Sing for Science

Queen of Percussion and Prince collaborator Sheila E talks about her 1984 hit, working with Prince, salsa music and learning from her legendary father with University of Mexico Neuroscientist, Dr. Hugo Merchant. Hugo shares fascinating findings about how the mechanisms in the brain process rhythm and help us keep a beat.

Where does necrophilia come from? What makes people desecrate corpses? And do you have to be a serial killer to have a death fetish? Today’s guests are Dr. Victoria Hartmann, a clinical psychology researcher and executive director of the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas, and neuroscientist and science communicator Dr. Jens Foell.

Recorded live at London’s Natural History Museum on November 24, 2025. Breaking Bad fanatics, have a fresh pair of trousers at the ready—Bryan Cranston delivers an unforgettable conversation packed with behind-the-scenes stories from his years playing Walter White. He shares how DEA agents taught him the fundamentals of meth production, what he learned shadowing a USC chemistry professor to prepare for the role, and the surprising science details the show actually got right. A Hollywood legend through and through, Cranston does not disappoint. Joining him is the eminent Alan Hart—mineralogist, science historian, and keeper of extraordinary knowledge about the material world. Hart breaks down the real science behind Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the intricate chemistry of organic and inorganic crystal structures, and the remarkable history of how the Periodic Table came to be. Together, Cranston and Hart illuminate the scientific heart of Breaking Bad in a way fans have never heard before.

Recorded live at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, this episode features world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming and vocal-science researcher Dr. Sean Hutchins in a conversation that plays like part masterclass, part science session. Together they explore how the anatomy and neuroscience of singing shape everything from breath and resonance to pitch and vocal control. Fleming reflects on the physical and artistic realities of life as a singer, while Hutchins breaks down what’s happening in the brain and body when a voice truly connects.

Recorded live at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto on October 31, 2025, this episode brings together beloved children’s musician and advocate Raffi and University of Toronto psychologist Dr. Jennifer Stellar for a conversation about how music helps shape our earliest experiences of empathy, gratitude, and wonder. Raffi reflects on three songs spanning nearly three decades of his career—“The More We Get Together,” “Thanks a Lot,”and “Bananaphone”—and how they came to embody his philosophy of Child Honouring, a vision that places the well-being of children at the center of community and culture. Dr. Stellar, director of University of Toronto's HEAL Lab (Health, Emotions, and Altruism Laboratory), explains how these songs map onto what psychologists call self-transcendent emotions: feelings that expand our sense of self and deepen our connections with others. Together, they explore why compassion tends to emerge in children around the ages of five to eight, how gratitude can encourage cooperation and trust, and how awe invites us to reimagine what is possible. They discuss the science of co-regulation, the role of music in developing social awareness, and why playful imagination—like pretending a banana is a phone—can support a child’s ability to see the world in new ways. The episode ends with a joyful reflection on the enduring power of communal singing—reminding us that “the more we get together, the happier we’ll be,” not just as a lyric, but as a lifelong practice in belonging.