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Greg Hickok

@gregoryhickok.bsky.social
704 followers 41 following 76 posts

Distinguished Professor, Departments of Cognitive Sciences & Language Science, University of California Irvine. Author, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language (MIT Press, forthcoming).

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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Some very nice conclusions from Elliot Murphy's review of my book, Wired for Words in Bioloinguistics. @elliot-murphy.bsky.social bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bi...
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Elliot Murphy @elliot-murphy.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Published today - my review of Greg Hickok's excellent new book 'Wired for Words'! @gregoryhickok.bsky.social bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bi...
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William Matchin @wmatchin.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
📢 C-STAR Lecture Reminder Join us for the upcoming lecture by @gregoryhickok.bsky.social on Friday, February 6th at 1 pm EST: "Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language and Its Sensorimotor Foundation" No registration needed. Access through: cstar.sc.edu/lecture-seri...
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William Matchin @wmatchin.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
@gregoryhickok.bsky.social will be giving a C-STAR lecture on Friday, February 6 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time regarding his new book 'Wired for Words'. I'm sure it will be provocative in the best possible way. Please attend and prepare your most challenging questions! cstar.sc.edu/lecture-seri...
cstar.sc.edu
Lecture Series | C-STAR
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
ROROTOKO interview on my book, Wired for Words, published by @mitpress.bsky.social . www.rorotoko.com/11/20260115-...
rorotoko.com
RORO
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Very nice review of my @mitpress.bsky.social book Wired for Words from Jace Wolfe: Wired for Words: A Magnum Opus! a.co/d/cRg7fk9
a.co
Amazon Sign-In
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Once "fully hypnotized by hemispheric dichotomies," @gregoryhickok.bsky.social shares how meeting his colleague David Poeppel led to them developing the theory for bilateral speech perception. An excerpt from "Wired for Words" via @thetransmitter.bsky.social:
thetransmitter.org
‘Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language,’ an excerpt
In his new book, Hickok provides a detailed overview of the research into the circuits that control speech and language. In this excerpt from Chapter 5, he shares how meeting his colleague David…
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
In an excerpt from his new book, @gregoryhickok.bsky.social details how meeting @davidpoeppel.bsky.social upended his understanding of speech processing in the brain and led to them developing the theory for bilateral speech perception. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/language/wir...
thetransmitter.org
‘Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language,’ an excerpt
In his new book, Hickok provides a detailed overview of the research into the circuits that control speech and language. In this excerpt from Chapter 5, he shares how meeting his colleague David…
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
On language and thought: evidence from aphasia. My latest essay for @psychtoday.bsky.social from my new book, Wired for Words published @mitpress.bsky.social. a.co/d/itQY0QZ www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
a.co
Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language: 9780262553414: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com
Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language: 9780262553414: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
I've yet to see a hardcopy myself but Amazon has some actual photos posted.
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
In "Wired for Words," cognitive neuroscientist @gregoryhickok.bsky.social provides a critical synthesis of over 150 years of research on the brain’s networks that enable us to communicate through language: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255341...
A copy of "Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language" by Gregory Hickok on a plain background. The cover features a image of the brain.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Such a fun time chatting with @smwilson.bsky.social about my book and language science generally! The book is out TODAY!
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Advances in genomics are giving exciting new perspectives on biology of speech, language & reading. My latest peer-reviewed paper is a tutorial, guiding readers from different backgrounds through the history of the field, current state-of-the-art, & where we’re heading. A taster in this thread.🧪 1/n
pubs.asha.org
Genomic Investigations of Spoken and Written Language Abilities: A Guide to Advances in Approaches, Technologies, and Discovery
Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to show how the rise of molecular technologies and analytical methods in human genetics yields exciting new ...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Why we dance: The surprising link between talking, music, and moving to the beat. My latest essay @psychtoday.bsky.social adapted from my forthcoming @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
Why We Dance
Ever wonder why humans can't resist moving to music? The answer connects dancing to speech in a surprising way—and explains why parrots are our unlikely partners in rhythm.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
If you're at #Sfn2025, stop by the 8am poster session Nov. 16 on Oral Motor and Speech and say hi! We're presenting two posters on the separate circuits for phonetic and prosodic control in speech production.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Yesterday I had a great chat with Stephen Wilson on his Language Neuroscience Podcast about my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Watch for the podcast and book release on November 25! langneurosci.org/podcast/
langneurosci.org
The Language Neuroscience Podcast
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
We still don't fully understand left-brain, right-brain differences. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
We Are Still Under the Spell of Split-Brain Research
For decades, researchers insisted the left brain dominates all aspects of language. But rare cases of "word deafness" and new experiments reveal a hidden symmetry.
