"Animal cultures matter first and foremost because they matter to the animals themselves." If you enjoyed our recent episode on the value of animal cultures, you may be interested in this new paper by @simonfitzpatrick.bsky.social & @kristinandrews.bsky.social! link.springer.com/article/10.3...

My interview with @manymindspod.bsky.social! Come for a deep dive into the evolution of kissing 💋, stay for the earth-shattering insights 🤯 "fish don't run" 🐠🏃 "monkeys tend to loll around quite a lot" 🙈 "chimps have moved on to grass-in-bumhole behaviour" 🍑🌱 disi.org/origins-of-t...

Kissing may seem like a frivolous topic—and it is, of course, a fun one!—but there's a reason scholars across the social/behavioral sciences have now started to pay it serious attention. To really puzzle out the origins the kiss, we may need to think about...

Analogy and metaphor galore! I was interviewed by the @nightsciencepod.bsky.social podcast about metaphor and analogy in science: open.spotify.com/episode/1hqU... Pairs well with @sflusberg.bsky.social's interview on metaphor on the @manymindspod.bsky.social podcast disi.org/the-aura-of-...

Thoroughly enjoyed this podcast about metaphor as a linguistic and cognitive phenomenon, not just a literary device. I think I see metaphor as considerably more integral to (and hence frequent in) language than Kensy does, though: there are often many metaphors hidden in a single everyday sentence.

New episode!! 🎉🎙️ A conversation w/ @matildabrindle.bsky.social about the evolution of kissing. Kissing is not just a quirk of human behavior. It's found across the animal kingdom and in most of our closest primate relatives. What functions could it be serving? Listen: disi.org/origins-of-t...

New episode!! 🎉🎙️ A conversation w/ @matildabrindle.bsky.social about the evolution of kissing. Kissing is not just a quirk of human behavior. It's found across the animal kingdom and in most of our closest primate relatives. What functions could it be serving? Listen: disi.org/origins-of-t...

The late philosopher Daniel Dennett had a notable penchant for metaphor—but he rarely used just one. Instead, he often engaged in what @sflusberg.bsky.social calls "metaphorical triangulation." Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode! Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

The late philosopher Daniel Dennett had a notable penchant for metaphor—but he rarely used just one. Instead, he often engaged in what @sflusberg.bsky.social calls "metaphorical triangulation." Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode! Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

We can all agree that metaphors are nice. But are they also sometimes necessary? Could there be ideas we simply can't approach literally, thoughts we can't think without metaphors? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @sflusberg.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

Surely one of the most timelessly alluring questions in all of metaphor research. Was excited to hear @sflusberg.bsky.social's take on this one! (which I won't spoil)

We can all agree that metaphors are nice. But are they also sometimes necessary? Could there be ideas we simply can't approach literally, thoughts we can't think without metaphors? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @sflusberg.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

A wave of recent research has reported name-like phenomena in dolphins, elephants, and marmosets. But as the search for animal names intensifies, we would do well to ask ourselves: What even is a name? Our recent audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

I really enjoyed the podcast. Many of the discussion points remind me of Mary Hesse's work on the role of metaphors in epistemology - if you are interested in these topics, I highly recommend her papers, e.g. dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781...

A wave of recent research has reported name-like phenomena in dolphins, elephants, and marmosets. But as the search for animal names intensifies, we would do well to ask ourselves: What even is a name? Our recent audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

Nice interview and discussion about the cool work of @vassar.bsky.social professor @sflusberg.bsky.social

New episode, first of 2026!! 🎉🎙️ A deep dive into metaphor with @sflusberg.bsky.social! Metaphors delight, provoke, captivate, shock, and galvanize us. What does it say about the human mind that we simply can't escape them—and frankly don't want to? Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

Such a fun and interesting, really thought-provoking episode! 😀

Delightful geek-out with @sflusberg.bsky.social! In which we discuss... - why we love metaphors - "beige flags" & "aura-farming" - good vs bad metaphors - theory-constitutive metaphors in science - Dennett's technique of "metaphorical triangulation" - the "brain as computer" metaphor (??) - etc.!!

I was absolutely thrilled to chat with Kensy about metaphor for one of my favorite podcasts. Check it out!

New episode, first of 2026!! 🎉🎙️ A deep dive into metaphor with @sflusberg.bsky.social! Metaphors delight, provoke, captivate, shock, and galvanize us. What does it say about the human mind that we simply can't escape them—and frankly don't want to? Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...

#EduSky #EruditePedagogy I just listened to this podcast (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...) about metaphors and couldn't help but think about teaching & learning. To what extend is the concept of "metaphor" a metaphor for teaching and learning? 1/10

If you enjoyed our recent episode on the functions of memory, you may be interested in this work! disi.org/what-is-memo...

