Sing for Science
Music Podcasts
Sing For Science is a science and music podcast produced with Talkhouse where musicians talk to scientists about science as it connects to their most famous songs. Created and hosted by New York musician, Matt Whyte, the podcast’s goal is to increase science literacy for as many people as possible by reaching a variety of different musicians’ fan bases. Listeners come to the show through their love of music and leave with a new piece of knowledge. Science literacy and respect for expertise are perhaps more vital now than ever before. The show’s chief tenet is that a more science and scientific process literate society can only contribute towards greater support for more fair, evidence-based policy in government. Sing For Science is listener supported; please contribute today at singforscience.org.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Music Podcasts
Description:
Sing For Science is a science and music podcast produced with Talkhouse where musicians talk to scientists about science as it connects to their most famous songs. Created and hosted by New York musician, Matt Whyte, the podcast’s goal is to increase science literacy for as many people as possible by reaching a variety of different musicians’ fan bases. Listeners come to the show through their love of music and leave with a new piece of knowledge. Science literacy and respect for expertise are perhaps more vital now than ever before. The show’s chief tenet is that a more science and scientific process literate society can only contribute towards greater support for more fair, evidence-based policy in government. Sing For Science is listener supported; please contribute today at singforscience.org.
Language:
English
Episodes
Laraaji: Sun Piano/Moon Piano (Eclipse Science with Nikole Lewis)
4/24/2024
Recorded Live at the Totality 2024 Festival in Hannibal, NY following the Total Solar Eclipse and Laraaji’s performance of his Sun Piano/Moon Piano albums. Ambient/New Age music legend Laraaji talks about how he represents the moon’s energy in 12 musical notes, his time at Howard University in the 1960s, his experience observing the Total Solar Eclipse. Cornell University Astronomer Dr. Nikole Lewis talks about the necessary conditions to allow for a Total Solar Eclipse, extraterrestrial life, Carl Sagan and more. This event was supported by the Simons Foundation and was part of its In The Path of Totality Initiative.
Duration:00:34:41
LABS: José González and Dr. Brian Cox on Secular Humanism
4/3/2024
Swedish Argentine folk singer José Gonzalez returns to the show along with our only other repeat guest, physicist Dr. Brian Cox of BBC and CERN fame. The two talk about secular humanism, atheism, finding meaning, black holes, Carl Sagan and more!
Duration:00:42:28
Sid Sriram: Blue Spaces (Color Neuroscience with Bevil Conway)
3/13/2024
Recorded live at 2024 On Air Fest in Brooklyn, NY: Indian Carnatic superstar Sid Sriram talks about his song “Blue Spaces” with visual neuroscientist/color expert, Dr. Bevil Conway. We talk about Sid’s personal and cultural associations with color, cultural appropriation, the brain’s visual system, “the dress” from 2015 which some saw as blue and black and others as white and gold, the subjectivity and illusory nature of color perception and more!
Duration:00:37:52
LABS: Bethany Cosentino and Lisa Marchiano on Jungian Analysis
2/21/2024
Best Coast lead singer and Jungian analysand, Bethany Cosentino and “This Jungian Life Podcast" host Lisa Marchiano do a deep dive on you guessed it…Jungian Analysis! We cover dream analysis, the unconscious, creativity, archetypes, personae and then some!
Duration:01:10:57
Spyro Gyra: Catching The Sun (Harmful Algal Blooms with Holly Waterfield)
1/31/2024
Spyro Gyra co-founder Jeremy Wall talks about the height of the jazz fusion era, composing and about about the ins and outs of lake formation, spirogyra algae, harmful algal blooms or HABS and more with lake ecologist, Holly Waterfield. This episode was co-produced with the AJ Reid Science Discovery Center at SUNY Oneonta where it was taped in front of a live audience on December 6, 2023.
Duration:00:42:16
Sheila E: The Glamorous Life (Rhythm Neuroscience with Hugo Merchant)
1/10/2024
Queen of Percussion and Prince collaborator Sheila E talks about her 1984 hit, working with Prince, salsa music and learning from her legendary father with University of Mexico Neuroscientist, Dr. Hugo Merchant. Hugo shares fascinating findings about how the mechanisms in the brain process rhythm and help us keep a beat.
Duration:00:43:22
Encore: MGMT: A Family of Trees (Forest Ecology with Suzanne Simard)
12/20/2023
A FAMILY OF TREES: UNCOVERING NETWORKS IN OUR FORESTS' UNDERSTORY with Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser of MGMT and Dr. Suzanne Simard, forest ecology professor. In this episode we discuss: - how trees communicate with one another - the folly of industrialized logging - how trees help other trees - Native American ancestral DNA in cedar - where to buy mushrooms in Connecticut
Duration:00:57:02
Cat Power: Cat Power Sings Dylan (Nostalgia Neuroscience with Hetvi Doshi)
11/29/2023
Chanteuse Chan Marshall, best known as the artist Cat Power talks about her recreation of the historic 1966 Bob Dylan concert album at the Royal Albert Hall with Cornell University neuroscientist and nostalgia expert, Hetvi Doshi. We cover the origins of nostalgia study, the growing body of scientific evidence that suggests nostalgia has health benefits and improves social cohesion with one another. We also talk about the dynamics of food nostalgia and Hetvi’s community nostalgia initiative. For more information on Cat Power’s tour and Hetvi’s work please visit catpowermusic.com, hetvidoshi.com, aclab.human.cornell.edu, and thecommunitynostalgiaproject.com.
