Brain Stories

Episode 23- Jenny Lange on the gothic history of neuroscience, a Halloween special

UCL Podcast — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:26:07 +0000

In this special Halloween episode of Brainstories, Selina and Caswell speak with Dr Jenny Lange (UK DRI at UCL) about the gothic history of neuroscience — and how scientific experiments shaped gothic literature.

Date of episode recording: 2025-10-02
Duration: 00:47:48
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Steve Fleming, Selina Wray
Guests: Caswell Barry, Lucy Unwin
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories Episode 22 Caswell Barry and Lucy Unwin talk about the neuroscience behind their new children’s book – Inside Your Brain

University College London (UCL) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:37:00 +0100

Caswell Barry and Lucy Unwin talk about the neuroscience behind their new children’s book – Inside Your Brain. Inside Your Brain takes readers on an irreverent gallop through history to uncover ten ground breaking discoveries that led to our current understanding of how the brain works.

Date of episode recording: 2025-10-02
Duration: 00:47:48
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Steve Fleming, Selina Wray
Guests: Caswell Barry, Lucy Unwin
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 21: Professor Adrian Isaacs on Frontotemporal Dementia

University College London (UCL) — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:41:37 +0100

Selina and Caswell chat with Professor Adrian Isaacs from the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL to talk Frontotemporal Dementia — from how fruit flies are helping, to the role of DNA repeat expansions in disease, and why lipids might protect the brain.

Presenters: Caswell Barry and Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Adrian Isaacs
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Date of episode recording: 2025-07-28
Duration: 00:38:48
Language of episode: English

Brain Stories – Episode 20: Tali Sharot on what influences our beliefs and decision making

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 18:00:00 +0100

Professor Tali Sharot talks to Caswell and Selina about why we're easy to influence and overly optimistic

Date of episode recording: 2024-07-19T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00:49:49
Language of episode: English
TAGS: as before
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Tali Sharot
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 19: Sonia Gandhi on researching and treating Parkinson's Disease

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0100

Professor Sonia Gandhi talks to Steve and Selina about her research into the biology of Parkinson's disease, and how this understanding could lead to new treatments.

Date of episode recording: 2024-06-14T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00:47:53
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Steve Flemming; Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Sonia Gandhi
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories Live - Episode 18: Neuro AI

University College London (UCL) — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:28:24 +0000

The first ever live recording of the UCL Brain Stories podcast live from the Bloomsbury Studio at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio on 18th October 2023. Caswell and Selina spoke to Diksha Gupta, Rick Adams, and Benedetto De Martino on all things Neuro AI.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-10-18T
Duration: 01:35:46
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Selina Wray
Guests: Diksha Gupta; Rick Adams; Benedetto De Martino

Brain Stories - Episode 17: Jenny Bizley on how the brain perceives sounds

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:12:44 +0100

Professor Jenny Bizley talks to Caswell and Steve about how different sounds are perceived by the brain.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-08-29
Duration: 00:38:23
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Flemming
Guests: Professor Jenny Bizley
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain stories - Episode 16: Peter Kok on how the brain determines what we see

University College London (UCL) — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 10:00:40 +0100

Peter Kok talks to Selina and Steve about how the brain determines our visual experience of the world and how his research aims to understand the neural circuit underlying this.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-08-17
Duration: 00:42:40
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Selina Wray; Steve Flemming
Guests: Peter Kok
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 15: Sarah Garfinkel on how clinical conditions impact emotion processing

University College London (UCL) — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 11:22:11 +0100

Professor Sarah Garfinkel talks to Caswell and Steve about her research exploring emotion and how brain body interactions may go awry in clinical conditions.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-07-14
Duration: 00:41:21
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry ; Stephen Flemming
Guests: Professor Sarah Garfinkel
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 14: Kate Jeffery On The Cognitive Map And Memory

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 11:02:47 +0000

Kate Jeffery talks to Steve and Caswell about memory, how place cells might be the neural basis of our sense of space, the joys of training rats to climb around in three dimensions, and what all this has got to do with architecture.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-01-31
Duration: 00:49:55
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Steve Flemming; Caswell Barry
Guests: Professor Kate Jeffery
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 13: Ed Wild On Huntington’s Disease – From Genetics To Clinical Trials

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 09:50:28 +0000

Ed Wild talks to Steve and Selina in a wide-ranging discussion about Huntington’s disease – encompassing genetics, disease mechanisms, therapeutic development and clinical trials – with some interesting stories about Sea Urchins and CAG repeats, and the Pope!

