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Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

iHeartPodcasts

192 episodes

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.

Episodes page 3 of 4

  1. Ep84 "Why do brains love music?"

    · 47 min · Episode 84

    How can we understand music's effect on human brains? Is music universal or does it rely on your experiences? How is music similar to a language? Can music be leveraged to help anxiety, dementia, or Parkinson's…

  2. Ep83 "Why Do Your 30 Trillion Cells Feel Like a Self?" Part 2

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 83

    Does our sense of self emerge from our brain's skill at lumping things into unchanging categories? What can we learn watching a caterpillar brain transition to a butterfly brain? Can we think of a memory as a pattern…

  3. Ep82 "Why Do Your 30 Trillion Cells Feel Like a Self?" Part 1

    · 29 min · Episode 82

    Every cell in your body changes, so why do you have a sense of continuity of the self – as though you're the same person you were a month ago? What does this have to do with the watercraft of the Greek demigod Theseus,…

  4. Ep 81 "How close are we to longevity?"

    · 53 min · S3 E1

    Two certainties are death and taxes; a third is that people will work hard to avoid them both. But why is it so difficult to extend our lifespan? We know how to do it in worms and mice; why is it tricky in humans? Why…

  5. Ep51 rebroadcast "Why do brains dream?"

    · 52 min

    Why do brains dream, and why are dreams so bizarre? Why doesn't your clock work in your dreams? And even though you spend much of your working day looking at your cell phone and computer – why do they almost never make…

  6. Ep48 rebroadcast "Why do brains become depressed?"

    · 54 min

    What is depression? Why are brains able to slip into it? Is depression detectable in animals? Do animals have options beyond fight or flight? And what does any of this have to do with measuring depression medications…

  7. Ep31 rebroadcast "Why do we see #TheDress differently?"

    · 55 min · Episode 31

    Why can you hear some sounds two different ways, depending on which word you’re looking at? Why do electrical outlets sometimes look like a face? How can you have rich visual experience with your eyes closed? Are some…

  8. Ep1 rebroadcast "Does time really slow down when you're in fear for your life?"

    · 31 min

    When he was a child, Eagleman fell off a roof and time seemed to run in slow motion. When he became a neuroscientist, he grew curious about the experience and collected hundreds of similar stories from others. But is…

  9. Ep80 "What's it like to never forget?"

    · 43 min

    What would it be like to have a vastly better memory than you do now? What if you could remember what you were wearing on any day a dozen years ago? Or who you were with, what the conversation was, and whether it…

  10. Ep79 "Does everyone have different mind's eyes, mind's ears, and mind's tongues?"

    · 39 min · Episode 79

    When you imagine something -- like the sun peeking over a mountain during an early morning rainstorm -- do you see it with rich visual detail, or instead with very little internal picture? In an earlier episode we…

  11. Ep78 "Does your brain have one model of the world or thousands?"

    · 53 min · Episode 78

    Why do you see a unified image when you open your eyes, even though each part of your visual cortex has access to only a small part of the world? What is special about the wrinkled outer layer of the brain, and what…

  12. Ep77 "What is Life?"

    · 51 min · Episode 77

    How do you define what things are living and dead? You might look at a sprinting cheetah and say it's clearly alive, whereas a chunk of rock is not -- but where do we draw the line? What might we expect…

  13. Ep76 "How do you decide?" (Part 2)

    · 42 min · Episode 76

    Do brains time travel? What is a prediction error? What does any of this have to do with the 2008 crash of the economy, how we keep internal price tags, or a rational approach to drug addiction in society? Join…

  14. Ep75 "How do you decide?" (Part 1)

    · 32 min · Episode 75

    When you make a decision about what food to order, what's happening in your brain? How do you clinch long-term decisions, like hitting the gym instead of doomscrolling? And what does any of this have to do with the…

  15. Ep74 "Why do we laugh?"

    · 43 min · Episode 74

    From the brain’s point of view, what is humor? When something is funny, why do we breathe in and out rapidly? Do other animals laugh? Why do most jokes come in threes? What do mystery novelists, magicians, and…

  16. Ep73 "How do we fool ourselves in the stock market?"

    · 50 min · Episode 73

    What does neuroscience have to do with investment, and what does that have to do with Isaac Newton, the Dutch East India company, Kodak, the way zebras herd, our emotions, and almost 200 cognitive biases? Join Eagleman…

  17. Ep72 "How do you put yourself in other people's shoes (and can AI do it)?"

    · 42 min · Episode 72

    You know that moment in the horror movie where the monster is coming closer, but the movie star doesn't see it? Why does that drive you crazy, and what does that teach us about brains? What is theory of mind, and why…

