Hello everyone, and welcome to the Mindscape podcast! I'm your host, Sean Carroll.

The format here is simple: I talk to smart people about interesting ideas. My own professional expertise is in physics, and maybe a bit of philosophy, but Mindscape episodes range over a wide variety of idea-oriented topics. We'll discuss neuroscience, music, games, biology, politics, religion, movies, and much more. The goal is to break down barriers between the disciplines, dig deeply into important concepts, and provoke a few thoughts along the way.

Mindscape is part of the Wondery podcast network, and the episodes are hosted at ART19. Episodes are audio-only. You can subscribe using the RSS feed or any of the other services listed in the right sidebar. Episodes are released once per week, generally on Mondays, with possibly a two-week vacation at the end of the year.

We do take advertising; contact Wondery if you'd like to purchase ads. If you don't like ads, you can become a supporter on Patreon, and listen to an ad-free version. Patreon supporters also get to ask questions that I will tackle in monthly Ask Me Anything episodes.

Each episode will be accompanied by a post here that includes show notes, an audio player, and a full transcript of the episode. Feel free to comment at the end of each post; there is also a subreddit you can participate in.

For anyone interested, I record using Electro-Voice RE320 microphones, into a Sound Devices MixPre-3. Sound quality may vary, as sometimes interviews are conducted at my home or office, sometimes they are at random remote locations, and sometimes the guest and I are talking over the internet. In the latter case I like to use Zencastr, which records both speakers at their locations, then lets you edit the two audio files together. I do my editing/producing (minimal as it is) with Audacity and iZotope RX7. Transcripts are done using Scribie, and YouTube uploads using Audioship.

You may sometimes hear Ariel or Caliban meeping in the background. Here's Ariel, checking out the equipment.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me set this up, including Gia Mora (web and technical help), Julian Morris (prodding), Cara Santa Maria (podcasting wisdom), Jason Torchinsky (art), Robert Alexander (gear), and Jennifer Ouellette (patience, support, wine). The cool search feature (bottom of column to the right) was set up by Alex Tideman. The song snippets at the beginning and end of each episode are by Euphonic (Alfredo Condona and Watson), courtesy of Ted Pyne.