WIRED FOR THOUGHT

A cup of coffee can leave you wired for the day. But a chip in your brain could wire you to a machine forever. Imagine manipulating a mouse without moving a muscle, and doing a Google search with your mind. Welcome to the future of the brain-machine interface.

Don your EEG thinking-cap, and discover a high-tech thought game that may be the harbinger of machine relationships to come.

Plus, the ultimate mapping project: the Human Connectdome Project aims to identify all the neural pathways in the human brain. It may help us understand what makes us human, but could it also point the way to making us smarter?

And, what all this brain research reveals about the mind and free will – who, or what, is really in charge?

Guests:

• Jan Rabaey – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley
• Arthur Toga – Neurologist at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA School of Medicine, and researcher on the Human Connectome Project
• Michael Gazzaniga – Neuroscientist, director of the University of California Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, and author of Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain
• Bradley Voytek – Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco

LISTEN to the episode HERE

ADD Big Picture Science to your weekly schedule now!

Science radio doesn’t have to be dull!

A one-hour weekly magazine
The only dry thing about the program is the humor.

If your listeners delight in the wonders of scientific discovery, and are curious about where innovation is headed, you’ll want to add Big Picture Science to your schedule.

Host and Producer Seth Shostak & Co-Host and Executive Producer Molly Bentley

Big Picture Science examines life and technology on this planet… and beyond, in surprising and humorous ways. Host and Producer Seth Shostak and Co-Host and Executive Producer Molly Bentley make the fast-paced one-hour magazine style program entertaining and informative, and prove that science radio can be fun. (Maybe even more fun than cars!)

What came before the Big Bang?
How does memory work?
Will our descendants be human or machine?
What’s the origin of humor?

Big Picture Science ponders these questions daily… and expounds on them weekly.
Plus, one episode a month, Skeptic Check, is devoted to critical thinking where science is seperated from pseudoscience – and facts from the phony. Whether it’s astrology, Bigfoot, or just the incessant onslaught of dubious medical claims, Big Picture Science takes it all on, wielding the skeptical tools of solid science.

LENGTH: 54 Minutes
COST: FREE
AVAILABLE: PRX, Content Depot, & Download

Have you seen The Big Year currently playing in theatres across the coutntry? In it, Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson play three middle-class, average Americans who happen to be passionate birders and crisscross the continent in a contest to see as many birds as possible.

The popularity of our feathered friends has never been higher and the popularity of BirdNote is also soaring. The two-minute vignette now airs on over 100 stations across the country.

BirdNote can bring the majesty of these animals, and the escape to nature portrayed in The Big Year to your listeners without them having to leave their homes (or cars.)

BirdNote is a daily vignette that incorporate the rich sounds of birds with stories that illustrate the interesting and in some cases, truly amazing abilities of birds.  Each show is scheduled to coincide with the time of year when you can see or hear the featured bird.
LENGTH: 2 minutes
COST: FREE
AVAILABLE: Content Depot,  mp3

www.birdnote.org
Migrate BirdNote into Your Schedule!

Calista Flockhart, star of the LA Theatre Works production of A Doll House, talked to KPCC’s Steve Julian about the launch of LA Theatre Works new season.

To listen to the interview, click HERE.

SEE A Doll House, Live in Los Angeles!

Check out the Specials that are available for Labor Day!

DREAM JOBS: OUTSIDE THE CUBICLE – Hear the stories of three very determined people who struggled to find the career path outside conventional workplaces in this one-hour special report from IEEE Spectrum.  Training astronauts in robotics, pioneering a four-year engineering academy, and a globe-trotting career as a cable-laying technician and a coastal waters scientist are very diverse careers that for the individuals involved, dreams jobs. When the economy’s bad and the job market’s worse, you have to think outside the cubicle to find your bliss! Perfect for LABOR DAY!
LENGTH: 1 Hour
COST: FREE
AVAILABLE: PRX, Content Depot, Downloads (email for info)

L.A. THEATRE WORKS LABOR DAY SPECIALS
WORKING
From the book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Stephen Schwartz & Nina Faso
Studs Terkel’s Working is for anyone who has ever punched a clock, a cow, or a supervisor — or wanted to. This rousing musical is based on Terkel’s interviews with American workers, which was first published in 1974. It is an exploration of what makes work meaningful to people in all walks of life, with songs and stories about real experiences, bringing to life the soul of the American worker.

CAST: Eileen Barnett, Orson Bean, Harry Groener, Kaitlin Hopkins, Michael Kostroff, Kenna Ramsey, Vickilyn Reynolds, Vincent Tumeo, B.J. Ward
LENGTH: 1hour 30min
COST: FREE
AVAILABLE:  PRX, Download

FIRED
Created by Annabelle Gurwitch
Rejection has never been so hilarious! After her role in a much-anticipated Woody Allen play was recast, actress Annabelle Gurwitch was devastated. Then she began collecting tales from fellow performers who at one time had also been canned, canceled or dismissed. In a series of monologues, Gurwitch and a cast of show-biz veterans share their stories of hilarious mistakes and misadventures that happen on the job.
LENGTH: 59min
COST: FREE
AVAILABLE: PRX, Download

Schedule them today!