Each week Inquiring Minds brings you a new, in-depth exploration of the places where science, politics, and society collide. We’re committed to the idea that making an effort to understand the world around you though science and critical thinking can benefit everyone—and lead to better decisions. We endeavor to find out what’s true, what’s left to discover, and why it all matters with weekly coverage of the latest headlines and probing discussions with leading scientists and thinkers. Inquiring Minds is hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and science educator Kishore Hari. It’s produced by Adam Isaak in partnership with Climate Desk, a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impact of a changing climate and consisting of The Atlantic, Center for Investigative Reporting, Grist, The Guardian, The Huffington Post Mother Jones, Slate, and Wired. Our music is provided by award-winning producer Rhian Sheehan. RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-minds
https://soundcloud.com/inquiringminds
Creating Empathy With Immersive Virtual Reality
We talk to the founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Jeremy Bailenson. Bailenson’s lab studies how virtual reality can affect empathy—how it makes you feel to virtually embody someone else. VR offers the ability to be in someone else’s shoes in a way that you can’t recreate in real life—and those immersive experiences, whether it be facing a day in the life of a person experiencing homelessness, or diving to the corals that are right now being bleached by climate change, have lingering effects on all of us.