The Brain on Exercise with Dr. Liana Machado

In Episode 33 we are joined by Dr. Liana Machado from the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand to chat about the effects of physical activity on cognition. Liana shares with us how exercise impacts brain blood flow and cognitive outcomes across the human life, especially in ageing. How does physical activity improve cognitive performance? What kind of cognitive functions are benefitted by physical activity? How is mood effected by physical activity? All this and much more in The Brain on Exercise with Dr. Liana Machado!

References

Guiney, H., Lucas, S. J. E., Cotter, J. D., & Machado, L. (2019). Investigating links between habitual physical activity, cerebrovascular function, and cognitive control in healthy older adults. Neuropsychologia, 125, 62-69. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.01.011

Guiney, H., & Machado, L. (2013). Benefits of regular aerobic exercise for executive functioning in healthy populations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20(1), 73-86. doi: 10.3758/s13423-012-0345-4

Crisis Alert! Replicability in Science with Dr. Wolf Vanpaemel

In Episode 32 we are joined by Dr. Wolf Vanpaemel from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven to discuss the crisis of confidence in the scientific community. Wolf shares with us how statistics and scientific replication has lead to a crisis of confidence in scientific research, and what this means for scientists, journalists, and the general public. What is the crisis of confidence and what is the role of replication and statistics in contributing to scientific discourse? Can we ever ‘prove’ anything or should we acknowledge that there is always room for error? How can researchers limit their ‘degrees of freedom’ to make for better science? Is there any reason for optimism or are we doomed? All this and much more in Crisis Alert! Replicability in Science with Dr. Wolf Vanpaemel!

References

Funder, D. C., Levine, J. M., Mackie, D. M., Morf, C. C., Sansone, C., Vazire, S., & West, S. G. (2014). Improving the dependability of research in personality and social psychology: Recommendations for research and educational practice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(1), 3-12. doi:10.1177/1088868313507536

Gigerenzer, G. (2004). Mindless statistics. Journal of Socio-Economics, 33(5), 587-606. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2004.09.033

Morey, R. D., Chambers, C. D., Etchells, P. J., Harris, C. R., Hoekstra, R., Lakens, D., . . . Zwaan, R. A. (2016). The peer reviewers’ openness initiative: Incentivizing open research practices through peer review. Royal Society Open Science, 3(1)

Nuzzo, R. (2014). Statistical errors: P values, the 'gold standard' of statistical validity, are not as reliable as many scientists assume. Nature, 506(7487), 150.

Digging Through the Past: The Archaeology of Culture Change with Ellie Gooderham

In Episode 31 we are joined by Ellie Gooderham from the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University to chat how cultural changes affect juvenile development and health. Ellie shares with us how the social, cultural, and physical environments affect population stress, and how these periods of stress impacted juvenile development in Portugal from the 8th to 16th centuries. How do cultural shifts affect population health? How do archaeologists determine the age of an artifact? Do all archaeologists get to wear a cool hat and carry a whip? All this and much more in Digging Through the Past: The Archaeology of Culture Change with Ellie Gooderham.

References

Gooderham, E., Matias, A., Liberato, M., Santos, H., Walshaw S., Albanese, J., Cardoso, H.F.V. (2019). Linear and Appositional Growth in Children as Indicators of Social and Economic Change during the Medieval Islamic to Christian transition in Santarém, Portugal. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, doi.org/10.1002/oa.2784.

Gooderham E. (2018) Growth as an Indicator of Social and Economic Transition from the Islamic to Late Medieval Christian period in Portugal: A Comparative Study of Linear and Appositional Growth (Masters Dissertation).

Food for Thought: Sustainability in Food guidelines with Rachel Mazac

In Episode 30 we are joined by Rachel Mazac from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems to discuss sustainability in the development of food-based dietary guidelines. Rachel shares with us how governments and health agencies are incorporating food sustainability into dietary guidelines and how nutrition, health, and the environment are inextricably intertwined. What are the five domains used to approach sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines? Where does the social and cultural context for eating belong in promoting sustainable and healthy food guidelines? What would the perfect food-based dietary guideline look like? All this and much more in Food for Thought: Sustainability in Food guidelines with Rachel Mazac!

