Jonah Lehrer

Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour: a look behind the curtain of how memories are made...and forgotten.

A dance with all the facets of chance.

In this episode we will explore the grotesque tube slide inside all of us. 

Surprising and exciting scientific findings capture our attention and captivate the press.  But what if, at some point after a finding has been soundly established, it starts to disappear?  In a special collaboration with Radiolab we look at the 'decline effect' when more data tells us less, not more, about scientific truth.

Correction: An earlier version of this short incorrectly stated that Jonathan Schooler saw the effect size of his study fall by 30% on two different occasions. In fact, he saw it fall by that amount the first time he repeated the study and saw a general downward trend thereafter. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact.

 

Correction: An earlier version of this short incorrectly attributed a statement to Jonathan Schooler’s advisor. The statement was actually made by his colleague. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact.

When a paper released by a scientific journal turns out to be wrong, either due to human error or intentional fraud , the journal’s editors often will issue a retraction advising scientists to disregard the research. A Wall Street Journal study has found the number of such retractions to be soaring. New Yorker science writer Jonah Lehrer tells Brooke what he thinks is going on.

This week we're revisiting some of the best Takeaway interviews from the last year. Here, John talks with Jonah Lehrer, science journalist and author of "Imagine: How Creativity Works...

Radiolab rips the rainbow a new one.

While Jad was on paternity leave, Carl Zimmer told Robert and producer Soren Wheeler about the ecosystem inside each and every one of us.

Jonah Lehrer, contributing editor at Wired, frequent contributor to The New Yorker and Radiolab, and author of the new book, Imagine: How Creativity Work recently visited the WNYC studios. He answered the question at the center of our series End of War: Is War Inevitable?

Where do most artists and inventors get their creative impulse? Author and journalist Jonah Lehrer explores the science behind imagination in his new book "Imagine: How Creativity Wor...

In this short, Jonathan Schooler tells us about a discovery that launched his career and led to a puzzle that has haunted him ever since.

When Sharon Roseman was five years old, something strange happened.

Jonah Lehrer talks about his New Yorker article on the limitations of the scientific method and how difficult it is for studies to actually prove anything.

Fate may not be written in the stars, but what if it’s written in our genes? First, Paul Auster raises the specter of "rhyming events," his term for those spooky coincidences that seem more than ordinary mathematical flukes.

Then, a seemingly simple experiment devised by Walter Mischel ...

There's no scientific metric for measuring a city's personality. But hit the streets, and you can see and feel it.