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Joel I Berger @joelberger.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025... I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
doi.org
Brain-wide single-neuron bases of working memory for sounds in humans
In order to understand the constantly changing acoustic world our brains must maintain elements of auditory scenes in memory. The neural mechanisms for this fundamental process remain unclear. Here, w...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Language is a "species" of sensorimotor control architecture. A major conclusion regarding the neural architecture of language in my forthcoming book this month, Wired for Words @mitpress.bsky.social
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Final adapted post from my forthcoming book @mitpress.bsky.social Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. This one focuses on progress over the last 2.5 decades and summarizes some of the main takeaways, IMO. @psychtoday.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
Wired for Words: Understanding Language and the Brain
After 150 years of mystery, neuroscience has finally cracked the code on how language works in the brain—and the answer is surprisingly elegant.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Audio-visual synchrony perception in speech, which requires precise temporal alignment, might be sensitive to subclinical neurological disease. Here's some preliminary data from stroke. Work led by my former student Jon Venezia. www.jvascsurg.org/article/S074...
jvascsurg.org
Audiovisual Temporal Processing as a Behavioral Marker in Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: Preliminary Data and Hypothesis
Changes in auditory and audiovisual (AV) temporal processing occur in early aging and stroke. Asymptomatic carotid atherosclerotic disease (ACAD) can cause chronic vascular insufficiency and silent is...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
A nice piece on my now former grad student Jeremy Yeaton. Very proud of their accomplishments and looking forward to following Jeremy’s future successes!
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking. My new @psychtoday.bsky.social essay excerpted and adapted from Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language, forthcoming this month @mitpress.bsky.social. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire... .
psychologytoday.com
Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking
For 150 years, Broca's area has defined speech production. Now scientists have discovered a second parallel system that controls the melody and rhythm of how we speak and sing.
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
More than two decades have passed since we discovered that rare disruptions of the FOXP2 gene disturb development of proficient speech/language skills. Today we know of multiple FOXP genes that are directly implicated in distinct brain-related conditions with differences in symptoms & severity.🧪 1/n
A depiction of expression patterns of the FOXP1, FOXP2, and FOXP4 genes in the brain, based on the developmental human RNA sequencing dataset of BrainSpan (http://www.brainspan.org/). Data cover different prenatal timepoints starting at 8-to-10 weeks postconception (abbreviated as pcs), postnatal timepoints from 0-to-12 months (abbreviated as mos), and expression measured in adulthood. A dashed vertical line represents time of birth. Individual dots are shown each representing one brain sample, and lines show loess curves fitted through the datapoints. The analyzed brain regions are A1C, primary auditory cortex; CB, cerebellum; CBC, cerebellar cortex; DFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DTH, dorsal thalamic nucleus; HIP, hippocampus; IPC, inferior parietal cortex; ITC, inferior temporal cortex; M1C, primary motor cortex; MD, mediodorsal thalamic nucleus; MFC, medial frontal cortex; OFC, orbitofrontal; S1C, primary sensory cortex; STR, striatum; TC, superior temporal cortex; V1C, primary visual cortex; VFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This image comes from Figure 1 of a paper entitled “Molecular networks of the FOXP2 transcription factor in the brain” written by den Hoed, Devaraju and Fisher, published in the journal EMBO Reports in August 2021 (Volume 22, article e58203).
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Another excerpt from my book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language published by @mitpress.bsky.social This post is on the ancient sensorimotor origins of language production networks. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
The Hidden Orchestra: How Ancient Systems Underlie Speech
Your brain transforms thoughts into speech using an ancient blueprint: the sensorimotor control system. New research reveals how evolution repurposed movement control for language.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
We are about a month away from the publication release date for my @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. Here's a chapter-by-chapter preview. drive.google.com/file/d/18mc5...
drive.google.com
WfW Chapter Summaries.pdf
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
My attempt to depict the neural architecture of language as motivated in my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Like colors represent functional connectivity. Main insight: linguistic levels are all organized with a sensorimotor-like architecture. pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cwsM...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
How your brain conducts the symphony of speech. My latest post on @psychtoday.bsky.social , excerpted and adapted from my forthcoming book, Wired for Words @mitpress.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
How Your Brain Conducts the Symphony of Speech
A tiny brain blip during silent speech revealed the shocking truth: Your brain plans words by imagining sounds, not movements. This discovery revolutionized speech science.
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Greig de Zubicaray @dezubg.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Very happy to see Angelique's paper on semantic processing and the ATL with @vipiai.bsky.social, @profkatie.bsky.social out now in Cortex : www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Are the ventral anterior temporal lobes involved in accessing conceptual knowledge during spoken word production? fMRI evidence from auditory naming
There is ongoing debate about the role of ventral anterior temporal lobe (vATL) regions in the initial stages of production, particularly in accessing…
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
New work on aphasia treatment outcome from Janina Wilmskoetter and the CSTAR team. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Naming practice effects and inconsistencies relate to treatment outcome in people with aphasia
Intra-individual variability in language performance has been proposed as a factor associated with treatment outcomes in chronic aphasia. However, the…
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Indeed, an interesting take on LLMs from my Department of Language Science colleague, Richard Futrell @ucirvine.bsky.social.
