Sing For Science: Simpsons Neuroscience with Hank Azaria

Join six-time Emmy Winner Hank Azaria for a rare opportunity to hear him appear on stage as both Moe the Bartender and as himself. Moe and Hank will be speaking with Columbia University Psychology Professor Dr. Kevin Ochsner about the topic of Social Neuroscience and specifically what we know about how the brain functions in a social context - be it inside a bar, a church basement or otherwise.

Social Neuroscientists have performed extensive research to understand how and why it is we are wired to be social; Anthropologist Margaret Mead noted that the first sign of human civilization is a healed broken femur and Dr. Ochsner’s Lab looks at how our brains have evolved to help one another and exist in community.

This conversation will be recorded for the Sing For Science Podcast and moderated by its host, Matt Whyte. Sing For Science is a Top 10 Music Interview Podcast on Apple’s charts - past episodes include David Byrne on Eel Ecology, SIA on Attachment Theory Psychology and dozens more.

Registration required. Seating is general admission. Entrance to the event will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis until capacity is reached.

This event is presented by The Forum and The Zuckerman Institute.

Please visit The Forum's website for our full calendar of events.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Hank Azaria is a six-time Emmy Award winner, Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and Tony Award nominee. Azaria is well known for being a principal voice actor on The Simpsons, voicing over 100 characters.

Azaria serves as Board Chair of The Human Solidarity Project- a nonprofit initiative that reimagines the diversity paradigm. Their mission is to build long-lasting and authentic human connections between people from all walks of life. Azaria also sits on the board for DREAM Charter Schools which serve thousands of children across East Harlem and the Bronx through a network of free, extended-day, extended-year, and community sports-based youth development programs.

Azaria’s most recent project is the EZ Street Band; a Bruce Springsteen tribute band where he is the lead singer. All net proceeds from the band’s performances go to the Four Through Nine Foundation started by Azaria and his wife, Katie, which focuses on causes related to education, social justice and recovery.

Kevin Ochsner is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia where he directs the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. The lab’s work on emotion, self-control, and person perception has been funded by private and public grants, including five different NIH Institutes. A co-founder of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society and the Center for Brain, Mind and Society, Kevin also is past president of the Society for Affective Science, the author of more than 150 scientific articles and editor of two books, and has received various awards for research and teaching, including the American Psychological Association's New Investigator Award, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society's Young Investigator Award, and Columbia University's Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award.

Sing for Science is an award winning, Top 10 Music Interview Podcast on Apple’s charts where musicians talk about science with scientists, scholars, and science journalists. Past episodes include Korn frontman Jonathan Davis and science writer Mary Roach on mortuary science, SIA and sex therapist Alex Katehakis on attachment theory, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Python creator Guido Van Rossum on coding, and dozens more that engage science-curious fans of music like no other podcast.

The show is hosted by New York musician Matt Whyte, whose credits include composing for Netflix’s Tiger King, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, and fronting the mid-aughts band, Earl Greyhound. Matt cites his participation in a Pete Seeger memorial concert at New York City’s Joe’s Pub as the podcast’s inspiration; it was there that he became acutely aware of the breadth of issues to which Pete applied the power of song in his pursuit of change.

Event Venue

The Forum at Columbia University, 605 West 125th Street, New York, United States