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.

Welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indyvis Gontas.

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.

There's more than why we see. Longtime listeners of this show will know that I have a special

interest in learning and in how our brain changes with experience.

I spent a lot of years training as an opera singer, and I also did my PhD on the medial temporal lobe,

the part of the brain that turns short-term memories into long-term ones.

And I've been struck often by the disconnect between what neuroscientists know or think they know

about how the brain learns and remembers,

and how educators teach. And the fault is on both sides. Neuroscientists are often not very

good at translating their knowledge to the general public or finding ways of applying it,

and educators often find it hard to see how the neuroscience fits in with their years of experience.

Brain plasticity has been a

hot topic for many years, so hot in fact that many people now are quite skeptical when a new

book comes out to purport new knowledge or a new understanding. Because after all, the brain is not

infinitely plastic. There are biological limitations, pretty significant ones to how much and how fast we can change our brains.

So when Stanaslostehan's book, How We Learned, came across my desk, I was a little skeptical that, A, there would be anything new in it, and B, that we would be able to apply it in any kind of real world settings.

But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

He's a very well-respected European neuroscientist,

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