Tonight’s episode of the Perpetual Notion Machine discusses the psychological effects from COVID-19, mainly how social isolation, even when it’s voluntary, can lead to loneliness and feelings of stress. The show didn’t quite come off perfectly. PNM apologizes to those who listened and heard the problems we faced at the beginning. We tried to connect […]
The Science of Diversity and Inclusion
On today’s episode, guest host Harry Hawkins talks to psychology professor Markus Brauer about what behavioral science can tell us about achieving diversity and inclusion. As the director of the Brauer Group Lab, Professor Brauer researches how people’s thought processes, perceptions of others, and behaviors are affected by being members of a social group. He […]
Language learning and memory
Think back to high school. Did you take a foreign language? If so, how much do you remember? Could you say what you ate for breakfast today in that language? Exchange a few pleasantries? Thinking back, how well do you think you could speak in that foreign language even at the time you were learning […]
The physical impact of a smile
What’s in a smile? Encouragement? A friendly hello? A threat? It turns out that humans are fairly good at parsing the subtle signals sent in expressions like smiles, and those expressions and our perceptions of them can impact our body chemistry. In our March 15 show, Producer Will Cushman talks to Justin Martin, a graduate […]
Memories: The Brain and the Research
Last week we learned a little about the science of memory. Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine continues the topic of memory. Our guest, psychologist and neuroscientist at UW-Madison Brad Postle, is back to tell us more. In his conversation with PNM’s Dennis Shaffer, Brad mentions that each memory has its own set of neurons, connections, […]
Memories: What are They?
During this holiday season, we’ll certainly remember the good times of some of the Christmas’ in the past, and also form good memories of this Christmas. So, for this episode of the Perpetual Notion Machine, we look into the science of memory – what are they, how do they form, and what triggers a memory […]
