Nancy Yanes Hoffman reviews “When Doctors Become Patients”

I have mentioned Nancy Yanes Hoffman’s Writing Doctor’s Blog several times in the past. She has graciously allowed me to quote from her recent review of WHEN DOCTORS BECOME PATIENTS by Robert Klitzman.
When Harcourt bought CHANGE OF HEART: The Bypass Experience, my book interviewing 1100 veterans of coronary bypass surgery, I was elated. Flush [...]

Books and Ideas Podcast #19: Interview with Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely is a professor of behavioral economics at MIT and author of the bestseller, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. He was my guest for episode 19 of Books and Ideas. During the interview he explains how his came to study human behavior. He uses examples from his book to explore [...]

Podcaster Scott Sigler’s novel Infected is now on Amazon.com

If you love horror with lots of gore and violence, Scott Sigler’s book Infected: A Novel will be worth checking out. It has been available as a free podcast for some time, but today mark’s its hard cover debut. I am joining the podcasting community in buying my copy today (which I intend to [...]

The Myth of Free Will: Revised and expanded

Back in Episode 12 I reviewed the first edition of The Myth of Free Will: Revised & Expanded Edition (200 by Cris Evatt. I am proud to announce that I have a short chapter in the revised edition “My Brain Made Me Do It.” This essay is a reflection on the implications of [...]

Books and Ideas #16: Interview with Dr. Steven Novella from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Episode 16 of Books and Ideas is a conversation with Dr. Steven Novella from the popular podcast The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. This interview is a response to numerous requests from fans of the Brain Science Podcast, but I put it in the Books and Ideas feed so that Dr. Novella could share [...]

Mini-Review: Empire by Orson Scott Card

Those of you familiar with Orson Scott Card’s long-running Ender series know that he has an unusual interest in history and how it shapes political events. In his latest novel, Empire, the assassination of the US president and vice-president lead to a civil war between the extreme right wing and the extreme left wing. The [...]

Books and Ideas #13: Harry Potter with Guest Co-host, Patrick Pricken

Even if you haven’t finished reading Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling you can enjoy this podcast, which features guest co-host Patrick Pricken, from Germany. Patrick’s blog, which features movie and book reviews can be found at http://www.p-pricken.de/. (The blog is in German, but translation to English is available from [...]

Will Harry Potter Survive?

While I won’t be standing in line tonight at midnight to buy the last Volume of the Harry Potter series, but I will be watching my mailbox eagerly tomorrow morning waiting for the UPS truck to bring the copy I pre-ordered back in February. When it arrives I will probably start a marathon reading session, [...]

Books and Ideas Podcast #12: Does Free Will Exist?

Listen to Books and Ideas #12 Now
This episode is my response to the The Myth of Free Will (2007), which was sent to me by the book’s editor Cris Evatt. I felt the topic was very relevant to my recent discussions on the Brain Science Podcast, where we have been exploring the [...]

Lee Smolin looks at the Einstein Myth

I haven’t tried to read Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Einstein because I found his biography of Benjamin Franklin insufferably boring. So I consider myself still on the search for a good biography of the most imp0rtant physicist of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, I can highly recommend physicist’s Lee Smolin’s essay, The Other Einstein, which appeared [...]