SparkDialog: Recent Episodes
Elizabeth Fernandez
Science and technology are everywhere in our lives. This podcast takes a look not only at the science itself, but its role in society, how it affects our lives, and how it influences how we define ourselves as humans. Episodes also throw in a mix of history, ethics, philosophy, religion, and the future! Hosted by Elizabeth Fernandez, an astronomer and science communicator. Let’s spark some dialog!
Time is really weird. You may be inclined to say only the […]
The post Ep 100: Memories, The Here and Now, and Our Future – Time, Religion, and Physics – with Dr. Timothy Maness appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
What would it be like if New York City was partially underwater? […]
The post Ep 99: New York Underwater: Art and Climate Change – with guest Carolyn Hall appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
AI in healthcare can do amazing things. It can help doctors diagnose […]
The post Ep 98: The Problems and Promise of AI in Healthcare – with guest Dr. Muhammad Ahmad appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
There are places where people can choose to ignore climate change. Then, […]
The post Ep 97: Floods in India – A View of Climate Change from Under the River – with guest Dr. Luisa Cortesi appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Artificial Intelligence is not just the stuff of science fiction. It’s found […]
The post Ep 96: AI, Ethics, and the Vatican – with guest Dr. Brian Patrick Green appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Grief in the time of COVID is a very real thing. COVID […]
The post Ep 95: Grief in the Time of COVID- with guest Dr. Kristel Clayville appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Today, we’re talking about two deep subjects – quantum entanglement and consciousness. […]
The post Ep 94: Quantum Entanglement, Consciousness, and the Nature of Reality- with guest Dr. Eric Cavalcanti appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
We are a COVID-weary people. It’s been about a year since lockdown […]
The post Ep 93: Gratefulness, Hope, and COVID – with guest John Van Sloten appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
If you lost a limb, would you use technology to help you […]
The post Ep 92: Merging Man and Machine: Transhumanism and Religion – with guest Seth Villegas appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Why do some people believe, and others do not? Does it come […]
The post Ep 91: Seeing Patterns, Seeing God: The Neuroscience of Belief – with guest Dr. Adam Weinberger appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Last month, scientists published word that an incredible discovery was made on […]
The post Ep 90: How Can We Find Life Within the Solar System?: with guest Dr. Niels Ligterink appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
We all understand that with technology today, a certain amount of our […]
The post Ep 89: Can Online Privacy Exist Today? – with guest Rob Shavell appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
People feel better when they are in nature. There’s something about putting […]
The post Ep 88: Why We Need Nature – with guest Dr. Peter Kahn appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
From islands in the South Pacific that are drowning under rising waters […]
The post Ep 87: Environmental Racism and Climate Change – with guest Dr. Gregory Simpson appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
The world you see is not really the world that exists. Your […]
The post Ep 86: The Science of Subjectivity: The World Your Brain Creates – with guest Dr. Jorge Morales appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
There’s a lot of opinions about the current Paleo diet. Some proponents […]
The post Ep 85: How Paleolithic is the Paleo Diet? What did our Ancestors Eat Anyways? – with guest Dr. Briana Pobiner appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
To say we live in changing times is an understatement. The world […]
The post Ep 84: The Coronavirus, Social Media, Online Dating and Black Lives Matter – with guest Dr. Shantel Buggs appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
With the wildfires in California, extreme insect infestations in forests, and the […]
The post Ep 83: The West: On the Cusp of a MegaDrought – with guest Dr. Kasey Bolles appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
When did language originate? It’s a tricky question to answer. We can’t […]
The post Ep 82 : The Origins of Language May Go Much Farther Back Than We Thought – with guests Dr. Chris Petkov and Dr. Ben Wilson appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
If the COVID-19 pandemic had hit even ten years ago, we would […]
The post Ep 81: Staying Connected During COVID-19 (with Technology!) – with guest Eric Elnes appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
You’ve probably seen them. You’ve probably used them. Popular in Gmail and […]
The post Ep 80: Smart Replies Aren’t So Smart – with guest Jess Hohenstein appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
When it comes to the teaching of science, one of the most […]
The post Ep 79: Evolution in the South – with guest Dr. Amanda Glaze-Crampes appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Listeners, I can say with about 100% certainty that you are being […]
The post Ep 78: This Is Not A Normal Podcast Episode appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
More than one million people live in poverty in this world, and […]
The post Ep 77: Yes, It’s Possible To Feed The World – with guest Prof. Dieter Gerten appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
