Plumage Episode 3: Puttin' on the Ritz

When you taste the subtle flavor of a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, or smell the funk of an aged blue cheese – you don’t just experience those flavors with your taste buds and nose, you experience them with your brain! Neuroscience PhD Jess Kanwal says that our brain’s ability to combine taste and smell is just one example of how our brains are able to mix and match senses – with very interesting results.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Jess Kanwal and the PRX Podcast Garage.

Jess Kanwal’s research is funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, and a National Institutes of Health F31 Grant.

Can robots ever learn to feel? Our ability to perform delicate tasks, like giving a gentle hug or picking a piece of fruit, is something that robots can't yet mimic.Ryan Truby, an alum of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has created bioinspired soft robots that can squish, stretch, and feel their way around the world - and they have the potential to change how we understand robotics.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Ryan Truby and Jennifer Lewis. Ryan Truby’s research is supported by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, National Science Foundation through the Harvard MRSEC, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Schmidt Science Fellows program, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust.

From the moment you open your eyes in the morning, your sense of sight helps you navigate and interact with the world. But how do our brains understand what our eyes are telling us? And how do we know what's surrounding us, where we can move, and what objects are within reach? Emilie Josephs, a PhD student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, is discovering that the way our brain processes vision is even more complex than scientists initially thought.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Emilie Josephs and Phil Lewis, who voiced our brain. Emilie Josephs’ research is supported by the NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant Program.

Why isn’t King Kong scaling the Empire State Building right now? Should we worry about Godzilla rising from the depths of the Pacific Ocean? Shane Campbell-Staton, co-host of the podcast The Biology of Superheroes and Harvard PhD ’15 in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, talks about our favorite movie monsters, and some of the biological processes that could make them come to life.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Special thanks Shane Campbell-Staton and Graham Ball.

Some monsters live inside us. PhD candidate in Biological Sciences in Public Health Maddy McFarland studies Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite that transforms its shape to sneak inside our cells and makes us sick. The scariest part: Our cells can’t signal that they’re infected until it’s too late.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Special thanks to the lab of Barbara Burleigh, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and to the National Institutes of Health, which funds the research of the Burleigh lab.

Originally released in 2018.

Mermaids: They’re cute, innocent, and great singers, right? Think again! PhD candidate in Celtic Languages and Literatures Greg Darwin explains why you wouldn’t want to meet a mermaid in a dark aquatic alley. He also talks about selkie tales – and legendary creatures that live at the edge of humanity.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo Designer: Emily Crowell

Originally released in 2018

Can nutrition education solve the obesity epidemic? Hannah Cory asked that question over and over while working as a dietician in a public school system. Now, as a PhD candidate in Population Health Sciences, Hannah’s research seeks to uncover the connection between fat-phobia, racism, and obesity in the US.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks: Hannah Cory, Rick Sheiber, Julia King, Noah Leavitt, and the PRX Podcast Garage.

What does it mean to have a "healthy gut?" Is it worth drinking kombucha or taking probiotics? What about that gut-brain connection? PhD candidates Cary Allen-Blevins and Vayu Maini Rekdal explore how "good" bacteria help us to break down our food – from our “first food” (breast milk) to meat and veggies.

Love this episode? There are more stories about Harvard scientists' research into microbes on the podcast Proof, from America's Test Kitchen.

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks to: Cary Allen-Blevins, Vayu Maini Rekdal, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the PRX Podcast Garage.

In the last few years, the popularity of "plant-based diets" has exploded. Celebrities from Tom Brady to Beyoncé promote eating less meat. Even Burger King introduced a meatless burger. Nina Gheihman, a PhD candidate in sociology, tells us how vegan cultural entrepreneurs, celebrities, and researchers are changing hearts, minds, and dinner plates. She'll also explain why we might all be eating vegan soon - whether we like it or not.

Full Transcript

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special Thanks to: Graham Ball, Youth Radio Oakland, and Nina Gheihman

After moving to the US from Mauritius, PhD candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures Nikhita Obeegadoo felt homesick. Her experience eating a bowl of dal (spiced lentils) in the US led her to ask questions about food and diaspora, cultural appreciation, and cultural appropriation through a course she designed and taught called "Translate the Menu, Please."

Full Transcript

The Veritalk Team:

Host/Producer: Anna Fisher-Pinkert

Sound Designer: Ian Coss

Logo: Emily Crowell

Executive Producer: Ann Hall

Special thanks to Nikhita Obeegadoo, and the PRX Podcast Garage.