Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 6:15 PM Bonobos with Dr. Stuart Shanker (BSP 7)
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Kanzi and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
This is the first interview episode of the Brain Science Podcast. As a follow-up to #6, I had the opportunity to interview Stuart Shanker, PhD, one of the co-authors of The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, and Intelligence Evolved From Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans .
I really wanted to talk about the implications of primate research, but he also tells us more about his work with autistic children and how he thinks what we are learning about brain development will enable early intervention and improved outcomes for children with autism and other learning disabilities.
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Reader Comments (5)
I want to thank Joanna Matesich for the great commented she posted on the How You Can Help page. Here is what she wrote:
"March 11th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Thank you so much for putting this podcast together and making it available. I am a busy NICU nurse, fascinated with the brain/mind. I have dozens of books on my amazon.com wish list on the subject, but very little reading time and wouldn’t know where to start if I did. Your podcasts not only makes formerly ethereal concepts understandble and approachable, but your summaries of the literature and other media give me an idea of where to start.
The technical content of your podcasts is exactly the right level for me. If anything, you could go on for longer and in more depth and more often! Your subject matter is of keen interest to me. If you ever run out of ideas (!) my amazon wish list is public.
Your interview with Stuart Shanker was especially interesting as a former L&D nurse with a degree in anthropology. I spent many grueling hours coaxing relatively large craniums out of their bipedal mothers’ pelvises. And now, as a NICU nurse, I daily experience how underdeveloped that neonate (and especially the “fetal people” I care for) is neurologically. All handing and positioning of these small patients is related to protecting that favored organ, the brain. Its exciting for me to see the results of those neurons connecting up, almost before my eyes, such as with successful coodination of suck-swallow-breathe that was’t there yesterday.
Thank you again. Your podcast is awesome.
Joanna"
Thanks Joanna!
That was a fascinating interview. Your podcasts are excellent and some of the most interesting I've heard. Keep up the good work!
Hey there,
an excellent episode that was, really. I just wanted to say that I would really, really enjoy a discussion of Chomsky's language ideas (so that I can give a copy of your show to my university teachers, who I'm sure have a weekly ritual where they sacrifice to "Great Noam").
Regards from Germany.
Thank you Patrick,
Thank you for posting your comment about the latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast. Would you be interested in having Dr. Shanker come back on the show to discuss the differences between Chomsky's and Wiggenstein's theories of language?
My great grandmother came to the US from Germany when she was 10 years old. I can't speak German, but I hope to visit Germany some day.
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