Vladimir Sloutsky, professor of psychology, researches conceptual development and interrelationships between cognition and language. His most recent publication describes how humans can learn about categories without explicit teaching.

David Brakke explains how the Gnostics influenced The Matrix

Jun 22nd, 2022 29m 45s

David Brakke, professor and Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity in the department of history, studies and teaches the history and literature of ancient Christianity from its origins, through the fifth century, with special interes

How to be curious, with Doug Alsdorf

Jun 15th, 2022 31m 35s

Doug Alsdorf, professor in the school of earth sciences, researches satellite hydrology, large tropical wetlands, and geophysics. He describes himself as driven by curiosity, to ask "Why is that there?" or "What is that over there?" Join him as

Jesse Fox: Virtual reality mythbuster

Jun 8th, 2022 30m 47s

Jesse Fox, associate professor in the school of communication, researches the effects and implications of new media technologies, including virtual worlds, video games, social network sites, and mobile applications. Virtual reality has gone thr

Siri, which OSU researcher is on this week's Voice of Excellence? "It's Michael White"

Jun 1st, 2022 32m 6s

Michael White, professor of linguistics, researches how to enable computers to usefully converse with people in natural language. He's seen the ability of predictive text become so good that it's created concerns about the ethical uses of it. H

Mindfulness meditation can improve mental and physical health, says Ruchika Prakash

May 25th, 2022 30m 32s

Ruchika Prakash, professor of psychology and Director of the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging, researches neuroplasticity in the context of healthy aging, and neurological disorders, specifically, multiple sclerosis. Her lab's

Making sense of African-Brazilian History, with Isis Barra Costa

May 11th, 2022 28m 37s

Isis Barra Costa is an assistant professor in Contemporary Brazilian Cultural and Literary Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese with research interests in Brazilian literature and culture, cyber literature and art activism in the

Examining the complexity of ethics with Tristram McPherson

May 4th, 2022 30m 39s

Tristram McPherson, professor of philosophy, examines foundational philosophical questions about ethics, specifically meta-ethics; epistemology; and conceptual ethics. He looks at whether there are ethical facts that answer ethical questions an

What can minions reveal about child language acquisition? John Grinstead explains

Apr 27th, 2022 27m 52s

John Grinstead, professor and interim chair in Spanish and Portuguese, researches developmental linguistics, developmental semantics and pragmatics, and children's comprehension of syntax. Ten years ago, he began using stop-motion movies in his

Virginia Rich looks at how the Earth's biosphere will react to climate change

Apr 20th, 2022 35m 51s

Virginia Rich, associate professor of microbiology and the director of the eMERGE Biology Integration Institute, studies global change microbiology, microbial meta-omics, and "Genes-to-Ecosystems" inquiry. She's spurred on in her work by the pr

"History is detective work," says historian Sam White

Apr 13th, 2022 28m 20s

Sam White, professor of history, studies environmental history and uses natural and human records to reconstruct past climate variability and extreme weather. He discusses the methods that historians use to get a more complete picture of the pa

David Steigerwald asks, "How in control are you of your life?"

Apr 6th, 2022 29m 18s

Professor of history David Steigerwald teaches courses in 20th-century American history from World War I through the 1960s. He also researches and writes about alienation, a composite term that refers to the sense people have of not really bein

Richard Samuels on "Why are we able to count?"

Mar 30th, 2022 27m 54s

Richard Samuels, professor of philosophy, researches cognitive development, reasoning, computational models of psychological capacities, and modular theories of cognition. He describes why cognitive science is different from psychology and why

"What was reality in the past?" Greg Anderson asks

Mar 23rd, 2022 30m 42s

Greg Anderson, professor of history, specializes in ancient Greek history, historical thoughts, and critical theory. In his most recent book The Realness of Things Past, he proposes a new way of doing history that is a fundamentally different w

Alex Thompson looks at how climate change agreements have evolved

Mar 17th, 2022 27m 44s

Alexander Thompson, professor of political science and senior faculty fellow at the Merson Center for International Security Studies, conducts research in international relations with an emphasis on the politics of international organizations a

How have Haitian authors hacked classical forms? Tom Hawkins tells all

Mar 9th, 2022 31m 53s

Tom Hawkins, associate professor of classics, looks at the ways that societies create social hierarchies and how the lower ends of those hierarchies interact with the higher. His forthcoming book explores the way Greek and Roman literary models

Sarah-Grace Heller answers "What was shopping like in medieval Paris?"

Mar 2nd, 2022 31m 34s

Sarah-Grace Heller, associate professor of French, specializes in medieval French and Occitan literature, language, and material culture. Her most recent book is a cultural history of fashion in a medieval age. She describes her sources from su

A Passage Through India: How Scott Levi's Study Abroad trip led to a career studying Central Asia

Feb 23rd, 2022 28m 3s

Scott Levi, professor and chair of the Department of History and interim chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, specializes in the social and economic history of Central Asia. His most recent book is The Bukharan Crisis

Bruce Weinberg, professor of economics, studies the economics of innovation and creativity

Feb 16th, 2022 28m 22s

Bruce Weinberg, professor of economics, studies the economics of innovation and creativity. In this area, potentially small numbers of individuals can have a large impact on how our understanding and knowledge evolves, which is rare among econo

Gregory Jusdanis looks at the poet C. P. Cavafy and blossoming in middle age

Feb 9th, 2022 29m 20s

Gregory Jusdanis, Humanities Distinguished Professor of Classics, researches modern Greek literature and culture, including the poet C. P. Cavafy. His recent work has been a biography of Cavafy, co-written with Peter Jeffries, exploring, among

The metaverse is not just for Marvel, says Kevin Richards

Feb 2nd, 2022 27m 21s

Kevin Richards, lecturer and Outreach Coordinator in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, defines the metaverse as the embodied Internet. His research follows the work of John Dewey who argued that the more immersed people are

What kind of animals are those? Questions of Art with Michael Mercil

Jan 26th, 2022 29m 55s

Michael Mercil, Emeritus Professor of Art has created sculpture, drawing, painting, landscape architecture, film, and performance for regional and national exhibitions. His installations at Ohio State have included bean fields by the Wexner Cen

The importance of vision for emotions to Michelangelo: Christian Kleinbub

Jan 19th, 2022 34m 33s

Christian Kleinbub, professor of history of art, studies the arts of the Italian Renaissance, with particular focus on issues of image theory, naturalism, the body, and period conceptions of vision and the visionary. He joins host David Staley

Sedentary versus pastoralist logic with Mark Moritz

Jan 12th, 2022 26m 12s

Mark Moritz, professor and graduate studies chair in anthropology, studies the transformation of African pastoral systems, specifically examining how pastoralists adapt to changing ecological, political, and institutional conditions. He shares