Kensy Cooperrider
@kensycoop.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist, writer, podcaster. Interested in the diversity of communication & cognition. Language, gesture, concepts, time, space, metaphor. Host of Many Minds (@manymindspod.bsky.social) www.kensycooperrider.com
I try not to talk too much on my podcast—and mostly succeed, I think? On the off chance that someone out there would actually like to hear me say more, here I am in conversation with Alexa Firmenich on her (delightful) podcast 'Lifeworlds': open.spotify.com/episode/39fV...
Soulfire Sessions III: Many Minds – with Kensy Cooperrider
Lifeworlds · Episode
open.spotify.com
Had a great time chatting with the inimitable @kensycoop.bsky.social on my favorite podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social about linguistic diversity!
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · last wk.New episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation with @damianblasi.bsky.social about linguistic diversity and what it can tell us. Linguistic diversity is a precious part of our species' heritage. It also offers a wellspring of clues about history, culture, and the human mind. Listen: disi.org/the-natural-...
Season 8 off to a great start! In which we discuss: the "golden age" of linguistic diversity, teeth, pronouns, the (mistaken?) idea that children change language, mono- vs polygenesis, linguistic inequality, Babel, scientific aesthetics, and the (wilder than we realize?) design space of language.
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · last wk.New episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation with @damianblasi.bsky.social about linguistic diversity and what it can tell us. Linguistic diversity is a precious part of our species' heritage. It also offers a wellspring of clues about history, culture, and the human mind. Listen: disi.org/the-natural-...
For the annals of over-regularization: 3yo: "We’re playing with our dress-up clothes! I’m going to get a different dress-up clo on!"
Fascinating finding that we're speaking less than we used to. 28% reduction in daily spoken words between 2005 and 2019 (~338 fewer words per year). The authors connect this to a rise in loneliness—plausible, but could also be a shift in "language diet." 1/2 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Fascinating finding that we're speaking less than we used to. 28% reduction in daily spoken words between 2005 and 2019 (~338 fewer words per year). The authors connect this to a rise in loneliness—plausible, but could also be a shift in "language diet." 1/2 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
We humans are not really tuned in to electricity, but many other creatures are. And scientists are starting to appreciate the many roles it plays in diverse habitats and lifeworlds. A listener favorite conversation from our archives w/ @samjakeengland.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/electric-eco...
Still trying to figure out which platforms (if any!) our listeners are using these days...
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 3w agoHello friends, just an FYI: you can now also find us on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/company/many...
This was the most-often-mentioned favorite episode in our recent listener survey, ICYMI!
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 4w agoChildhood is a special time, but it doesn't always look the same from one place to the next. How do children's lives vary from culture to culture? And why? A listener favorite from our archive, featuring @dorsaamir.bsky.social and @sheinalew.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/varieties-of...
How many languages have existed over the Holocene—and what does that reveal about the design space of languages and cultures? Now out in @science.org www.science.org/eprint/QDZNY....
The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene
Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...
science.org
One of Darwin's most powerful insights was that small changes— accumulated over large swaths of time—can have huge impacts. Where did that idea come from? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode—a discussion of Darwin's life and mind w/ Janet Browne! Listen: disi.org/the-origins-...
Janet is easily my favorite Darwin biographer—her two-volume biography is among my favorite non-fiction books of all time. Needless to say, I was quite tickled to interview her!
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew episode!!🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ Dr. Janet Browne about Charles Darwin. Darwin's ideas continue to reverberate across the intellectual landscape. But where did they come from? How did they grow out of his travels, his social circle, and his cast of mind? Listen: disi.org/the-origins-...
A favorite tidbit from this one: The most abundant vertebrates on the planet are small, bony, bioluminescent fish known as bristlemouths. One estimate I found is that there are 12 per square meter of ocean.
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe functions of bioluminescence are many. Marine creatures use it to lure prey, startle predators, court mates, and disguise their silhouettes. Some even seem to use it to exact revenge. Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ Dr. Sönke Johnsen! Listen: disi.org/the-sparklin...
As ever these discussions are excellent. Fascinating research!