What can shamanism teach us about religion -- and the human mind? What a pleasure to share this excellent conversation to the listeners of On Humans! The hard work was done by @manymindspod.bsky.social and @manvir.bsky.social 🙏 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4nhm3fG... Apple 👇

As part of an episode swap, our friends at 'On Humans' are featuring our recent interview with @manvir.bsky.social!

What a pleasure to do this swap with one of my favourite shows, Many Minds! Do check their work out if you haven't already. And stay tuned for my turn in an hour or so ;)

grateful for the @manymindspod.bsky.social podcast for breaking the tedium of segmenting scores of CT slices

IQ is a fraught concept, to say the least. Many regard it with squeamishness or outright disdain. Yet it's also one of the most researched constructs in all of psychology. How should we think about it? From the archive, our interview with @ent3c.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/how-should-w...

IQ is a fraught concept, to say the least. Many regard it with squeamishness or outright disdain. Yet it's also one of the most researched constructs in all of psychology. How should we think about it? From the archive, our interview with @ent3c.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/how-should-w...

A new academic term is ramping up. Have you considered putting our episodes on your syllabi? Conversations offer an accessible and engaging format—your students will thank you! We have 100+ episodes to choose from, covering many forms of mind from all disciplinary angles. disi.org/manyminds/

A new academic term is ramping up. Have you considered putting our episodes on your syllabi? Conversations offer an accessible and engaging format—your students will thank you! We have 100+ episodes to choose from, covering many forms of mind from all disciplinary angles. disi.org/manyminds/

An insightful and engaging conversation with @pbrakes.bsky.social on how and why to conserve animal cultures

A really surprising thing I learned from the (excellent) @manymindspod.bsky.social: we have found only about 300 Neanderthal skeletons in total. Amazing how we've constructed entire histories from so little data (but also how much we can't be sure about). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

There's a commonsense view of human names—of where they come from and what they're for—that's guiding our search for names in animals. Could it be leading us astray? Discussed in our latest episode, an essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

There's a commonsense view of human names—of where they come from and what they're for—that's guiding our search for names in animals. Could it be leading us astray? Discussed in our latest episode, an essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

Happy new year!! 🎉 As we pause before our 2026 run, we're sharing an episode from our friends at 'On Humans' @ilarimakela.bsky.social! It's a conversation with biologist & historian @matthewcobb.bsky.social about our understanding of the brain. Listen or read: onhumans.substack.com/p/can-the-br...

Happy new year!! 🎉 As we pause before our 2026 run, we're sharing an episode from our friends at 'On Humans' @ilarimakela.bsky.social! It's a conversation with biologist & historian @matthewcobb.bsky.social about our understanding of the brain. Listen or read: onhumans.substack.com/p/can-the-br...

A look back out our five most popular episodes of 2025!! 🎉🎉 (in order of release)

A look back out our five most popular episodes of 2025!! 🎉🎉 (in order of release)

Had fun with this one! In which I discuss: dolphins, elephants, marmosets, teknonymy, necronymy, reciprocal names in New Guinea, nominative determinism, the Bob-Kirk effect, the face-name-matching effect, name signs, toponyms, dog names, name uniqueness, alexinomia, toponyms, name taboos, etc.

New episode!! 🎉🎙️ An audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social about names in the natural world. The search for "name-like" symbols in animals is intensifying. But if the enterprise is to succeed, we first need to pause and ask ourselves: What even is a name? Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

New episode!! 🎉🎙️ An audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social about names in the natural world. The search for "name-like" symbols in animals is intensifying. But if the enterprise is to succeed, we first need to pause and ask ourselves: What even is a name? Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...

For the finale of season 7, we have a new audio essay out @manymindspod.bsky.social by @kensycoop.bsky.social! It's an exploration of names in the animal kingdom - what they are, who uses them, and why. In case you get hooked, we've put together a separate playlist of all our essays so far. Enjoy!

To survive and flourish, many animal species rely on ecological knowledge. But this knowledge is not always spread across the group—it's often held by certain "keystone individuals." Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...

To survive and flourish, many animal species rely on ecological knowledge. But this knowledge is not always spread across the group—it's often held by certain "keystone individuals." Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...

Loved the @manymindspod.bsky.social on the function of memory, with @aliboyle.bsky.social and @jomahr.bsky.social. Highly recommended if you didn't listen to it (yet)!

As usual, I am late to the party, but I just finished listening to the fantastic episode on episodic memory from @manymindspod.bsky.social. Super informative interview to @aliboyle.bsky.social and @jomahr.bsky.social by @kensycoop.bsky.social. Cheers to the Many Minds Team! Highly recommend!

New episode!! 🎙️🎉 A chat w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social about animal cultures and animal conservation. Culture was once thought to be uniquely human. No longer. We now know culture is found throughout the natural world. How does this complicate conservation? Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...

This was a fascinating episode!

New episode!! 🎙️🎉 A chat w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social about animal cultures and animal conservation. Culture was once thought to be uniquely human. No longer. We now know culture is found throughout the natural world. How does this complicate conservation? Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...