Sift

Series produced by Bishop Sand

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Sift sorts through deep topics with the help of people who routinely run into them. Ideas and stories run through physics, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, economics, anthropology and common-sense.

Each episode breaks down the deeper ideas that shape our way of thinking about ourselves and the rest of the world. Both expert and non-expert guests are asked similar questions. Their answers are stitched together in a collage of discussion and sound. In between episodes, 'Sift Shorts'-- smaller independent pieces (5-15 minutes) that didn't make their way into the episode--are available .


28 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Translate Sound to the Brain
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Sound gets funneled down your ear canal and... then what happens? You've heard about drums, tiny bones, and maybe a spiral shaped sensor, but not l...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 02, 2013
  • Length: 15:49
  • Purchases: 1
A Musical Brain Tease
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Don Hodges studies music psychology. Here, he discusses one of his latests studies that gives us some insight into what our favorite song (and musi...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Feb 18, 2013
  • Length: 11:25
  • Purchases: 1
The Animal Orchestra Is Quieting
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Animals communicate with each other like instruments in an orchestra. This natural soundscape is now quieting which can have an effect on humans as...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Jan 20, 2013
  • Length: 11:11
  • Purchases: 1
Sound is...
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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What is sound? We'll define it physically and through our experience. Interesting descriptions abound as we learn why a piano sound is different th...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Dec 28, 2012
  • Length: 14:39
  • Purchases: 1
Simple Soup
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Chef Gift gives us a simple soup. Strangely, it's similar to a primordial soup.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Nov 19, 2012
  • Length: 04:25
  • Purchases: 1
Searching Space
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Listen to peoples' first reaction to Saturn alongside astrophysicists who gaze up at the universe for a living. Learn the new techniques scientists...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Oct 31, 2012
  • Length: 17:47
  • Purchases: 1
The Story of Earth
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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The surprising history of the earth and life's impact on it. Also, a new perspective on the future of the planet: earth will likely be in constant ...

Bought by KUT and Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Sep 26, 2012
  • Length: 14:32
  • Purchases: 2
The Route to the Origin of Life
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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How to build life from scratch… seriously! Hear the various steps in the process. Warning: This episode is chemically intense.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Sep 26, 2012
  • Length: 09:43
  • Purchases: 1
Origins Research Motives
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Life is everywhere and we have a tough time killing it when sending our spacecraft off to Mars. However, in the lab, life is elusive. We look at th...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Aug 26, 2012
  • Length: 15:03
  • Purchases: 1
Origin Stories
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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We all want to explain our origins. Hear a greek origin myth alongside our modern scientific origin stories. Then take a step back to realize that ...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Aug 10, 2012
  • Length: 17:31
  • Purchases: 1
The Size of Life
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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How small and how large can life be? Hear scientists consider various answers to these questions and even attempt to convince you that life can be ...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Jul 19, 2012
  • Length: 10:49
  • Purchases: 1
Define Life
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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What is life? In the first installment of our "origin of life" topic, hear various attempts to define life and ponder the life of the internet.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Jul 09, 2012
  • Length: 14:59
  • Purchases: 1
Top-Down Cause
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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We stroll through the history of causal thought in medicine (and science) and entertain an alternative approach that is getting some traction in ph...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Dec 30, 2011
  • Length: 12:08
  • Purchases: 1
The Sound of Chaos
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Why can’t you predict the weather in a few days in advance? In this short, we explore the fundamental unknowable nature of chaotic systems. Then we...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Dec 19, 2011
  • Length: 14:51
  • Purchases: 1
Levels of Cause
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Cause and effect seems so easy to grasp but is often slippery when we think about it in detail. In this show, we hang on to the slippery topic and ...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Nov 23, 2011
  • Length: 29:49
  • Purchases: 1
Innate Cause
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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How engrained is cause in our psyche? ... and in our fields of study? Experts and experiments explain.

  • Added: Sep 30, 2011
  • Length: 28:06
Causation 1
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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In this episode we attempt to define causation - a concept that is central to the way we think.

  • Added: Sep 14, 2011
  • Length: 13:46
ALS
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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We’ve all gone through some grief. Daniel faces a very different kind because his father has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Daniel talks about his tho...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Aug 29, 2011
  • Length: 15:55
  • Purchases: 1
A Buddhist's Obsession
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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Michelle discovers Buddhism through a friend's death and tries to improve her mental control.

  • Added: Aug 12, 2011
  • Length: 08:18
Biological Death
From: Bishop Sand
Series: Sift
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We consider an unusual understanding of death - a biological one. Prof. Tyler Volk describes organisms tuning their lifespan to their surroundings,...

  • Added: Jul 22, 2011
  • Length: 08:05