Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ah, yes…the human brain. There’s quite a bit of interesting discussion going on in the media these days about what, exactly, our time spent online might be doing to our cerebral circuitry. A lot of that discussion has been spurred by the recent publication of Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains. Well, we here at WTP want to help listeners get a handle on the issue. So, in WTP 301, we’ve got an interview with Steven Rose, a neuroscientist who in 2005 authored the book The Future of our Brains.
Also in this episode, The World’s Jeb Sharp travels to Tanzania to report on a solar energy project called SolarAid. The project itself makes the piece worth a listen, but for real impact, listen to the descriptions of what it’s like to live without reliable electricity. You can also check out a great slideshow made up of photos that Jeb took during her trip.
Reporter Ari Daniel Shapiro travels to Scotland to tell us about another interesting project. Imagine what it would be like if everyday objects could tell you their stories. Well, that’s exactly what Oxfam and a University of Edinburgh researcher have done with something called Tales of Things and Electronic Memory (or TOTeM). You can hear more from some of the objects mentioned in Ari’s piece, and you can find out more about researcher Chris Speed as well. Better yet, you can find out how to tell your own stories about your favorite objects.
And we end with a challenge. Can you text faster than Melissa Thompson of Manchester, England?
Music in this week’s ‘cast: “Meanwhile, Rick James” by Cake.
(Image: Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator)
Discussion
One comment for “Tech Podcast: What the Internet does to your brain”