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
Oct 29, 2025•35 min•Ep. 23
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...
Oct 15, 2025•48 min•Ep. 22
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
Aug 20, 2025•39 min•Ep. 21
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
Sep 09, 2024•50 min•Ep. 20
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
Aug 26, 2024•48 min•Ep. 19
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 G...
Nov 10, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 18
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
Sep 12, 2023•38 min•Ep. 17
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...
Sep 06, 2023•43 min•Ep. 16
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...
Aug 03, 2023•41 min•Ep. 15
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: Profess...
Mar 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 14
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 Wra...
Feb 20, 2023•57 min•Ep. 13
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: To...
Jan 25, 2023•42 min•Ep. 12
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
Nov 01, 2022•43 min•Ep. 11
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...
Jul 25, 2022•56 min•Ep. 10
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
Jul 05, 2022•37 min•Ep. 9
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 Produce...
Apr 28, 2022•43 min•Ep. 8
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
Mar 28, 2022•42 min•Ep. 7
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 Prod...
Jan 14, 2022•38 min•Ep. 6
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...
Nov 26, 2021•34 min•Ep. 5
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...
Sep 21, 2021•39 min•Ep. 4
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
Sep 20, 2021•38 min•Ep. 3
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
Jul 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 2
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...
Jun 15, 2021•39 min•Ep. 1