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William Matchin @wmatchin.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
University of South Carolina has *7* tenure-track faculty positions in Neurobiology of Language: tinyurl.com/USC-Faculty-... Positions in COMD, Psych, Linguistics, School of Medicine. @snlmtg.bsky.social #SNL2025, we will have a booth. w/@rutvikdesai.bsky.social @imb-uofsc.bsky.social
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Telegrams and Sentence Monsters | Psychology Today My latest essay on the neurology of syntax excerpted from Wired for Words my forthcoming book published by @mitpress.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
Telegrams and Sentence Monsters
Discover how studying the breakdown of language following a stroke has finally revealed the hidden machinery of one of humanity's most remarkable abilities.
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Elliot Murphy @elliot-murphy.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
The Secret Life of Words. My new piece on the mysterious word. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
The Secret Life of Words
Words aren't simply sounds connected to meanings, but involve a hidden "middle layer" that might unlock a deeper understanding of how language works generally.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Neural plasticity had a good run. A bit of a myth? I always thought it was overblown. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The brain’s map of the body is surprisingly stable — even after a limb is lost
Study challenges the textbook idea that the brain region that processes body sensations reorganizes itself after limb amputation.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
We are still under the spell of split-brain research. My new piece in @psychtoday.bsky.social. Excerpted and adapted from my forthcoming book, Wired for Words @mitpress.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
We Are Still Under the Spell of Split-Brain Research
For decades, researchers insisted the left brain dominates all aspects of language. But rare cases of "word deafness" and new experiments reveal a hidden symmetry.
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Andrea Lathrop @cabernet.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
This looks really good! (coming soon, by @gregoryhickok.bsky.social) I don't think Steve Pinker is on Bsky, but he's promoting this blog post about it on Twitter, which is also good: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
psychologytoday.com
The Will of the Ball
Research reveals how your brain carries out complex tasks, including speech, without your awareness.
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
The UCI Phonotactic Calculator: An online tool for computing phonotactic metrics. New work by my colleague Connor Mayer. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
link.springer.com
The UCI Phonotactic Calculator: An online tool for computing phonotactic metrics - Behavior Research Methods
This paper presents the UCI Phonotactic Calculator (UCIPC), a new online tool for quantifying the occurrence of segments and segment sequences in a corpus. This tool has several advantages compared to...
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UC Irvine School of Social Sciences @ucisocsci.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language | New book by @ucirvine.bsky.social cognitive and language scientist @gregoryhickok.bsky.social explores 150 years of research on how the brain enables language *Presale available now w/ 25% discount at @barnesandnoble.com* @mitpress.bsky.social
socsci.uci.edu
Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Wired for Words Table of Contents
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Honored to have such nice endorsements from Cathy Price and Steve Pinker for my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255341...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Pre-order sale on Wired for Words @barnesandnoble.com www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wired-for-...
barnesandnoble.com
Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language|Paperback
A critical synthesis of over 150 years of research on the brain’s networks that enable us to communicate through language.The neural architecture of language has been a hotly debated topic in ne...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
How strong is the Rhythm of Perception? Molly Henry, Jonathan Peelle, and team found out in a large-scale registered replication of Hickok, et al. 2015. @jpeelle.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
royalsocietypublishing.org
How strong is the rhythm of perception? A registered replication of Hickok et al. (2015) | Royal Society Open Science
Our ability to predict upcoming events is a fundamental component of human cognition. One way in which we do so is by exploiting temporal regularities in sensory signals: the ticking of a clock, falli...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
"More work with causal approaches is needed..." For the interested reader, here's some citations to work involving such causal approaches that didn't make the cut in this summary. They tell a rather different story on the cortical organization of syntax. @wmatchin.bsky.social
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Jonathan Peelle @jpeelle.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Hard copies have arrived!!!!!
Photograph of a book with titled The Neuroscience of Language
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andrea e. martin @andreaeyleen.eurosky.social · 20/05/2025
my lab (lacns.github.io) at @mpi-nl.bsky.social and @dondersinst.bsky.social is recruiting for two PhD and two postdoctoral positions funded by an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator - come join us! PhD: www.mpi.nl/career-educa... Postdoc: www.mpi.nl/career-educa... (please share widely)
lacns.github.io
Language and Computation in Neural Systems
We are an international group of scientists consisting of linguists, cognitive scientists, cognitive neuroscientists, computational neuroscientists, computational modellers, computational scientists, ...
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Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Coming this fall from @mitpress.bsky.social!
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Maryellen MacDonald @maryellenmacdonald.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
My book reveals the mostly hidden effects of talking *on talkers.* Talking boosts focus & learning, regulates emotions, changes perception, & more. The reason lies in how utterance planning for talking works. It's a book for gen'l audiences, but w scientific claims for production & its consequences
penguinrandomhouse.com
More Than Words by Maryellen MacDonald, PhD: 9780593545270 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
"This beautifully written book by Maryellen MacDonald demonstrates how 'word-work' shapes both our experience of the world and the very brain that produced our capacity to articulate and generate our ...
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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Another day of reminding everyone of Carl Sagan’s eerily accurate warning about the dangers of not being able to ask skeptical scientific questions to those in power or authority.
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