The image is a picture of Alison Barth. She is standing in front of a lab station. Behind her, there are shelves full of bottles of chemicals. She is wearing a green blouse. Her hair is silver and blonde, and worn down to her shoulders.

Barth, Former CMU Postdoc Discuss Teenage Brains on Vox’s ‘Unexplainable’

Heidi Opdyke

Vox’s “Unexplainable” podcast took a look at the developing brains. In “Diary of a Teenage Brain Part 2,” the podcast dives into the fascinating process of synaptic pruning in teenagers — how the brain builds billions of connections only to prune them back, shaping who we become. 

The conversation features Alison Barth, Maxwell H. and Gloria C. Connan Professor in the Life Sciences and a member of the Carnegie Mellon University Neuroscience Institute, and Saket Navlakha, a former CMU postdoctoral researcher now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Together, they explore why the brain’s “build and demolish” strategy might be the ultimate life hack and how it’s inspiring new approaches in computer science and network design. 

Listen to the discussion at the Vox Unexplainable website.