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 3mo agoNew episode!! 🎉🎙️ A conversation w/ Dr. Sönke Johnsen about bioluminescence. The open ocean is a world apart—vast, clear, featureless, and mostly populated by creatures that make their own light. How did this ability evolve? Why here? What functions does it serve? Listen: disi.org/the-sparklin...
The ethnographic record shows that women do hunt, sometimes for big game. Does that mean that 'Man the Hunter' was a myth all along? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @vivek123.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
This is a great episode - fascinating paper and topic, and Kensy does a good job of pushing beyond the paper for some frank discussions about things like the responsibility of scientists for how academic research is (mis)represented in the popular consciousness.
Kensy Cooperrider@kensycoop.bsky.social · 3mo agoReally enjoyed this chat with @vivek123.bsky.social! We work through the history of Man the Hunter ideas, the current status of the evidence (archaeological, ethnographic, etc.), and three splashy recent "debunkings." Also, of course, some fun detours along the way.
Really enjoyed this chat with @vivek123.bsky.social! We work through the history of Man the Hunter ideas, the current status of the evidence (archaeological, ethnographic, etc.), and three splashy recent "debunkings." Also, of course, some fun detours along the way.
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 3mo agoNew episode!! 🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ @vivek123.bsky.social about Man the Hunter. The idea that male hunting propelled our evolution is old and contested. Yet it endures, especially in the popular imagination. Is it merely a "paleofantasy," or is there more to it? Listen: disi.org/is-man-the-h...
What heuristics should we be using when deciding whether to accept a review request? I toggle between a few: - Does it look cool? - Would I be helpful to the authors? - Am I especially well-positioned to comment? But these are often in conflict. Anyone have helpful frameworks / rules of thumb?
Which kinds of words are the easiest to learn? Which prove harder? And is it the same for dogs and infants? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ Claudia Fugazza & @bergelsonlab.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/babies-dogs-...
So many chewy questions in this one! Generally fascinated by the idea of "cryptic" word knowledge—understanding that's hard to detect. I suspect there's a lot more of this out there than we've uncovered so far, especially in dogs...
Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 3mo agoNew episode!! 🎉🎙️ A conversation w/ @bergelsonlab.bsky.social & Claudia Fugazza. Babies and dogs know more about words than we realized. But do they learn words in the same ways? Or differently? And what does it mean, really, to "understand" a word? Listen: disi.org/babies-dogs-...
The many functions of bioluminescence at sea (some not yet observed but inferred). Especially love the sacrificial tag—I glow so that if you eat me, your stomach will glow and someone else will eat you. Source: digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcont...
Human hands have partnered with tools for millions of years, allowing us to do things we otherwise could not. Is this a case of brain "plasticity"? Or perhaps "motor abstraction"? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @mattlongo.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-inner-li...
Me: You absolutely have to time-box your teaching prep. It will take as much time as you give it. Also me: Spends half of day's time-box searching for marginally better photo of Benjamin Lee Whorf, mentioned on single slide.
Intriguing! The "waggle dance is a primitive form of a semantic system also found (through convergent evolution) in human language. It is remarkably ancient, at least 20 million years old..." onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
New episode!! 🎉🎙️ An interview w/ @mattlongo.bsky.social about the cognitive neuroscience of hands. The hand is often celebrated as a paragon of engineering, but the meat-and-bones design is not particularly novel. Could the real power of the hand lie elsewhere? Listen: disi.org/the-inner-li...
Cuttlefish can put on dazzling displays of color, thanks to chromatophores and other specialized cell types. The irony is that these creatures seem to be colorblind. Just one of the topics discussed in our archive pick, with @tessamontague.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-cuttlefi...
One of the coolest aspects of this work: they tested the same Hai||om participants 20 years apart (!). And they find that they've become more egocentric over time...
Kensy Cooperrider@kensycoop.bsky.social · 4mo agoSuper cool new work by @ydkisa.bsky.social et al! They set out to replicate influential studies on geocentric spatial preferences in Hai||om speakers in Namibia and found evidence for a dramatic shift: the culture has lurched toward the egocentric. (Only in memory tasks, not in language tasks.)