Duration:00:43:39
Universe of Art | How Star Trek Incorporates Real-Life Science
11/9/2023
Special BONUS episode featuring the Science Friday/Universe of Art Podcast! Sing For Science host Matt Whyte welcomes Universe of Art host, D. Peterschmidt to talk about their show, Universe of Art. Like Sing For Science, Universe of Art is a science and art podcast that showcases “artists who use science to bring their creations to the next level.” Following our brief chat D shares with us a very special Universe of Art episode entitled “How Star Trek Incorporates Real-Life Science”. For more information about the show please visit https://singforscience.org/episodes/universeofart.
Duration:00:34:48
Encore: Mac DeMarco: Chamber of Reflection (Acoustics with Russ Berger)
10/18/2023
MAC DEMARCO: CHAMBER OF REFLECTION: UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE OF SOUND with Mac DeMarco and Russ Berger, acoustician. In this episode we discuss: - what sound is - how speakers work - how sound affects the human body - how the brain interprets sound in a space - Astronautical elimination
Duration:00:40:08
Ice Nine Kills: Hip To Be Scared (Horror Movie Science with Sarah Rose Cavanagh)
9/27/2023
Recorded live at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA on 9/18/23: Heavy Metal frontman and horror movie expert Spencer Charnas chats with psychologist Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh about his favorite horror movies, why we like to be scared, the difference between fictional and real violence, monster theory, recreational fear lab research and more.
Duration:00:38:07
Ice Nine Kills (Audience Q&A MIT Museum Taping)
9/27/2023
Spencer and Sarah field questions aplenty from the sold out crowd at the MIT Museum on 9/18/23. Lots of territory covered including favorite on-screen monsters, what we fear most, scary music, and how to take a class with Sarah in Boston.
Duration:00:21:47
Eartheater: Mitosis (Cell Biology with Elizabeth Hénaff)
9/6/2023
Multidisciplinary artist Eartheater talks with NYU computational biologist and artist, Dr. Elizabeth Hénaff about cell division, snails, horseshit, gut biome health, artist residencies and more at this very special live event! This episode was recorded at DEMO2023, presented by NEW INC and the New Museum, June 2023
Duration:00:35:36
311: All Mixed Up (Building Utopia with Rutger Bregman)
8/16/2023
311 lead singer and eternal optimist Nick Hexum talks about their breakout hit “All Mixed Up” with best-selling author and Dutch Historian, Rutger Bregman. Rutger’s books “Utopia For Realists” and Humankind” draw on scientific evidence that demonstrate our inherent capacity for good and the viability of ideas like Universal Basic Income, a 15 Hour Work Week, Open Borders and more.
Duration:00:53:08
Ted Hearne: Farming (Agriculture Science with Dr. Sarah Taber)
7/26/2023
Pulitzer Nominated composer, Ted Hearne talks about his epic work “Farming”, a hybridized piece written for a 24 piece choir with text taken from William Penn correspondence, a Jeff Bezos speech, the Uber Eats Twitter feed and more. Dr. Sarah Taber joins us for a conversation about the impacts of settler colonialism on modern day agriculture, the romantic myth of the American family farm and more!
Duration:00:45:22
Ringo Starr: Send Love, Spread Peace (Meditation Science with Bob Roth)
7/7/2023
Fab Four drummer and peace activist, Ringo Starr talks about going to see the Maharishi with John and George, his upbringing in violent Liverpool of the 1950s and being saved by music and then the gift of meditation. Bob Roth, renowned meditation teacher of 60 years and CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, talks to Matt and Ringo about the scientifically documented capacity of meditation to cultivate peace for the individual and the collective. This episode is being released on July 7th in celebration of Ringo’s 83rd birthday on which he invites anyone to say or think peace and love at noon, their local time.
Duration:00:33:23
Joan As Police Woman: The Magic (The Science of Transcendence with Maria Popova)
6/14/2023
NYC Legend Joan As Police Woman (Joan Wasser) talks about her 2011 song “The Magic” with influential writer and science historian, Maria Popova (The Marginalian / Brain Pickings). We talk about measuring how music can transport us, the “magic” of making connections, pattern recognition, wonderment as a discipline, double dutch and so much more in this incredibly awe inspiring episode.
Duration:00:47:42
Dermot Kennedy: See Yourself in My Eyes (Science of Street Performance with Psychologist Dr. Robbie Ho)
5/24/2023
Irish balladeer and arena headliner, Dermot Kennedy talks about his experience coming up as a busker in Dublin with Hong Kong psychologist, Dr. Robbie Ho whose research seeks to quantify the effect “busking” has on the audience’s perception of a public space.
Duration:00:47:49
Onuka (Ukraine): Vidlik (Radiobiology with Chernobyl researcher Olena Pareniuk)
4/26/2023
Special Chernobyl anniversary episode with Nata Zhyzhchenko of the Ukrainian band, Onuka and Chernobyl radiobiologist, Olena Pareniuk. Both of today's guests joined us from Kyiv and have been in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. We talk about what life is like during wartime for a professional musician and a scientist, the horsehair construction of a Ukrainian folk instrument that stinks of beer and cheese, studying radioactivity in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukrainian resilience and so much more! This episode was co-produced by Inscience, a nonprofit organization that promotes science and evidence-based medicine in Ukraine.
Duration:00:50:21
Best of Season 2 (Part 1)
3/29/2023
Join SFS host, Matt Whyte and SFS social media manager, Bailey Constas for a curated peak at some of Season Two's Best Moments! Featuring SIA with psychotherapist, Dr. Alexandra Katehakis, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe with social psychologist, Dr. Tony Lemieux, Jose González with epidemiologist, Dr. Mike Osterholm, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein with climatologist, Dr. Michael Mann, and Majid Jordan with aquanaut, Fabien Cousteau.
Duration:01:00:40