It sounds crazy when you say it out loud. Meteors are rocks […]
The post Ep 76: How We Found Out Meteors Are Actually Little Rocks From Space Burning Up In The Atmosphere appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Are you looking forward to self-driving cars? Perhaps you love taking the […]
The post Ep 75: From Self-Driving Cars to Autonomous Weapons Systems – Can We Trust AI? – with guest Dr. David Danks appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
The statistics are staggering. One million species are close to extinction. No […]
The post Ep 74: Is the Biodiversity of Earth Doomed? with guests Dr. Pamela McElwee, Dr. Kai Chan, and Dr. Alex Pfaff appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
The newest seekers of immortality are on a radical quest: mind uploading. […]
The post Ep 73: Mind Uploading: The Key to Eternal Life? with guest Dr. Michael Hauskeller appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
In 2015, the world came together and drafted the Paris Agreement. We […]
The post Ep 72: Reversing Climate Change: Turning CO2 Into Rock – with guests Dr. Kári Helgason and Dr. Bergur Sigfússon appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Imagine that you have a mystical experience that changes your life. Perhaps […]
The post Ep 71: Epileptics with Mystical Experiences – with guest Dr. Joseph Tennant appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Dr. Marie Moe is a cyborg. She has a pacemaker that controls […]
The post Ep 70: Hack My Heart – with guest Dr. Marie Moe appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
What if you could build cameras that can see around corners or […]
The post Ep 69: Cameras that can See Around Corners – with guest David Lindell appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
What would happen if we found a message from a civilization on […]
The post Ep 68: They’re Not Speaking English – Decoding a Message from ET – with guest Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
It’s been 50 years since we’ve first set foot on the moon. […]
The post Ep 67: Space Industry – A Future in the Stars – with guest Dr. Jim Bell appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
No one knows what the future may hold. Or can they? Today […]
The post Ep 66: What the Future May Hold: The Future of Technology – with guest Brian David Johnson appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Come on, that can’t really happen, can it? How often have you […]
The post Ep 65: The Plausibility of Implausible Science Fiction appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Living with autism has many challenges. One of these is making a […]
The post Ep 64: Thriving with Autism through Art: with guests Colin Weiss and Harish Bikmal appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Many disorders of the mind are commonly treated by medication. But what […]
The post Ep 63: Deep Brain Stimulation: with guest Dr. Laura Cabrera appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
No women should ever die of cervical cancer. It grows very slowly, […]
The post Ep 62: Improving Women’s Healthcare: The Calla Campaign: with guests Libby Dotson and Andrea Kim appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
On the evening of April 15th, the entire world watched with shock […]
The post Ep 61: Technology and the Notre Dame Fire: with guest Dr. Stephen Murray appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Are science and religion compatible? For some, the answer is a resounding […]
The post Ep 60: Science, Religion, and Evolution appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
The Earth is not the only planet to undergo radical changes in […]
The post Ep 59: Climate Change on Alien Worlds: with guest Dr. Adam Frank appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Millions of people worldwide are suffering from the brain diseases Alzheimer’s and […]
The post Ep 58: Who Are You Anyways? Does Dementia and Alzheimer’s Change Who You Are?: with guest Dr. Nina Strohminger appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Everything changes. Even the stars, that seem so constant, will one day […]
The post Ep 57: The Future of the Universe: with guests Dr. Avi Loeb and Dr. Ethan Siegel appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
What is time? We may not fully understand it, but we do […]
The post Ep 56: It’s About Time – A Podcast in the Fourth Dimension: with guest Dr. Jonathan Tallant appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Building any type of infrastructure is challenging, whether it be a house […]
The post Ep 55: 3D Printed Buildings – From Earth to Mars: with guest Keegan Kirkpatrick appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
Agriculture in Africa has its share of challenges. Sometimes it’s the drought, […]
The post Ep 54: Transforming Agriculture in Africa: with guest Samantha Salimu appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
When you think of ways general science is communicated to the public, […]
The post Ep 53: Down the Rabbit Hole: Scientific Comics and Storytelling – with guest Dr. Matteo Farinella appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
I’m sure you heard about the debate, and you probably have an […]
The post Ep 52: To GM or not to GM: GMOs in a Changing World – with guest Dr. Sarah Evanega appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.
It may not seem like it when you glance at your Roomba, […]
The post Ep 51: Rosie to RoboCop: Gender, Religion, and Robots – with guest Dr. Jennifer Robertson appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.