Podcasts · Science · Education

Thoughtforms Life

Michael Levin

199 episodes

A podcast by Professor Michael Levin exploring the frontiers of biology, cognition, and emergence. Engage in conversations about morphogenesis, bioelectricity, and synthetic life — and uncover how intelligence and agency emerge from the most fundamental levels of nature.

Episodes page 1 of 4

  1. "New Bodies, Unconventional Minds: a continuum of cognition (& consciousness) by Michael Levin

    · 40 min

    This is a ~39 minute talk titled "New Bodies, Unconventional Minds: a perspective on a continuum of cognition (& consciousness)" for a consciousness conference about our laboratory model systems relevant to the study…

  2. "Thoughts as Thinkers: the biology & computer science of inspiration" by Michael Levin

    · 36 min

    This is a ~35 minute talk titled "Thoughts as Thinkers: the biology & computer science of inspiration" I gave at a recent conference. CHAPTERS: (00:00) The nature of inspiration (15:51) Xenobots and novel minds…

  3. Bio-inspired technology? #science #biology #platonicspace

    · 3:00

    This #short is an excerpt from Michael Levin's talk "Biology, AI, and Diverse Intelligence" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_3tlEOLj4 produced by https://x.com/DNAMediaEditing CHAPTERS: (00:00) Patterns and…

  4. What are we? Concepts for biology and AI #science #biology #diverseintelligence

    · 2:14

    This #short is an excerpt from Michael Levin's talk "Biology, AI, and Diverse Intelligence" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_3tlEOLj4 produced by https://x.com/DNAMediaEditing CHAPTERS: (00:00) Defining life…

  5. "Mind-Body Interface: an experimental and Clinical Perspective" by Michael Levin and Karina Kofman

    · 1 h 05 min

    This is a ~1 hour and 4 minutes talk + Q&A that my student and collaborator Karina Kofman (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karina-Kofman-2) and I gave to the Society for Mind-Matter Research as a keynote talk in…

  6. "Neuroscience Beyond Neurons: communicating with unconventional minds" by Michael Levin

    · 1 h 01 min

    This is a ~1 hour talk given at a conference on the philosophy and future of neuroscience, so I oriented it around extending the concept of neuroscience: not the study of neural phenomena, but more broadly around how…

  7. Discussion with Marsha Hewitt (Platonic Space and related ideas)

    · 1 h 03 min

    This is a ~1 hour 3 minute conversation with Marsha Hewitt (https://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/profiles/hewitt-marsha/), who wanted to clarify some issues around the Platonic Space and related ideas from the perspective…

  8. "Life, Machines, and a Foundation for Synthbiosis" by Michael Levin

    · 22 min

    This is a ~21-minute talk titled "Life, Machines, and a Foundation for Synthbiosis" that I gave to the Santa Fe Institute (https://santafe.edu/) conference on "Symbiogenesis in the Age of Machine intelligence"…

  9. Biology, AI, and Diverse Intelligence by Michael Levin

    · 53 min

    "Biology, AI, and Diverse Intelligence: what we know and don't know about embodied minds" - a 53-minute talk I gave on what the field of diverse intelligence has to say to AI research (to an audience of non-experts in…

  10. A conversation with Andrey Vyshedskiy about the evolution of language and brain development

    · 59 min

    This is a ~1 hour conversation with Andrey Vyshedskiy (https://www.bu.edu/prsocial/profile/andrey-vyshedskiy/) about the evolution of language, brain mechanisms, implications for autism and developmental disorders, and…

  11. Conversation #1 with Diego Bohórquez and Mijail D. Serruya: how information moves levels in bodies

    · 59 min

    This is a ~59 minute working meeting where I introduce two very interesting neuroscientists to each other - Diego Bohórquez (https://medicine.duke.edu/profile/diego-v-bohorquez) and Mijail D. Serruya…

  12. Conversation #1 with Steven Strogatz

    · 56 min

    This is a ~56 minute conversation with mathematician Steven Strogatz (https://www.stevenstrogatz.com/) covering issues of explanation in mathematics, Platonism, and related questions. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Mathematical…

  13. "Inspiration Across Substrates: free lunches, diverse intelligence and surprise" by Michael Levin

    · 52 min

    This is a ~52 minute talk on inspiration across substrates and my model of "free lunches" and the Platonic space. CHAPTERS: (00:00) The concept of inspiration (03:47) Defining the free lunch (08:47) Surprising…

  14. Conversation #1 with Alexey Tolchinsky, Anthony Weiss and Chris Fields

    · 1 h 02 min

    This is a ~1 hour conversation on the future of mental health from the perspective of the diverse intelligence field, with Alexey Tolchinsky…

  15. Conversation #1 with

    · 1 h 01 min

    This is a ~1 hour working meeting with Thomas Pollak (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/thomas-pollak, https://drtompollak.substack.com/) and David King (https://profiles.stanford.edu/361883,…

  16. "Diverse Intelligence: new frontier for Origins, Possibilities, and Diseases of Minds by" M. Levin

