A Podcast that Explores how neuroscience is unraveling the mystery of how our brain makes us human
Brain Science is a monthly podcast Brain Science, hosted by Ginger Campbell, MD. We explore how recent discoveries in neuroscience are helping unravel the mystery of how our brain makes us human. The content is accessible to people of all backgrounds.
Brain Science 178 features Peter Sterling, author of What Is Health?: Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design. We explore the importance of the brain’s ability to predict the body’s needs (allostasis) and its role in human health and disease.
Read MoreBS 175 is an interview with Carol Tavris, co-author of Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. We originally talked back in 2011, but in this interview we talk about why Dr. Tavris felt that it was essential to publish a 3rd edition that includes recent political events in the United States.
Read MoreBS 174 is an interview with Georg Northoff about his book The Spontaneous Brain: From the Mind–Body to the World–Brain Problem. We explore the surprising discovering that much of the brain’s activity is entirely independent of inputs from the senses, how this spontaneous activity interacts with stimuli, and the implications of these discoveries on our understanding of how the brain generates conscious experience.
Read MoreBrain Science 173 features host Dr. Ginger Campbell reading an excerpt from her bestseller Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty. She explains why this topic is extremely relevant during these times of of extreme uncertainty.
Read MoreBS 171 is an interview with neuroscientist Matthew Cobb about his latest book The Idea of the Brain. We explore how culture and the history of ideas has influenced the history of neuroscience. We also talk about why the current computer metaphor provides an inadequate framework for understanding what the brain actually does.
Read MoreBS 169 is an encore presentation of my interview with R. Douglas Fields, author of The Other Brain: The Scientific and Medical Breakthroughs That Will Heal Our Brains and Revolutionize Our Health. Ten years ago these discoveries about glial cells were controversial, but now they are mainstream neuroscience. Listen to learn why glial cells are essential to our health.
Read MoreBS 168 is an interview with psychologist Cecilia Heyes from Oxford University in the UK. We talk about her fascinating book "Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking." Our focus is on exploring the evidence that several cognitive skills that appear to be unique to humans are learned from other people rather than being inherited genetically as is often assumed. The proposal that language is a cognitive gadget NOT a cognitive instinct is controversial and has very important implications.
Read MoreBrain Science 165 is an encore presentation of my interview with neuroscientists Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde. We talk about their international bestseller "Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions."
Read MoreIn BS 163 renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch discusses is latest book, The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed. He explains why he doesn’t think the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) are enough to explain experience. This is the 4th in our 4 part series on the neuroscience of consciousness.
Read MoreBrain Science 161 is an interview with neuroscientist Joesph Ledoux about his new book The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains. It is the second of our 4 part series on the neuroscience of consciousness and focuses on the evolutionary role of emotion. Dr. Ledoux takes a surprising position on the relationship between emotion and consciousness.
Read MoreWhat is consciousness? BS 160 is an overview of the current neuroscience of consciousness. I take a deep dive into 5 recent books on the topic. We explore questions such as What is the definition of consciousness? Which non-human animals are conscious? Could AI become conscious? and the big one: Can neuroscience solve the so-called “Hard Problem” of subjectivity.
Read MoreBrain Science 159 features Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are.
Read MoreBrain Science 157 is an interview with Donald Mackay, author of Remembering: What 50 Years of Research with Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us about Memory and How It Works. We explore the experiments that revealed that the hippocampus also plays a critical role in language.
Read MoreBS 156 is an interview with Stanford psychologist Russell Poldrack, author of The New Mind Readers: What Neuroimaging Can and Cannot Reveal about Our Thoughts.
Read MoreBS 154 is an interview with Dr. Alan Castel, author of Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging. We explore the role of attitude in successful aging, as well as several other evidence-based approaches.
Read MoreBS 151 is a discussion of The Neuroscience of Emotion: A New Synthesis by Ralph Adolphs and David J. Anderson. We talk about key ideas from the book and relate them to several previous episodes about emotion including interviews with Jaak Panksepp, Lisa Feldman Barrett and Luiz Pessoa.
Read MoreBS 149 is an interview with Dean Burnett, author of Happy Brain: Where Happiness Comes From, and Why. This is a good episode for new listeners of all backgrounds.
Read MoreBS 147 is a discussion of Lessons from the Lobster: Eve Marder's Work in Neuroscience by Charlotte Nassim. I explain why I think Dr. Eve Marder deserves a Noble Prize for her life time of contributions to neuroscience. Please note that Marder’s original interview (BSP 56) is also now available for FREE download.
Read MoreBS 146 is an interview with Dr. Alan Jasanoff, author of The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are. We talk about how what he calls “the cerebral mystique” causes people to forget that the brain is not autonomous, but relies on its interaction with the body and its environment to create the Mind.
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