Best Cary Schmidt Podcasts (2025)

1
Made for More 7 - My God-Directed Life-Season 46:18

3d ago46:18

46:18

By Cary Schmidt

1
AMA | March 2025 2:58:00

2d ago2:58:00

2:58:00

Welcome to the March 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (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 questi…

1
307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Cocktails 1:16:36

9d ago1:16:36

1:16:36

A lot of science goes into crafting the perfect cocktail. Balancing sweet and bitter notes, providing the right amount of aeration and dilution, getting it to just the right temperature and keeping it that way. And even if you have no interest in cocktails as such, the general principles extend to other activities in art and in life. I talk to scie…

1
Made for More 6 - My God-Ordained Experiences 54:41

10d ago54:41

54:41

By Cary Schmidt

1
306 | Helen Czerski on Our Energetic Oceans 1:12:19

16d ago1:12:19

1:12:19

It is commonplace to refer to the Earth's oceans as vast and largely unexplored. But we do understand some aspects, and improving that understanding is crucial to ensuring the continued viability and success of life on this planet. The oceans are a paradigmatic complex system: there are many components, distinct but mutually interacting, that add u…

1
305 | Lilliana Mason on Polarization and Political Psychology 1:17:25

23d ago1:17:25

1:17:25

Political outcomes would be relatively simple to predict and understand if only people were well-informed, entirely rational, and perfectly self-interested. Alas, real human beings are messy, emotional, imperfect creatures, so a successful theory of politics has to account for these features. One phenomenon that has grown in recent years is an alig…

1
Bonus | Cuts to Science Funding and Why They Matter 1:10:25

28d ago1:10:25

1:10:25

The Trump administration, led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, has proposed sweeping cuts to spending on science research here in the US, in particular at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. I explain a little about what is being cut and why these funds are important to scientific progress…

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304 | James Evans on Innovation, Consolidation, and the Science of Science 1:16:03

1M ago1:16:03

1:16:03

It is a feature of many human activities - sports, cooking, music, interpersonal relations - that being able to do them well doesn't necessarily mean you can accurately describe how to do them well. Science is no different. Many successful scientists are not very good at explaining what goes into successful scientific practice. To understand that, …

1
Made for More 5 - My God-Empowered Gifts (Part 2) 55:53

1M ago55:53

55:53

By Cary Schmidt

1
303 | AMA | February 2025 3:44:12

1M ago3:44:12

3:44:12

Welcome to the February 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (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 que…

1
Made for More 4 - My God-Empowered Gifts (Part 1) 1:06:00

1M ago1:06:00

1:06:00

By Cary Schmidt

1
303 | James P. Allison on Fighting Cancer with the Immune System 1:07:38

1M ago1:07:38

1:07:38

A typical human lifespan is approximately three billion heartbeats in duration. Lasting that long requires not only intrinsic stability, but an impressive capacity for self-repair. Nevertheless, things do occasionally break down, and cancer is one of the most dramatic examples of such breakdown. Given that the body is generally so good at protectin…

1
A Divine Encounter With God (Morris Gleiser) 41:42

2M ago41:42

41:42

By Morris Gleiser

1
302 | Chris Kempes on the Biophysics of Evolution 1:30:54

2M ago1:30:54

1:30:54

Randomness plays an important role in the evolution of life (as my evil twin will tell you). But random doesn't mean arbitrary. Biological organisms are physical objects, after all, and subject to the same laws of physics as non-biological matter is. Those laws place constraints on how organisms can fulfill their basic functions of metabolism, repr…

1
Made for More 3 - My God-Given Design 54:13

2M ago54:13

54:13

By Cary Schmidt

1
301 | Tina Eliassi-Rad on Al, Networks, and Epistemic Instability 1:09:21

2M ago1:09:21

1:09:21

Big data is ruling, or at least deeply infiltrating, all of modern existence. Unprecedented capacity for collecting and analyzing large amounts of data have given us a new generation of artificial intelligence models, but also everything from medical procedures to recommendation systems that guide our purchases and romantic lives. I talk with compu…

1
Made for More 2 - My God-Redeemed Story 57:34

2M ago57:34

57:34

By Cary Schmidt

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300 | Solo: Does Time Exist? 2:11:35

2M ago2:11:35

2:11:35

A new year, and a new centennial -- 300 (regularly-numbered) episodes of Mindscape! Our tradition is to have a solo episode, and what better topic than the nature of time? Physicists and philosophers have so frequently suggested that time is some kind of illusion that it's become almost passé to believe that it might be fundamental. This is an issu…

1
Made for More 1 - Captivated With God's Big Vision 30:23

2M ago30:23

30:23

By Cary Schmidt

1
The Greatest Story 4 - The Story of the Servant 48:19

2M ago48:19

48:19

By Cary Schmidt

1
The Greatest Story 3 - The Story of the Savior 40:01

3M ago40:01

40:01

By Cary Schmidt

1
Holiday Message | Hits and Misses 2:01:23

3M ago2:01:23

2:01:23

It's the end of the year, and time for our annual holiday break here at Mindscape. But as usual, we wrap up with a Holiday Message. This year, inspired by Joni Mitchell's "Hits" and "Misses" albums, I go through my scientific papers and talk about some of my favorites -- some of which were hits, in terms of making an impact on subsequent research, …

1
The Greatest Story 2 - The Story of the King 52:11

3M ago52:11

52:11

By Cary Schmidt

1
299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life 1:13:00

3M ago1:13:00

1:13:00

Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving certain functions needed to survive and procreate. Natural selection provides a compelling explanation for why that is so. But is there a bigger picture, a more general framework that explains the origin and evolution of functions and complexity in a w…

1
The Greatest Story 1 - The Story of the Lamb 1:00:53

3M ago1:00:53

1:00:53

By Cary Schmidt

1
298 | Jeff Lichtman on the Wiring Diagram of the Brain 1:09:09

3M ago1:09:09

1:09:09

The number of neurons in the human brain is comparable to the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Unlike the stars, however, in the case of neurons the real action is in how they are directly connected to each other: receiving signals over synapses via their dendrites, and when appropriately triggered, sending signals down the axon to other ne…

1
Healthy Church 10 - A Healthy Church Grows a Team Culture 58:27

3M ago58:27

58:27

By Cary Schmidt

1
AMA | December 2024 3:55:31

3M ago3:55:31

3:55:31

Welcome to the December 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (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 que…

1
Healthy Church 9 - A Healthy Church Prioritizes a Prayer Culture 58:36

3M ago58:36

58:36

By Cary Schmidt

1
297 | Emily Wilson on Homer, Poetry, and Translation 1:15:12

4M ago1:15:12

1:15:12

Not too long ago, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana starred in a (loose) adaptation of Homer's epic poem The Iliad; next month, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche will headline a 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…

1
Healthy Church 8 - A Healthy Church Enjoys a Grateful Culture 48:22

4M ago48:22

48:22

By Cary Schmidt

1
296 | Brandon Ogbunu on Fitness Seascapes and the Course of Evolution 1:15:42

4M ago1:15:42

1:15:42

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 organi…