Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

357 | Jeff Coller on mRNA, Vaccines, and Bespoke Therapeutics

Messenger RNA (mRNA) plays a literally central role in the functioning of life as we know it, shuttling information back and forth between the DNA where it is stored to the ribosome where it is used to produce proteins. RNA may even have been the first molecule to kick-start the origin of life. Today, scientists are learning how to manipulate mRNA to cure and prevent diseases, whether through vaccination or literally editing one's DNA. Jeff Coller explains how it all works and how mRNA is revolutionizing medicine as we know it. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/15/357-jeff-coller-on-mrna-vaccines-and-bespoke-therapeutics/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/15/357-jeff-coller-on-mrna-vaccines-and-bespoke-therapeutics/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Jeff Coller received his Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the RNA Innovation Center at Johns Hopkins University. He is co-founder of Tevard Biosciences and the Alliance for mRNA Medicines, and leads the REPAIRx consortium. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. * Web site [http://collerlab.org/] * Johns Hopkins web page [https://www.bme.jhu.edu/people/faculty/jeff-coller/] * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wSJc28sAAAAJ&hl=en] * "This May Be the Most Important Medical Story of the Decade," New York Times, April 9, 2026 [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/opinion/genetic-editing-diseases-health-care.html]

356 | Andrea Wulf on Enlightenment, Nature, Romanticism, and Modernity

All ideas have a history, no matter how inevitable and well-entrenched they may seem to us today. The later Enlightenment was a heady time when people were exploring new conceptions of nature, humanity, and the self. Andrea Wulf is a writer of narrative histories, examining the origins of ideas through the lives of the people who explored them. In this episode we discuss three of her books: The Invention of Nature [https://andreawulf.com/2015/01/15/about-the-invention-of-nature/], about Alexander von Humboldt and environmentalism; Magnificent Rebels [https://andreawulf.com/2022/01/05/about-magnificent-rebels/], about the Jena circle of Romantics including Goethe, Schiller, Schlegel, and others; and most recently The Traveller [https://andreawulf.com/2025/11/19/about-the-traveller/], about George Forster, an early naturalist, ethnographer, and champion of human equality. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/08/356-andrea-wulf-on-enlightenment-nature-romanticism-and-modernity/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/08/356-andrea-wulf-on-enlightenment-nature-romanticism-and-modernity/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Andrea Wulf was born in India, raised in Germany, and studied design history at the Royal College of Art, London. She is the author of seven books. She is a Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Invention of Nature won multiple prizes, including the Royal Society science book prize and the LA Times book prize. * Web site [https://andreawulf.com/] * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Andrea-Wulf/author/B001HOE9U0?ccs_id=d24d6e84-c228-44fb-90df-a4c95d0ece22] * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Wulf]

AMA | June 2026

Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/01/ama-june-2026/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/06/01/ama-june-2026/] New paper I talk about in the beginning of the episode: * S.M. Carroll, N. Diachenko, and S. Dulani, "Toward a Phenomenologically Acceptable Quantum Cyclic Universe." [https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30405]

355 | Solo: Looking Quantum Mechanics in the Eyeball

One of the major obstacles to understanding quantum mechanics is the difficulty we have in simply accepting what the theory itself is telling us. The problem is that we know what the everyday world looks like -- stuff, arranged in space, evolving through time. So we can't resist the temptation to impose that picture on the quantum description, even if it's not actually there. In this solo episode I talk about what it means to take quantum mechanics at face value, and the difficult work involved in understanding how the everyday world of our experience fits into the picture. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/05/25/355-solo-looking-quantum-mechanics-in-the-eyeball/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/05/25/355-solo-looking-quantum-mechanics-in-the-eyeball/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Here is the survey on physicists' opinions about unsettled big-picture questions: * Afshordi, Halper, Rini, and Schirber, "Big Mysteries Survey: Physicists' Views on Cosmology [https://inspirehep.net/literature/3154769], Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Gravity [https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11058]." And here is a short technical overview on the ideas described in this episode: * Carroll, "Reality as a Vector in Hilbert Space. [https://inspirehep.net/literature/1852066]" If you want further papers, look at the papers cited in this one.

354 | Christian List on Free Will and Levels of Reality

Did I have any freedom in choosing this particular podcast guest? At the level of particles, fields, and the fundamental laws of physics; no. At the level of human agents navigating the world, yes. Today's guest, Christian List, is a philosopher and political scientist who has arguably done the most to articulate the "compatibilist" perspective on free will, according to which the freedom of rational agents is entirely compatible with underlying mechanistic laws. The reconciliation depends on thinking carefully about emergence and the relationship between levels of reality. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code MINDSCAPE at this link and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/mindscape [https://incogni.com/mindscape] #sponsored Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/05/18/354-christian-list-on-free-will-and-levels-of-reality/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/05/18/354-christian-list-on-free-will-and-levels-of-reality/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Christian List received his D.Phil in Politics from Oxford University. He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Decision Theory and Co-Director of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy [https://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/index.html] at LMU Munich. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of Academia Europaea the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Among his honors are the Joseph Gittler Award from the American Philosophical Association. He is the author of Why Free Will Is Real [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674979581] and (with Philip Pettit) Group Agency [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/group-agency-9780199679676?lang=en&cc=gb]. * Web site [https://list.userweb.mwn.de/] * LMU web page [https://www.philosophie.lmu.de/en/directory-of-persons/contact-page/christian-list-087028b0.html] * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=b6mn5-gAAAAJ&hl=en] * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Christian-List/author/B004BU9R7C] * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_List]