It's Monday, April 8th, 2019, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gantis.

And I'm Kishar Harri. Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor. We endeavor. We endeavor. We can find us online at inquiring. Show, on Twitter, at

Inquiring Show, and on Facebook. You can also get an ad-free version of the show by supporting

us at patreon.com slash inquiring minds. And you can subscribe to the show on iTunes or any other

podcasting app. So this is our monthly up-to-date episode. So sure, what caught your eye this week?

I wanted to talk about neurons. And you're a neuroscientist. I imagine you're interested in neurons.

Wait a minute. That's my beat. What's going on? We're changing hats this week. I have a question that I think there's an answer to.

Okay.

Let's try it.

Do adults make new neurons?

Oh, boy.

I'm going to say yes, but acknowledging the fact that in the last 10 years, there have been two

at least papers that have called this whole thing into question. So what evidence do you bring to

this question? Well, before we get into this, I think we should back up and say that this has been

an area that has been studied extensively for the last decade, probably multiple

decades at this point. Oh, since the 50s. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's this idea of,

through adolescence, your brain is developing. And neurons are developing along with that brain development.

And as we study neurodegeneration, it's become much more of an interest to understand the

life cycle of neurons.

And especially in the context of, well, after adolescence, do neurons keep growing?

Because that would probably give us a hint as to why they're dying or their rates of growth

...