@kensycoop
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
Metaphors offer a colorful window into how we're thinking about AI. But metaphors aren't just idle rhetoric— they also shape how we respond to and regulate new technologies.
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @melaniemitchell.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/seven-metaph...
If you're a Many Minds listener—even just an occasional one—we would love to hear from you!
If you're a Many Minds listener—even just an occasional one—we would love to hear from you!
"Do Great Apes Use Iconic Gestures?"
Insightful, detailed discussion by @mperlman.bsky.social. Great to see a bunch of threads of evidence—including comparison to human children—in one place.
wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Same amazing community, new location this year!!
Feel free to reach out with questions. And please share widely!
Great to have you on (again), Melanie!
I enjoyed talking with @kensycoop.bsky.social on the Many Minds podcast about the metaphors we use to conceptualize AI.
manyminds.libsyn.com/seven-metaph...
In our recent interview together, @erinhecht.bsky.social suggested the extreme morphological diversity of dogs was rivaled only by the brassicas—both single species, both products of intense artificial selection.
Cool to find a good visual of this!
From: worksinprogress.co/issue/sculpt...
... primate feeding/grooming behavior, pathogen risk, mate assessment, tactile sensitivity of the mouth, fertilization success, the parent-child bond, greeting rituals, cultural history/ideas about romance, etc.
A new (still unfurling) special issue on this: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Kissing may seem like a frivolous topic—and it is, of course, a fun one!—but there's a reason scholars across the social/behavioral sciences have now started to pay it serious attention.
To really puzzle out the origins the kiss, we may need to think about...
Thanks, Stan!
I'm definitely interested in the "fossilized" metaphors in everyday words—wish we had spent some time on that. I do think there's an interesting continuum (if not always crisp division) between the dead/fossilized and the lively/fresh metaphors. Latter more cognitively interesting.
Thoroughly enjoyed this podcast about metaphor as a linguistic and cognitive phenomenon, not just a literary device.
I think I see metaphor as considerably more integral to (and hence frequent in) language than Kensy does, though: there are often many metaphors hidden in a single everyday sentence.
Surely one of the most timelessly alluring questions in all of metaphor research. Was excited to hear @sflusberg.bsky.social's take on this one!
(which I won't spoil)
A wave of recent research has reported name-like phenomena in dolphins, elephants, and marmosets. But as the search for animal names intensifies, we would do well to ask ourselves: What even is a name?
Our recent audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...
Delightful geek-out with @sflusberg.bsky.social! In which we discuss...
- why we love metaphors
- "beige flags" & "aura-farming"
- good vs bad metaphors
- theory-constitutive metaphors in science
- Dennett's technique of "metaphorical triangulation"
- the "brain as computer" metaphor (??)
- etc.!!
What can shamanism teach us about religion -- and the human mind?
What a pleasure to share this excellent conversation to the listeners of On Humans! The hard work was done by @manymindspod.bsky.social and @manvir.bsky.social 🙏
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4nhm3fG...
Apple 👇
A new academic term is ramping up. Have you considered putting our episodes on your syllabi?
Conversations offer an accessible and engaging format—your students will thank you! We have 100+ episodes to choose from, covering many forms of mind from all disciplinary angles.
disi.org/manyminds/
An insightful and engaging conversation with @pbrakes.bsky.social on how and why to conserve animal cultures
A look back out our five most popular episodes of 2025!!
🎉🎉
(in order of release)
Had fun with this one!
In which I discuss: dolphins, elephants, marmosets, teknonymy, necronymy, reciprocal names in New Guinea, nominative determinism, the Bob-Kirk effect, the face-name-matching effect, name signs, toponyms, dog names, name uniqueness, alexinomia, toponyms, name taboos, etc.
For the finale of season 7, we have a new audio essay out @manymindspod.bsky.social by @kensycoop.bsky.social!
It's an exploration of names in the animal kingdom - what they are, who uses them, and why.
In case you get hooked, we've put together a separate playlist of all our essays so far. Enjoy!
Sounds like a perfect storm to me! Motor synchronization strengthens bonds, walking boosts mood, spending time with people boosts mood.
Many thanks, Diego—glad you enjoyed it!
Come for the (more-puzzling-than-you-realize!) puzzle of episodic memory.
Stay for our discussion of infantile amnesia, highly superior autobiographical memory, cryptomnesia, evidential systems in languages, cow stomachs...
Awesome collection of papers—and a great introduction by @schrisomalis.bsky.social & @helenamiton.bsky.social!
My main takeaway from this one:
Dog domestication is a singular "natural experiment" in brain evolution, one that we're just starting to understand. It's a bit bonkers more neuroscientists aren't working on it.
Natalie Lawrence (ENCHANTED CREATURES) and I (HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY) were interviewed by @kensycoop.bsky.social on the @manymindspod.bsky.social #podcast! Some monster-making egs we explored:
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💙📚 🧪🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #psychology #HAMH 🧵
My reaction to social AI had always been one of dismay, disgust, fatalism, maybe even grief for our species.
I won't say this conversation left me feeling optimistic, exactly, but it certainly broadened my imagination.
A fun one! In which we discuss...
- the deep evolutionary history of birds
- sci-fi-sounding structures in bird brains
- the perennial puzzle of magnetoreception
- seasonal changes in bird (and some mammal) brains
- unihemispheric sleep
- gynandromophry
- the extractive foraging hypothesis
etc.!
Other volumes of letters folks would recommend? I may be easing into that "mature" stage of reading life...