Neuroscientist and author David Eagleman discusses how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us. Through storytelling, research, interviews, an...
Ep89 "Why do you love some flavors and not others?"
Why do you like the taste of things that your friend doesn't? Why do kids not like coffee but adults do? What does any of this have to do with smelling people’s armpits, whether women really synchronize their menstruation, whether your culture eats a lot of spicy foods, and how animals sense the world? Join Eagleman this week to understand why there's no accounting for taste.
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35:42
Ep88 "Might there exist very different kinds of minds?"
Why is it so difficult to define intelligence? What does this have to do with being a fish in water trying to describe water? Might we humans possess one kind of intelligence in a constellation of many other types? And what does this have to do with empathy, AI, and our search for extraterrestrial life? Join Eagleman with guest Kevin Kelly as they dive into whether there might exist very different kinds of minds.
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47:17
Ep 87 "How do we operate in the present when we perceive the past?"
Because visual signals take time to process, we live slightly in the past. So how do we ever catch a baseball? And what does this have to do with certain visual illusions, or the view in New York City, or the things you were never taught in school, or the warp drive in Star Trek? Join Eagleman this week for a mind blowing look at the strange relationship between vision and time.
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34:41
Ep86 "What are emotions?"
Are emotions something that happen to you, or are they bodily signals we interpret? Does everyone show emotions in the same way -- that is, are there particular markers of the face or the body that always mean anger, sadness, or joy? And what does this have to do with Charles Darwin, the truth about facial expressions, or the movie Inside Out? Join Eagleman with this week's guest, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of hundreds of papers and "How Emotions are Made", for a deep dive into the truth about our feelings.
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50:07
Ep39 rebroadcast "What is the future of AI relationships?"
Why are our brains so wired for love? Could you fall head over heels for a bot? Might your romantic partner be more satisfied with a 5% better version of you? How does an AI bot plug right into your deep neural circuitry, and what are the pros and cons? And what will it mean when humans you love don’t have to die, but can live on in your phone forever? Join Eagleman for a deep dive into relationships, their AI future, and what it all means for our species.
Neuroscientist and author David Eagleman discusses how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us. Through storytelling, research, interviews, and experiments, David Eagleman tackles wild questions that illuminate new facets of our lives and our realities.