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-01-24
Duration: 00:57:18
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Steve Flemming; Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Ed Wild
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 12: Tobias Hauser On Computational Psychiatry And The Origins Of OCD

University College London (UCL) — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:32:44 +0000

Tobias Hauser talks to Steve and Caswell about common misconceptions around OCD, what the "computational" means in computational psychiatry, and the reasons why teenagers might hold the key to understanding the origins of mental health problems.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2023-01-13
Duration: 00:42:17
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Flemming
Guests: Tobias Hauser
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 11: Katharina Schmack on Schizophrenia and why We All Hallucinate

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 14:32:12 +0000

Katharina Schmack talks to Caswell and Steve about dopamine, hallucinations, how to juggle careers in science and medicine, and why sleep-deprived parents might hear things that are not really there.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Brain Stories - Episode 10: Hugo Spiers on the brains of taxi drivers

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 12:34:59 +0100

Hugo Spiers talks about taxis, how where you grew up affects your navigation skills, and the time that Benedict Cumberbatch ruined one of his experiments.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/n…in-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2022-07-19
Duration: 00:56:28
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Selina Wray & Caswell Barry
Guests: Hugo Spiers
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories – Episode 9: UCL Neuroscience Symposium

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:14:14 +0100

Conversations with the speakers from the 2022 UCL Neuroscience Symposium.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2022-06-22
Duration: 00:35:39
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Selina Wray; Caswell Barry; Steve Fleming
Guests: UCL Neuroscience Symposium speakers
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 8: Aman Saleem on Visual Input to Spatial Memories

University College London (UCL) — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 11:48:55 +0100

Aman talks to Caswell and Steve about his journey from metallurgical engineering to multi-brain region neuroscience, how this has informed his rodent VR based studies of visual navigation, and what brains taste like.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2022-04-13
Duration: 00:43:13
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Fleming; Selina Wray
Guests: Aman Saleem
Producer: Patrick Robinson

Brain Stories - Episode 7: Benedetto De Martino on decision making

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:56:51 +0100

Benedetto De Martino talks to Selina and Caswell about decision making, why we make choices that are bad for us, and the importance of having a hobby - plus a banjo makes an appearance.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/n…in-stories-podcast

Brain Stories - Episode 6: Sanjay Sisodiya on Epilepsy

University College London (UCL) — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:35:18 +0000

In our first episode in 2022, Caswell & Selina talk to Professor Sanjay Sisodiya (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) about his research into epilepsy and the intersection between climate change and neurological disease.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/n…in-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2021-12-06
Duration: 15/12/21
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Fleming; Selina Wray
Guests: Sanjay Sisodiya
Producer: Suzie McCarthy

Brain Stories - Episode 5: Tamar Makin on Brain Plasticity

University College London (UCL) — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 13:50:37 +0000

In our fifth episode Selina and Steve chat to Professor Tamar Makin about her fascinating research on brain plasticity, artificial limbs and the potential for human augmentation.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/n…in-stories-podcast

Date of episode recording: 2021-11-24
Duration: 00:34:20
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Caswell Barry; Steve Fleming; Selina Wray
Guests: Professor Tamar Makin
Producer: Suzie McCarthy

Brain Stories - Episode 3: Andrew Macaskill and Making Decisions

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 09:27:32 +0100

In our third episode Andrew Macaskill joins Selina and Caswell to talk about how the brain weighs evidence and makes decisions - also why it's important for neuroscientists to get out of their comfort zone once in a while.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/n…in-stories-podcast

Brain Stories - Episode 4: Nick Fox on the Importance of Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease

University College London (UCL) — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 19:11:31 +0100

In our third episode Selina & Caswell talk to Professor Nick Fox about the importance of research into Alzheimer’s disease and the progress being made towards better diagnosis and treatment.

Find out more and access the transcript here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Brain Stories - Episode 2: Nichola Raihani and Social Cooperation

University College London (UCL) — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 16:08:18 +0100

Professor Nichola Raihani talks about her new book, Kalahari Babblers, Lizard Island and why we're better off together.

Find out more and access the transcript here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

Brain Stories - Episode 1: Sophie Scott and the science of laughter

University College London (UCL) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:59:50 +0100

Welcome to the brand new monthly podcast series from the UCL Neuroscience Domain presented by Caswell Barry (UCL Division of Biosciences), Steve Fleming (UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences) and Selina Wray (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology). UCL Brain Stories aims to showcase the best of UCL Neuroscience, highlighting the wide range of cutting-edge research going on within the Neuroscience Domain as well as bringing you the people behind the research to share their journey of how they ended up here. Each month we’ll be joined by a leading neuroscientist to offer their perspective on the big questions and challenges in Neuroscience research, to find out what stimulated their fascination with the brain and hear how they ended up becoming part of the UCL Neuroscience community.

In our 1st episode we are joined by Professor Sophie Scott, who chats to Selina & Steve about her journey from "polytechnic to PhD" and why understanding the science of laughter is important

More info and transcript on: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/neuroscience/brain-stories-podcast

To hear more UCL (University College London) Podcasts, visit www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-minds/podcasts