    · 54 min

    This is a ~54 minute talk titled "Diverse Intelligence: a new frontier for Origins, Possibilities, and Diseases of the Mind(s)" which I gave for an audience composed of mental health professionals and neuroscientists.…

  17. "Energy Constraints and Tradeoffs" by Martin Picard

    · 57 min

    This is a ~57 minute talk titled "Energy Constraints and Tradeoffs: the mitochondrial daily energy expenditure MDEE study" by Martin Picard (https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/profile/martin-picard-phd) and a brief set…

  18. "Aging, goal-directedness, and bioelectricity" by Michael Levin

    · 23 min

    This is ~23 minute talk overviewing our recent results and the way we think about aging and longevity. It was for a conference with quite short speaking slots so I had to talk fast... Longer talk coming with more data…

  19. Computationalism and consciousness with Nic Rouleau, Jaan Aru, and Borjan Milinkovic.

    · 57 min

    Discussion #2 (57 minutes on computationalism and consciousness) with Borjan Milinkovic (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AwaZbzsAAAAJ&hl=en), Jaan Aru…

  20. Free Lunches: Model Systems for Studying the Agential Gifts from the Platonic Space by Michael Levin

    · 50 min

    This is a talk I gave, ~49 minutes long, titled "Free Lunches: Model Systems for Studying the Agential Gifts from the Platonic Space", to a philosophy audience. It covers some more ways I think about the latent space…

  21. Platonic Space discussion 5

    · 1 h 59 min

    This is a ~2 hour discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Symposium ( CHAPTERS: (00:00) Strong perception framework (10:12) Perception model boundaries (17:41) Penrose and probabilities (30:57) Quantum…

  22. Platonic Space discussion 4

    · 2 h 05 min

    This is a ~2 hours 4 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Symposium ( CHAPTERS: (00:00) Strong anticipation analogy (08:16) Relational Platonic patterns (25:06) Finite brains, infinite grammar…

  23. Discussion #1 with Amahury Jafet Lopez Diaz, Carlos Gershenson-Garcia, and Richard Watson

    · 1 h 04 min

    This is a ~1 hour 5 minute discussion with Amahury Jafet Lopez Diaz ( Carlos Gershenson-Garcia ( and Richard Watson ( Stay tuned for part 2 where Amahury will present his ideas in more detail. Amahury's paper:…

  24. A Multiscale Logic of Collective Intelligence" by Donald Hoffman and Chetan Prakash

    · 1 h 30 min

    This is a ~1.5 hour talk + discussion, titled "A Multiscale Logic of Collective Intelligence" by Donald Hoffman ( and Chetan Prakash ( with Robert Chis-Ciure ( and Chris Fields ( and me. CHAPTERS: (00:01) Beyond…

  25. Discussion: Lisa Maroski, Michael Levin, Richard Watson

    · 59 min

    This is a ~1 hour discussion with Lisa Maroski ( and Richard Watson ( about the role of language in shaping our thinking in the field of diverse intelligence and beyond. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Language and systems…

  26. Discussion: Richard Watson, Alexey Tolchinsky, Mark Solms, Michael Levin, and Karl Friston

    · 59 min

    This is a ~1 hour meeting with Richard Watson ( Alexey Tolchinsky ( Mark Solms ( and Karl Friston ( where we discuss issues of memory (especially, the role of forgetting) in diverse intelligence (human patients and…

  27. Conversation with Nic Rouleau, part 2: neuroscience, memory transfer, aging of cognition, and more

    · 56 min

    This is a ~55 minute discussion following up on Nic's talk and our brief conversation ( comprising part 2 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our…

  28. Conversation with Nic Rouleau, part 1: "Some thoughts on the mind as material"

    · 1 h 00 min

    This is a ~1 hour talk and discussion, comprising part 1 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau ( Nic goes over…

  29. Conversation 2 with Lisa Barrett, Ben Lyons, and Karen Quigley

    · 59 min

    This is a second conversation with Lisa Barrett ( Karen Quigley ( and Benjamin Lyons ( about Relational Realism, allostasis, and questions of mind/body/behavior. CHAPTERS: (00:00) Rethinking emotion universals…

  30. Cancer: mitochondria and metabolism - a discussion with Thomas Seyfried and his group

    · 1 h 23 min

    This is a 1hr + 23 minutes talk and conversation with Thomas Seyfried, Derek Lee and Tomás Duraj ( Juanita Mathews from my group ( about their work on the metabolic and mitochondrial aspects of cancer. CHAPTERS:…

  31. "On Biological and Artificial Consciousness" by Borjan Milinkovic and Jaan Aru

    · 54 min

    This is a ~53 minute talk + 14 minute Q&A titled "On Biological and Artificial Consciousness: a case for biological computationalism" by Borjan Milinkovic ( and Jaan Aru ( CHAPTERS: (00:00) Speaker background and…

  32. Platonic Space discussion 3

    · 1 h 44 min

    This is a ~1 hours 44 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/). CHAPTERS: (00:00) Platonic forms and interaction (07:01)…

