You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science a richer, more rewarding life.

Hey, welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Andrey Viscontas. This is a podcast that explores the space where science and society collide.

We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover,

and why it matters.

I grew up wanting to be an opera singer, and then in high school I discovered the writings of Oliver

Sacks. And all of a sudden,

I had two passions, opera and neuroscience. And for a very long time, I kept those two lives

very separate. But in the past 10 years, there's been an explosion of interest in the intersection

between art and science. And one of the pioneers leading the way in this revolution is Susan MagSammon.

She's the founder and director of the International Arts and Mind Lab,

Center for Applied Neuroesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Yep, that actually exists.

She's also the co-director of the

neuro arts blueprint, which is this ambitious project to try to figure out exactly how

neuroscience and the arts connect and how they can push each other forward. And recently,

she wrote a book with another exceptional woman, Ivy Ross, who's the vice president of design for hardware product at Google, where she leads a team that has won over 225 design awards.

Together, they wrote a book called Your Brain on Art, How the Arts Transform Us.

Welcome to Inquiring Minds, Susan and Ivy. It's so great to have you.

Great to be here. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

So I want to start with this premise of the difference between arts and science.

You know, so often we actually think of them as polar opposites that one does not have anything to do with the other.

There are often silos in the art world that reject the objectivity and reproduce, you know,

...