On Uncertainty

JHU Flash Seminars•podcasters.spotify.com

Conversations with Johns Hopkins professors about their work, outside interests, current happenings, and more. Hosted by Flash Seminars.

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Episodes

A Counselor Reflecting on Our Covid Year

As life goes back to normal and the pandemic fades into the background, Kenny, Tihitina, and Will ask Amani Surges Martorella about what has been lost amidst this year of social distancing and lockdowns. Amani is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a counselor at the Johns Hopkins Counseling Center, in addition to being the advisor for A Place to Talk. Drawing on her experience working as counselor, Amani speaks on how creating and sustaining relationships has changed, especially for college s...

Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 21 min

A Physicist Talks Biology

What can physics tell us about biology? This is the question we start off with in our conversation with Dr. Francesca Serra, a professor in the Physics Department who studies soft matter particularly a phase of matter called liquid crystals. We talk about liquid crystals, topological defects, thermodynamics, and how these physical phenomena can provide insights into biological processes. We also move into a bigger conversation about what we can learn about life from physics and if physics offers...

May 17, 2021•1 hr 8 min

Philosophizing Pain

In this week’s episode, we continue our conversation on pain and the opioid crisis with Professor Travis Rieder, a Philosopher and Bioethicist at the Berman Institute of Bioethics. Having established the historical context leading to the conflicting pain treatment attitudes doctors hold last week, we speak Professor Rieder as he brings out some of the philosophical problems underpinning pain and addiction. How can a doctor know her patient is in pain? How does a patient's appearance impact how v...

Feb 07, 2021•57 min

Pain and Opioids

The opioid crisis is destroying livelihoods and communities across the United States. How did we get here and what can we do about it? To help us think through this question, we talk with Professor Travis Rieder, a Philosopher and Bioethicist at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, about his memoir In Pain . In this deeply personal memoir he talks about his experience in dealing with pain and opioids after a motorcycle accident while also detailing the historical foundations of the opioid crisis. ...

Jan 31, 2021•45 min

Intensified Precarity: Coronavirus in Santiago, Chile

While the entire world has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic, most of us are understandably focused on the devastating impact the virus has had on the United States. However, in this episode of On Uncertainty, Dr. Clara Han from the Anthropology Department talks to Kenny and Tihitina about how the coronavirus is affecting low-income residents of Santiago, Chile. Drawing on her extensive anthropological research into poverty, disease, and everyday life and the deep relationships she has wi...

Jan 24, 2021•52 min

What's in a Test Score?

Professor Jonathan Flombaum comes back to talk with Kenny and Ben about intelligence! Does intelligence come from somewhere in the brain? Do standardized tests correlate with the ability to perform well in life? In part 2 of our conversation with Professor Flombaum, we talk about potential sources and measures of intelligence

Jan 17, 2021•1 hr 8 min

Intelligence Does Not Exist

In this episode of On Uncertainty, Ben and Kenny talk with Professor Jonathan Flombaum of the Department of Psychology and Brain Science at Johns Hopkins. In part 1 of 2 of our conversation with Professor Flombaum, we talk about society’s overwhelming view of intelligence as a measurable commodity. Is there such a thing as intelligence? How do tests like the SAT, ACT, and IQ tests speak to society’s view of intelligence? Listen to hear about this and much more! Come back next week for the second...

Jan 10, 2021•58 min

The Myth of the Male Genius

In our first episode, Dr. Karen Fleming joins Tihitina and Kenny to talk about the "Myth of the Male Genius". Dr. Fleming is a professor in the Johns Hopkins Biophysics department and studies how proteins that are found in cell membranes fold. In addition to her incredible research, she has also been a leader in trying to make STEM a more equitable place for women for which she has been given the Provost’s Prize for Faculty Diversity in 2019 . In this episode, we converse with her mainly about t...

Jan 03, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 1

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Dec 24, 2020•1 min

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