Imaginology

by Deena Weisberg

Imaginology is the science of how imagination meets reality. What happens in your brain when you get lost in a good book? How can an imaginary companion satisfy real social needs? Why do children seem more creative than adults, and are they really? Join host Dr. Deena Weisberg, a cognitive scientist and professor at Villanova University, as she talks with scientists, philosophers, writers, actors, therapists, and others about how imagination works and how it shapes our beliefs, our emotions, and our lives. Through conversations about pretend play, fictional stories, theater, games, and religion, Imaginology explores the surprising ways that imagination has profound effects on reality.

Latest episodes

Showing 5 · updated from the feed

Embodiment and Acting (Thalia Goldstein)

What does it mean when imagination moves out of the mind and into the body? What kinds of crucial skills can we learn from studying theater, and how can those habits of m

Oct 20
34 min

Star Trek's Q on the Power of Theater (John de Lancie)

Imagination is on full display in acting, as people pretend to be someone who they are not. How does this work? And how can the theater, broadly construed, help us to und

Oct 13
41 min

Why Children Aren’t Creative (Andrew Shtulman)

Many people think that children are highly imaginative and creative, and that we lose those skills as we get older. Andrew Shtulman, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Occid

Oct 13
39 min

What is Imagination?

Why do we cry at movies that we know are fictional? What do children's pretend games have in common with novelists' characters, or with war games run by government analys

Oct 13
9 min

Imaginology trailer

Imaginology is a new podcast about the science of how imagination meets reality.

Sep 29
1 min