  33. Conversation with Darren Iammarino #1

    · 55 min

    This is a ~54 minute conversation with Darren Iammarino (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YNrxRaYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works) about open problems with respect to the Platonic Space model. CHAPTERS:…

  34. "The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis" by Michael Levin

    · 58 min

    This is a ~57 minute talk titled "The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: development, regeneration, cancer, and beyond" which I gave at a UCSF seminar for an audience of graduate…

  35. Discussion #1 at the Platonic Space Symposium

    · 1 h 41 min

    This is a ~1 hour 40 minute discussion among contributors to the Platonic Space Hypothesis (https://thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/) CHAPTERS: (00:00) Math, identity and realms (16:08)…

  36. Conversation 1 with Mijail Serruya, Alessandro Napoli, and Wesley Clawson

    · 59 min

    This is a ~1 hour conversation with (including a short talk by) Mijail Serruya (https://research.jefferson.edu/labs/researcher/serruya-research.html), Alessandro Napoli…

  37. Conversation 1 w/ Lisa Barrett, Ben Lyons, Eli Sennesh, Jordan Theriault-Brown, and Karen Quigley

    · 56 min

    This is a discussion with with Lisa Feldman Barrett (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WF5c0_8AAAAJ&hl=en), Benjamin Lyons (https://interestingessays.substack.com/), Eli Sennesh…

  38. "Evolution and Intelligence: inversion and a positive feedback spiral" by Michael Levin

    · 50 min

    This is a ~50 minute video on evolution from the perspective of diverse intelligence. I discuss 3 main things: the nature of the mapping between genotype and phenotype (an intelligent, problem-solving process that…

  39. “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Behavioral Sciences in Developmental Biology and Biomedicine”

    · 47 min

    This is a ~46 minute talk by Michael Levin titled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Behavioral Sciences in Developmental Biology and Biomedicine” given at a developmental biology/bioengineering symposium,…

  40. Discussion #1 with Katrina Schleisman and David Burke

    · 55 min

    This is a ~54 minute conversation with Katrina Schleisman (https://www.galois.com/team/katrina-schleisman) and David Burke (https://www.galois.com/team/david-burke) about issues related to memory, Platonism, diverse…

  41. Conversation with David Resnik 1

    · 53 min

    This is a ~52 minute conversation with philosopher David Resnik (https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/bioethicist) about the Platonic Space model and our plan for a new paper about a different variant…

  42. Discussion #1 with Elan Barenholtz

    · 58 min

    This is a ~57 minute discussion with Elan Barenholtz (https://mpcrlab.com/people/Elan-Barenholtz/) about language and its possible autonomy in brains, AI models, and other systems linking to our lab's work on active…

  43. Conversation 1 with Diana Moga, Alexey Tolchinsky, and Chris Fields

    · 52 min

    This is a ~52 minute discussion between Diana Moga (https://www.dianamogamd.com/), Alexey Tolchinsky (https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), and I on topics related…

  44. Conversation 1 with Nora Belrose: AI, sentience, and Platonic Space

    · 1 h 06 min

    This is a ~1 hour 5 minute conversation between Nora Belrose (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p_oBc64AAAAJ&hl=en) and me on the topics of consciousness, AI, and different views of the Platonic Space.…

  45. Discussion with Alexey Tolchinsky and Thomas Pollak 2

    · 56 min

    This is a ~1 hour conversation between Alexey Tolchinsky (https://montgomerycountypsychologist.com/), a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, Center for Professional…

  46. Discussion #1 with Chris Fields, Mark Solms, Karl Friston, and Thomas Pollak: introspection & more

    · 1 h 05 min

    This is a ~1 hour 5 minute working conversation with Chris Fields (https://chrisfieldsresearch.com/), Mark Solms (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vD4p8rQAAAAJ&hl=en), Karl Friston…

  47. "Entropic motivation and the roots of agency"by Alex Kiefer

    · 1 h 03 min

    This is a ~35 min talk titled "Entropic motivation and the roots of agency" by Alex Kiefer (https://philpeople.org/profiles/alex-kiefer) + ~25 min discussion of the issues of motivation in artificial and natural…

  48. "Unconventional Embodiments: model systems & strategies addressing mind-blindness" by Michael Levin

    · 47 min

    This is a ~45 minute talk for an embodied cognition audience, covering my framework for diverse intelligence, our use of morphogenesis as a model system for communicating with unconventional minds, and my views on our…

  49. "Platonic Space: brief argument and research agenda" by Michael Levin

    · 18 min

    This is a brief (~17 minute) introduction to my argument about Platonic space in biology, using a 1-page simplified argument format and then a quick overview of the research program entailed by it. CHAPTERS: (00:00)…

  50. Against Mind-Blindness: recognizing and communicating with unconventional beings by Michael Levin

    · 50 min

    This ~50 minute talk given at a futurism/AI gathering is a variant of my recent talks on diverse intelligence, focusing on ways to expand our perspective via considerations of non-brain-based intelligence in the body,…

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.