References

Mazac, R. (2019, March 18). Canada’s Food Guide: Cultivating change – the nature of food.

Government of Canada (2018, October 4). Welcome to Canada’s food guide.

Tech Support and Science with Matt Smith

In Episode 29 we are joined by Matt Smith, the Information Technology Manager and Technical Analyst at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology, to chat about the role of information technologists in research. Matt explains how information technologists can work with researchers to empower, drive, and manage research projects. What is ‘general research computing’ and ‘high performance computing,’ and how do they differ? What does an Information Technologist do to facilitate research? How often is IT support requested for assistance with a device that will not turn on when it is unplugged? All this and much more in Tech Support and Science with Matt Smith!

Oh Rats! with Kaylee Byers

In Episode 28 we are joined by Kaylee Byers from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia to chat about rat ecology, behaviours, and their impact on human health. Kaylee shares with us how the movement of rats in urban settings leads to a clustering of disease pathogens. How does pest control lead to changes in social behaviour and an increase in pathogen prevalence? What is the density of urban rats and how far-ranging are they? Where in the world could you go to avoid rats? All this and much more in Oh Rats! with Kaylee Byers!

References

Byers, K. A., Lee, M. J., Patrick, D. M., & Himsworth, C. G. (2019). Rats about town: A systematic review of rat movement in urban ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7 doi:10.3389/fevo.2019.00013

Byers, K. A., Lee, M. J., Donovan, C. M., Patrick, D. M., & Himsworth, C. G. (2017). A novel method for affixing global positioning system (GPS) tags to urban norway rats (rattus norvegicus): Feasibility, health impacts and potential for tracking movement. Journal of Urban Ecology, 3(1) doi:10.1093/jue/jux010

Cooperation, Cancer, and Conmen with Dr. Athena Aktipis

In Episode 27 Dr. Athena Aktipis from the Department of Psychology at the Arizona State University joins us to chat about cooperation from a cellular to human scale. Athena shares with us how the five principles of cooperation can be applied across systems, how cancer represents a breakdown of this multicellular cooperation, and how a need based transfer system is an optimal cooperation and generosity strategy. What is cooperation and can any action be altruistic? Do we need bad people to have cooperation? What can zombies tell us about cooperation and psychology? All this and much more in Cooperation, Cancer, and Conmen with Dr. Athena Aktipis!

Forthcoming

Aktipis, A. (in press) Evolution in the Flesh:Cancer and the Transformation of Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting

Zombified Podcast with Dr. Athena Aktipis

References

Aktipis, A., de Aguiar, R., Flaherty, A., Iyer, P., Sonkoi, D., & Cronk, L. (2016). Cooperation in an uncertain world: For the maasai of east africa, need-based transfers outperform account-keeping in volatile environments. Human Ecology, 44(3), 353-364.

Aktipis, A. (2016). Principles of cooperation across systems: From human sharing to multicellularity and cancer. Evolutionary Applications, 9(1), 17-36.

Erobotics & Sex Robots with Simon Dubé

In Episode 26 we are joined by Simon Dubé from Concordia University to discuss artificial socio-sexual entities. Simon shares with us how people perceive new socio-sexual technologies and how that relates to their individual characteristics, personality traits, and sex life. We also talk about how people perceive these technologies psycho-physiologically in comparison with human romantic or sexual partners. What are artificial socio-sexual entities? How do arousal and sexual interactions differ between sex robots and human partners? Does a sexual interactions between an individual and a sex robot cause one to lose their virginity? All that and much more in Erobotics & Sex Robots with Simon Dubé.

References

Scheutz, M., & Arnold, T. (2016). Are we ready for sex robots? Paper presented at the The Eleventh ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction. doi:10.1109/HRI.2016.7451772