Episodes
Lisa Beth Kovetz & Emily Rice of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College dig into black holes, brown dwarfs and Star Trek’s “Strange New Worlds!”
Published 05/19/23
In the climate-change allegory, “Don’t Look Up” the media failed to report the reality of an oncoming comet. Are we doing the same with our ever wilder weather? CUNY’s Prof. Jimmy Booth; CUNY Alums Dr. Veeshan Narinesingh and Joe Rao weigh in.
Published 04/21/23
Prof. and Chef, Mark D’Alessando, Dir. of Culinary Arts, at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College joins us to talk about Hulu’s “The Bear,” why the science of baking can become so obsessive, and why community colleges have the best culinary arts degree.
Published 03/17/23
Dolphins are often as creative and personable in real life as they are on the screen. Author and Prof. Diana Reiss Director of the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program at CUNY’s own Hunter College joins us to explain why
Published 02/17/23
HBO's "The Guided Age" details NYC's antique, ultra-rich, without giving much thought to the city that made it possible. Joining us to talk about what lies under our city, is triple CUNY alumna Alyssa Loorya of Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants.
Published 01/20/23
Author and UConn Prof. Betsy McCoach joins us in a discussion about "Raising Dion" and gifted children.
Published 11/11/22
Dr. Robin Rosenberg, The Clinical Psychologist Who Wrote Your College Text Book, “Abnormal Psychology,” And The Uber-Editor Of The Oxford University Press, “Superhero” Series Discusses Anakin Skywalker And Attachment Disorders.
Published 10/14/22
How have attitudes and treatments for HIV changed over the decades? CUNY Prof. Denis Nash discusses past & current HIV treatment and cures and the circa 1980 attitudes of "It's A Sin" (BBC) versus the realities of Jared Frieder's 2022 film "Three Months"
Published 09/09/22
Dr. Stuart Firestein, Columbia U. neuroscientist, author of “Ignorance” and “Failure” joins us to discuss to compare and contrast murder mysteries with the public perception of how science gets done!
Published 06/03/22
Fans of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” know “The Litany Against Fear” by heart and repeat to themselves in times of strife. To talk about other things you might do in a stressful situation, we spoke to neuroscientist, Wendy Suzuki, author of “Good Anxiety.”
Published 05/06/22
In “HouseBroken,” Lisa Kudo’s poodle, “Honey” psychoanalyzes the pups who come to her couch for group therapy. At the Hunter Thinking Dog Center, Sarah Elizabeth Byosiere studies the behavior and cognition of domestic dogs.
Published 04/08/22
Author/Actor Henry Winkler and neuroscientist Dr. Sally Shaywitz (Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity) discuss the underlying causes of dyslexia through the lens of the BBC TV series, “Hank Zipzer,” based on Winkler’s semi-autobiographical novels.
Published 03/11/22
On the next Science goes to the Movies, we’re looking at the science of the Expanse with Charles Liu, Karen Masters and Allen Lui, three astrophysics who wrote the book on the key ideas, inventions, and destinations that inspired Space Travel.
Published 02/04/22
In the movie “Dune” the Ornithopters move like real dragonflies, but could a machine that size and weight ever really move like that? Our guest, Prof. Jane Wang of Cornell’s Department and Physics and Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering explains.
Published 01/07/22
In the fun flick “Free Guy” Ryan Reynolds plays a bit of intelligent computer code that achieves sentience, SORT OF. CUNY Prof. Anita Raja explains the real life limits of machine learning and what parts of Blue Shirt Guy could actually be true.
Published 12/10/21
In the 1860’s people believed the weather was too chaotic to ever be predicted, but today our smart phones update weather conditions to the hour. CUNY’s own Dr. James Booth discusses the film “The Aeronauts,” meteorology, and our changing climate.
Published 11/05/21
In X-Men or Jupiter’s Legacy, genetically altered superheroes push the limits of human biology to save the world. IRL, geneticist, Dr. Christopher E. Mason, thinks we should alter our biological limits to save our species.
Published 09/17/21
In the movie, "Uncle Frank" after years of psychic abuse both large and small the titular Uncle Frank finds it in his heart to forgive his family. And that's great for a movie. But how does it translate to real life?
Published 06/04/21
When the 2-DASH-1B surgical robot attached Luke Skywalker’s new arm, our collective creative minds were blown, and visions of autonomous robotic surgery begin appearing across the sci fi spectrum! A look what’s happening in real robotic surgery!
Published 05/07/21
SciFi money is either the utopian “plenty for all” or worlds of shortages and the very, very powerful crushing everyone else. With that in mind we're look at the GME Short Sale that became a short squeeze for some wealthy hedge fund investors.
Published 04/09/21
One of Star Trek: Discovery’’s most exciting, fictional advancement is something called “programmable matter," and in real life at the City University of New York, Prof Vinod Menon one of our favorite guests - is working on making it so!
Published 03/12/21
CUNY's own Dr. Charles Liu discusses the difference and overlaps between the scientific/ mathematical concept of the multi-verse, and the pop-culture/art vision of the multi-verse.
Published 02/05/21
Two fantasy extremes are quickly becoming a part of our IRL culture: Medicine in Star Trek - Drinking Westeros! in Dr. Mark D’Agostino (Co-Founder) and Bluestone Psychiatry moved their practice to telemedicine long before the quarantine hit
Published 01/08/21
Were most people in the European Middle Ages really as stupid as Daniel Radcliffe’s Miracle Workers character Prince Chauncley? In his new book "The Clock and the Camshaft” Forbes writer, John W. Farrell delves into Dark Ages ingenuity.​
Published 11/06/20