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Curious minds select the most fascinating podcasts from around the world. Discover hand-piqd audio recommendations on your favorite topics.
piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Podcast: The Naked Scientists On Looking Good And Whether It Matters
Most podcast aficionados would have at least heard of 'The Naked Scientists' if they are not already following them religiously. Launched way back in 2001 by Cambridge university professor and academic Chris Smith, it is today one of the world's most popular podcasts on all things science, and it has won several awards for its programming and science communication.
Run from the Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), the weekly podcast brings together a diverse set of people who engage with each other (and often disagree) on topics within the broad fields of science, technology and medicine. The best part is that the podcast has several short sections that tackle various aspects of a single topic or jump from one subject to another while keeping the tone light and the matter worthwhile.
The recommended episode here is the latest one on the ‘science of looking good’. Why do we bother to look good? Why are we compelled to pay so much attention to our physical appearance? Is it evolutionary? Or merely cultural? Or wait, is it neurological? Such and other fascinating questions are tackled by social psychologist and body image expert Viren Swami from Anglia Ruskin University. Among other things, Viren points out studies that indicate how our brains process 'attractive' people as more 'rewarding'. There is the evolutionary reason, of course, of wanting to attract mates. But, more importantly, the podcast throws light on lesser known aspects of looking good, such as how it gets incorporated into our ideas of masculinity and why women who wear make-up are assumed to be more competent.
The podcast goes on to talk about related aspects of looking good, such as the science behind anti-ageing creams (and whether they really work), what our ‘looking good’ agents are actually made of, as well as the risks posed by breast implants, thus lifting the lid, as it were, on looks and why they matter if at all they do.
Source: Chris Smith and Katie Haylor Image: The Naked Scientists thenakedscientists.com