  18. Ep71 "Why do our memories drift? Part 2: Misremembering yourself"

    · 34 min · Episode 71

    Is your notion of yourself built on narrative that may or may not be accurate? If someone told you an entirely false story about yourself, could you come to believe it? What does that have to do with six people who…

  19. Ep70 "Why do our memories drift? Part 1: The War of the Ghosts"

    · 34 min · Episode 70

    Why did lions look so strange in medieval European art? What does this have to do with Native American folklore, eyewitness memory of a car accident, or what a person remembers 3 years after witnessing the 9/11 attack…

  20. Ep69 "Why do you see something everywhere after you've seen it once?"

    · 37 min · Episode 69

    What does the Baader-Meinhof Group, a West German terrorist group from the 1970s, have to do with the front of your brain, attention, salience, and synchronicity? And why might you soon hear about the Baader-Meinhof…

  21. Ep68 "What if our brains worked a trillion times faster?"

    · 43 min · Episode 68

    Why are the majority of stock trades decided by algorithms at timescales we can scarcely conceive of? What is it like to have the speed and power of a computer, and to be dealing with slow humans? Why are movies…

  22. Ep67 "How did human brains get runaway intelligence? "

    · 1 h 07 min · Episode 67

    We're the single species who composes symphonies, erects skyscrapers, builds computers, and regularly gets off the planet. But how did human intelligence evolve from our ancestors in the animal kingdom? And now that…

  23. Ep66 "Why do brains love conspiracy theories?"

    · 53 min · Episode 66

    Why are conspiracy theories a natural output of the brain? What do they have to do with puzzle-solving, cognitive dissonance, ingroups/outgroups, and storytelling? If you hear an unlikely explanation for something,…

  24. Ep65 "Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks?"

    · 1 h 08 min · Episode 65

    Did magicians discover tricks of the mind centuries before neuroscientists? Why can’t you see what they’re doing right in front of you? How do magicians steer your attention or appear to read your mind? Dive into the…

  25. Ep64 "Why do familiar things lose their shine (& what can we do about it)? "

    · 51 min · Episode 64

    If you could get a kiss from your favorite celebrity, how long would you want to wait before receiving it? And why do things seem less meaningful or joyful over time than they were at the beginning? What does any of…

  26. Ep63 "Why do brains love faces?"

    · 36 min · S2 E63

    Why do we have so much circuitry in the brain devoted to faces? Why does your electrical plug seem to look like a little face? Did aliens plant a signal for us on Mars, or are we looking at a quirk of our own brains?…

  27. Ep62 "Is it possible to rehumanize the enemy?"

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 62

    The brain easily forms ingroups and outgroups – and shows different responses when viewing one or the other. At the extreme, the brain stops seeing outgroup members as people, but more like objects. But are there ways…

  28. Ep61 "When should you (not) trust your intuition?"

    · 40 min · Episode 61

    Why do you sometimes feel that you trust this person but not that one -- for reasons you can't quite put your finger on? What signals does the brain vacuum up in your daily life, and what fraction of those does your…

  29. Ep60 "Can we think better by wrestling with conflicting ideas?"

    · 56 min

    Why do we believe our own truths so strongly? What is steel-manning, and why is it so important? What does any of this have to do with F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Keats, or the future of our society? This week's episode…

  30. Ep59 "Do you visualize like I do?"

    · 55 min · Episode 59

    How do brains picture things internally, and how might you and I imagine differently? How have recent discoveries completely changed the debate and the way we understand internal experience? What does this have to do…

  31. Ep58 "What do brains teach us about whether AI is creative?"

    · 43 min · Episode 58

    From a neuroscience point of view, what is creativity? How does it shine light on the current lawsuits over large language models and whether they produce anything fundamentally new... or are simply remixing the old?…

  32. Ep57 "When should new technologies enter the courtroom?"

    · 41 min · Episode 57

    Can we measure a lie from a blood pressure test, or pedophilia from a brain scan? And how should a judge decide whether the technology is good enough? What does this have to do with Ronald Reagan, or antisocial…

  33. Rebroadcast of Ep7 "Is AI truly intelligent? How would we know if it got there?"

    · 46 min

    David is taking his birthday week off and wanted to re-share this episode due to it's ongoing relevance. Modern AI is blowing everyone’s mind. But is it intelligent like humans, or is it just playing impressive…

