293-doyne-farmer-on-chaos-crashes-and-economic-complexity/

J. Doyne Farmer received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently Director of the Complexity Economics program and Baillie Gifford Professor of Complex Systems Science at the University of Oxford, External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, and Chief Scientist at Macrocosm [https://www.macrocosm.group/]. He was the founder of the Complex Systems Group in the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and co-founder of The Prediction Company.

 * Web site [https://www.doynefarmer.com/]
 * Oxford web page [https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/doyne-farmer]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rk7g1U0AAAAJ&hl=en]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-Doyne-Farmer/author/B0CZTTWQ7K?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Doyne_Farmer]



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293 | Doyne Farmer on Chaos, Crashes, and Economic Complexity

It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more to do with "sentience" -- the ability to perceive feelings and sensations. Philosopher Jonathan Birch has embarked on a careful study of the meaning of sentience and how it can be identified in different kinds of organisms, as he discusses in his new open-access book The Edge of Sentience [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-edge-of-sentience-9780192870421?cc=us&lang=en&]. This is an example of a question at the boundary of philosophy and biology with potentially important implications for real-world policies.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/14/292-jonathan-birch-on-animal-sentience/

Jonathan Birch received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Philosophy Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is one of the authors of the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness [https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/declaration], and has advised the British government on matters of animal cruelty and sentience.

 * Web site [https://personal.lse.ac.uk/birchj1/]
 * LSE web page [https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/jonathan-birch]
 * Google scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uUFuYvYAAAAJ&hl=en]
 * PhilPeople profile [https://philpeople.org/profiles/jonathan-birch]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Birch_(philosopher)]



See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

Welcome to the October 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/07/ama-october-2024/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AMA | October 2024

Aging and death happen to the best of us, but there are increasing efforts to do something about it. That effort requires that we have some reasonable understanding of why aging happens, and what processes are involved. You will be unsurprised to learn that it's complicated. Venki Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on the ribosome, investigates what we know about aging in his book Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/why-we-die-venki-ramakrishnan?variant=41074404098082]. We talk about aging and death, and manage to get some thoughts in about ribosomes. Venki and many other great communicators will be speaking at New Scientist Live [https://newscientist.com/pr], which takes place at ExCeL London between 12 - 14 October 2024, and is also streamed live as well as on-demand.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/09/30/291-venki-ramakrishnan-on-the-biology-of-death-and-aging/

Venkatraman (Venki) Ramakrishnan received his Ph.D. in physics from Ohio University. He is currently Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, and is a Fellow of Trinity College. He previously served as President of the Royal Society of London. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work uncovering the structure of the ribosome.

 * Lab web page [https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/groups/ribo/]
 * Nobel citation [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2009/ramakrishnan/facts/]
 * Google scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oTI5BjIAAAAJ&hl=en]
 * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venki_Ramakrishnan]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Venki-Ramakrishnan/author/B07G3FJ93V]



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291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

It's a wonder democracy works at all -- a collection of people with potentially different interests have to agree to abide by majority vote even when it goes against their desires. But as we know, it doesn't always work, and racial and ethnic tensions are one of its biggest challenges. Hahrie Han studies the ground-up workings of democracy, how people can come together to successfully enact change. In her new book Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669326/undivided-by-hahrie-han/], she investigates an example where democracy apparently has worked remarkably well, and asks what lessons we can draw from it.

Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll].

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/09/23/290-hahrie-han-on-making-multicultural-democracy-work/

Hahrie Han recieved her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. She is currently the Director of the SNF Agora Institute [https://snfagora.jhu.edu/], the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab [https://www.p3researchlab.org/] at Johns Hopkins University. She was named the Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year by the World Economic Forum, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and gave the 2024 Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Harvard University, among other awards.

 * Web site [https://www.hahriehan.com/]
 * Johns Hopkins web page [https://politicalscience.jhu.edu/directory/hahrie-han/]
 * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zzFtUvAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao]
 * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Hahrie-Han/author/B00L3OIK40]



See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you’ve come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.

Sean Carroll

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