#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/31/25

It was pretty gross out today (this picture is from yesterday's run), but while milling about inside I was still able to listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an intriguing talk by Giuseppe Colangelo on the tradeoffs around interoperability mandates and competition concerns in mobile platforms at PLAMADISO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxtMyId7MYI

Next was an excellent talk by Charlotte Cavaillé on support for redistribution in the modern age of inequality at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Cavaillé combines economic inequality data with public surveys from a number of Western countries to develop theories for why many people express beliefs that in aggregate demonstrably lead to worse outcomes. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xWHltj4ycU

Next was an interesting talk by Xinyu Liu on robotic manipulation and characterization of small model organisms at the University of Toronto Robotics Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LxA0G7joTA

Next was "How Language Began" by Daniel Everett. This book reviews the archaeological evidence around homo erectus, hypothesizing that their rapid migration, biology, technology, and structures are strong evidence of culture and that language must necessarily have been present. Everett is at his strongest when he brings in linguistics, examining a variety of language types to challenge common linguistic assumptions as well as illuminate how language functions. While no book can provide a definitive answer, this is a good summary of the state of the science https://daneverettbooks.com/books/how-language-began/

Last was "Proust and the Squid" by Maryanne Wolf, who connects neuroscience, archaeology, history, and linguistics to review how reading developed and how it interacts with cognition. I particularly liked the sections comparing different languages, and as someone who reads Japanese daily I was selfishly interested in the unique aspects of that language. The case of the Mandarin/English bilingual person who had a stroke and then could still read English but not Mandarin also stood out as a fascinating example https://www.harpercollins.com/products/proust-and-the-squid-maryanne-wolf?variant=32122454671394