  34. Ep56 "Why do we care so much about touch?"

    · 43 min · Episode 56

    Why does a cold pool feel warmer the second time you dip your toes in? Why does a safecracker run his fingers over sandpaper? Why do Mediterranean cultures touch each other more than Scandinavian cultures? Would it be…

  35. Ep55 "Could a brain plugin instantly teach you to fly a helicopter?"

    · 34 min

    Could you instantaneously learn to fly a helicopter -- not by practicing, but instead by uploading instructions directly to your brain? What would society do if children no longer had to go to school? And what does any…

  36. Ep54 "Where do you end and others begin?"

    · 38 min · Episode 54

    From the brain’s point of view, what is the self? How do 30 trillion cells come to feel like a single entity? Does the "self" of a blind person include the tip of her walking stick? How flexible is our sense of self?…

  37. Ep 53 " Can societies fight better? "

    · 1 h 05 min · Episode 53

    Presumably we're not going to solve the problem of conflict between groups of people -- but what would better conflict look like? And what does that have to do with brains, the spread of homo sapiens, social media…

  38. Ep 52 "What is lucid dreaming?" (Sleeping & Dreaming Part 3)

    · 1 h 03 min

    Can you become conscious inside a dream? Can a researcher convey information to a dreamer, and can the dreamer find some way to answer back? Does 10 seconds inside a dream equal 10 seconds in real life? Could taking a…

  39. Ep 51 "Why do brains dream?"

    · 52 min · Episode 51

    Why do brains dream, and why are dreams so bizarre? Why doesn't your clock work in your dreams? And even though you spend much of your working day looking at your cell phone and computer – why do they almost never make…

  40. Ep50 "Why do we spend 1/3 of our lives asleep?" (Sleeping & Dreaming Part 1)

    · 1 h 16 min · Episode 50

    Why do we spend 1/3 of our lives in the strange doppelganger state of sleep? Can we die from a lack of sleep? How long is it possible to keep yourself awake (and why does the Guinness Book of World Records no longer…

  41. Ep49 "Can you read the brain to detect a lie?

    · 43 min · Episode 49

    Could you get convicted of a crime based on your brain activity? Are brain scan lie detectors accepted in court, or would that count as illegal search and seizure? And what does this have to do with your mouth getting…

  42. Ep48 "Why do brains become depressed?"

    · 54 min · Episode 48

    What is depression? Why are brains able to slip into it? Is depression detectable in animals? Do animals have options beyond fight or flight? And what does any of this have to do with measuring depression medications…

  43. Ep47 "Wheels rotate backwards on TV, but do they ever in real life?"

    · 31 min · Episode 47

    Do our visual systems see in frames like a movie camera or instead analyze the world continuously? Why do you see multiple hands when you clap under yellow street lamps? How did Hollywood launch from the question of…

  44. Ep46 "Who says you're dead?"

    · 49 min · Episode 46

    Can a person be declared legally dead even though he is very much alive? In December of 2010, why did a number of families choose to pull their loved ones off life support just before the new year? How do doctors…

  45. Ep45 "Why did a man shoot himself after hearing the lottery numbers?" (Time Traveling: Part 3)

    · 42 min · Episode 45

    Who is the most disappointed medalist at the Olympics? How do brains simulate what might have been? How can you get your kid to wear a jacket in the cold? What if you had to face more successful versions of yourself?…

  46. Ep44 "Why can't you tickle yourself?" (Time Traveling Part 2)

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 44

    Why are people who can't remember their past also unable to picture their future? Why do we get so anxious about the world changing around us? What should you advise the president if we find ourselves at war with…

  47. Ep43 "How do we remember?" (Time Traveling Part 1)

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 43

    How do billions of neurons store your home address, your ability to ride a bike, and the history of your life? How does memory work in the brain, and how is it different from the way a computer stores information? And…

  48. Ep42 "Is there any such thing as true news?" (Truth Part 3: Artificial Intelligence)

    · 50 min · Episode 42

    What role will AI play in the future of fake news and misinformation? What does this have to do with our brains’ internal models, with voice passwords, and with what Eagleman calls "the tall intelligence problem"? And…

  49. Ep41 "Is there any such thing as true news?" (Truth Part 2: the Internet)

    · 49 min · Episode 41

    What is the future of misinformation on the internet? Is it possible that the invention of the internet has improved access to truth? What does any of this have to do with the Oxford English Dictionary, Soviet…

  50. Ep40 "Is there any such thing as true news?" (Truth Part1)

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 40

    We all worry about fake news. But is misinformation and disinformation really new? Join Eagleman for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of truth. Why do cameras not tell us what we think they do? What…

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