This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Little known fact about Brad Love: he holds the world record for the youngest sounding voice for any fully grown adult male. Okay, that might not literally be true. But the guy sounds young -- a fact that belies his prominence and esteem as a professor in the field of cognitive science. In fact, he's such a venerable academic figure that he's mentored students who have gone on to establish themselves as venerable academic figures. So how does he keep himself so young? That's easy: constant exploration. As Brad says in our conversation, he has never felt like he quite locked into doing just one thing; he's always on the lookout for what strikes him as new, fresh, and interesting. We get into a wide-ranging discussion in this episode including the differences between the British and American higher education systems, how to read through a new scientific literature (for example, should you just open a thousand Chrome tabs and hope to get through them eventually?), and what the ideal psychology undergraduate curriculum would look like. We also talk about Brad's unique experiences as an undergrad at Brown and as a grad student at Northwestern. He is currently a professor at University College London, and is also a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute.
Like this episode? Here’s another one to check out:
codykommers.substack.com/p/78-sam-gershman
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#23: Brad Love on Lifelong Exploration