Great Talks at American Philosophical Society

Science “knows not party politics”: The Life of Dr. Hosack

Politics in the early republic, like today, was bitterly partisan, but in 1811, one of the nation’s most renowned doctors David Hosack took the position that science “kno

Good Numbers Make a Good Democracy: Kenneth Prewitt on the Census

It’s census season in the United States and some may be asking what exactly the census is, how it’s done, why. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with former Direct

Helen Quinn on Doing and Teaching Science

How do we understand the things we cannot see – the tiniest building blocks that make up our physical world? And then how do we teach about them? On this episode, Dr. Pat

Franklin, Jefferson, & America’s First Institutions

The final episode of season one of Great Talks at the APS departs slightly from the format of featuring an APS Meeting talk, instead featuring a paper appearing in a rece

A Long History of Climate Science

As we face the consequences of climate change, it may surprise some to learn just how long scientists—and denialists—have been talking about this problem. On this episode

The Paradox of the Mexico-U.S. Border

Why is it that at a time when Mexican migration across the Southern U.S. border is historically low, public dialogue surrounding the Mexico-U.S. borderland continues to b

The Life and Times of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Dr. Patrick Spero discusses the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer with Dr. Martin Sherwin, co-author with Kai Bird of the Pulitzer-prize winning biography American

Life of a Journalist

What does truth have to do with journalism? How has the profession evolved over the last half-century? On this episode, host Dr. Patrick Spero talks to Linda Greenhouse

The Demise of “Fact” in Political Discourse

On the first episode of the APS podcast, host Dr. Patrick Spero interviews Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson about the attack on facts in political dialogue and what that means