Instant Genius

Whether it’s a sport, painting or spending hours buried in puzzles, there is a clear link between our experience of hobbies and our mental health. Part of our Healthy Start series, we spoke to Karen Mak, a senior research fellow at UCL about how hobbies can bolster our mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Most of us like to think we live in an equal society that offers the same opportunities to all. But unfortunately, hundreds of scientific studies say otherwise. Racial bias is essentially everywhere, often hiding in plain sight. For example, did you know that black people are as much as 50 per cent less likely to be called in for a job interview than a similarly qualified white person? Or that children of colour are more likely to be viewed as troublemakers at school? In this episode, we speak to Prof Keon West about his latest book The Science of Racism – Everything You Need to Know but Probably Don’t – Yet. He tells us how racism is so deeply baked into many of our societal systems, explains the issues surrounding the concept of ‘colour blindness’ and how we can all benefit from simply interacting with more people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a smartphone in our pockets at all times, social media is only ever a few clicks away. With this, problematic social media use is easy to fall into. As part of our Healthy Start series, we spoke to Niklas Ihssen, an associate professor at Durham University about what this means and how to avoid it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s commonly thought that when compared to other members of the animal kingdom we humans have a particularly poor sense of smell. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern research has proven that human beings are surprisingly sophisticated sniffers, at least on par with the vast majority of other animals. In this episode, we catch up with Prof Jonas Olofsson, a psychologist based at Stockholm University, to talk about his latest book The Forgotten Sense – The New Science of Smell. He explains what happens when odour molecules enter our nasal passages and are processed by our brains, tells us how our sense of smell is intimately linked to our memories and emotions and answers the question that has been debated across countless dinner tables all over the world: can some people really identify wines just by smelling them? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices