Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman
Alle afleveringen
192 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
-
Ep130 "What do brains tell us about politics?" Part 1: Polarization
17 november 2025 · 46 min
What do propaganda posters have in common across nation and time, and how is that related to the medial prefrontal cortex? What is behind repeating cycles of societal polarization? What does any of this have to do with the American Civil War, hippies vs soldiers, border ruffians vs free-staters, hanging chads, Pearl Harbor, and why education can serve as an immune response to mind viruses? Lees meer
-
Ep129 "Is utopia possible or do human brains preclude it?" with Paul Bloom
10 november 2025 · 44 min
Would a utopia be possible? Or does our innate tribalism and jealousy make perfect societies difficult to achieve? Do we secretly love hierarchies? Why are primate brains such excellent detectors of unfairness? Why do things become more desirable when we’re told we can’t have them? Did the church’s disavowal of first-cousin marriage lead to better politics? This week Eagleman talks with psychologist Paul Bloom about the (im)possibility of achieving societal utopias. Lees meer
-
Ep128 "Would space aliens see the world as we do?" with Daniel Whiteson
3 november 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
Imagine we eventually meet some alien scientists. If they can see electrons or smell photons, would their science look like ours? Is physics a universal language, or just a local dialect of the human brain? Would aliens use math, or might their truths be organized unrecognizably? Are the “laws of nature” really laws, or simply our interpretations? Join Eagleman with particle physicist Daniel Whiteson, author of the new book “Do Aliens Speak Physics?” Lees meer
-
EP127 "What happens when we marry brains to machines?" with Sergey Stavisky
27 oktober 2025 · 1 uur
What is a brain-computer interface? How can a paralyzed person use her brain to control a robotic arm? How can someone who's lost the gift of speech use brain signals to broadcast his voice again? Can we eventually restore autonomy and dignity so seamlessly that the technology disappears and the person reappears? Where are the ethical boundaries between restoring function and spying on private thought? Who owns the stream of neural data that represents you? Join this week with guest neuroscientist Sergey Stavisky as we dive into the world of interfacing brains and machines. Lees meer
-
Ep126 "Does science fiction shape reality?" with Bethanie Maples
20 oktober 2025 · 36 min
How is sci-fi like a cultural research and development lab? Will we someday have AI agents that live in robot bodies, and will we be liable if they commit murder? What happens when reality is no longer verifiable? How can we create AI advocates that guide us toward self-actualization over distraction? What is a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer? This week we talk with researcher Bethany Maples about science fiction and how it might prepare us to wrestle with the deepest questions about AI, identity, and the future of humanity. Lees meer
-
Ep125 "Why do brains need friends?" (with Ben Rein)
13 oktober 2025 · 55 min
Why do human brains need social interaction? Why might AI chatbots be insufficient to scratch the itch? What do we love so much about real human touch and in-person interaction? Why do so many of us live with dogs? From empathy to introversion to social media to isolation (and what to do about it), we’ve got it all this week with guest Ben Rein, author of the new book Why Brains Need Friends. Lees meer
-
Ep124 "Why don't we notice gaps in time?"
6 oktober 2025 · 42 min
How is your consciousness like a flame that continually goes out and gets re-lit? Why can you see other people's eyes move, but you can't see your own eyes move in the mirror? And what does any of this have to do with deep sleep, anesthesia, comas, amnesia, and empires of soft-bodied creatures that came before us? Tune in this week for some science that will shift your view of reality. Lees meer
-
Ep123 "Will AI cure loneliness?" with Paul Bloom
29 september 2025 · 41 min
On the one hand, AI companions are (increasingly) amazing at rectifying isolation. But on the other hand, loneliness is a biological signal that pushes us toward improving ourselves socially. So what's the right balance here? And does everyone have the same need to cure loneliness? In other words, might AI relationships mess up our young even while providing a critical lifeline to our seniors? Join this week as we dive deep with psychologist Paul Bloom. Lees meer
-
Ep122 "Why do we so rarely say what we mean?" (with Steven Pinker)
22 september 2025 · 44 min
Why do people on a date speak in innuendo? Why do dictators squelch protests? Why do humans stand apart from the rest of the animal kingdom by blushing, laughing, and crying? And what does any of this have to do with bullies, George Costanza, or cancel culture? Join this week with cognitive scientist Steven Pinker as we discuss his new book on common knowledge: “When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows”. Lees meer
-
Ep121 "What’s the secret to intelligence (in brains and AI)?" with Ramesh Raskar
15 september 2025 · 42 min
Is AI going to go the same way as computing: from colossal LLMs owned by a few companies to billions of networked AI agents? How does that parallel one of the great underappreciated secrets of the human brain? Join this week with guest MIT Media Lab professor (and AI-decentralizer) Ramesh Raskar. Lees meer
-
Ep120 "Will AI build us into better humans?"
8 september 2025 · 34 min
Will AI end up building us into stronger, more talented humans? What might this have to do with linguistics, the movie Arrival, self-driving cars, debate, video games, elections, chess, and the ancient game of Go? Are we going to be taken over, or instead exposed to ideas and concepts that stretch the boundaries of our thinking? Join this week to see how AI might just up the human game. Lees meer
-
Ep119 "Why do brains believe in the unbelievable?" with Bruce Hood
1 september 2025 · 37 min
Why are brains superstitious? Would you wear a nice sweater that belonged to a murderer? What does this have to do with lucky socks, ghosts, our interpretation of coincidences, why kids often need their special blankets, and what any of this has to do with the brain? Join this week with guest Bruce Hood to learn why it's so natural for brains to take incomplete data and infer causes. Lees meer
-
Ep118 "Why has the brain always been our hardest puzzle?" with Matthew Cobb
25 augustus 2025 · 59 min
How have humans through the ages tried to crack the mysteries of the brain, and why are our theories always yoked to the most recent technologies? What does the history of brain science have to do with bumps on the skull, electricity, Frankenstein, animatronics, telegraphs, telephone exchanges, computers, and LLMs? What's the next metaphor we'll use to try to capture the brain’s magic? Join this week with guest Matthew Cobb. Lees meer
-
Ep117 "What does brain science have to do with free speech? (with Greg Lukianoff)" (with Greg Lukianoff)
18 augustus 2025 · 1 uur
Most people claim to be in favor of free speech, but they often mean speech from their own side (and not whatever those crazy people on the other side want to say). But from the point of view of the brain, why does free speech need to be rigorously defended? What does this have to do with internal models, printing presses, college campuses, John Stuart Mill, online indecency, cultures of honor, Robinson Crusoe, cancel culture, the importance of literature, and why free speech makes everyone safer? Lees meer
-
Ep116 " What is Color? Part 2: Why royals wear purple"
11 augustus 2025 · 38 min
Are there new colors you could see? And why are they impossible to imagine before you've seen them? Can you lose your color vision? And what does any of this have to do with linguistic color terms, why the military likes colorblind people for a particular task, and why Eagleman suggests that the cultural history of Thailand was influenced by one single, unknown neurodivergent? Lees meer
-
Ep115 "What is color? Part 1: Why hunters wear orange"
4 augustus 2025 · 38 min
Why do birds and bees choose different flowers? Why do mammals' eyes seem to be optimized for moving around at night, and what does that have to do with hairless humans getting angry? What does any of this have to do with road signs, camouflage, mantis shrimp, the sun, the dress that broke the internet, and women who can see more colors than you can? Lees meer
-
Ep114 "Would you eat a self burger?"
28 juli 2025 · 36 min
Would you eat a burger grown from a human muscle cell? Would you rather use your own cell or someone else's? What does the future of lab-grown meat illuminate about neuroscience, our calculations of morality, and whether your grandchildren will have a different answer? What does any of this have to do with endangered species, the sacred versus the profane, brain plasticity, moral positioning, social belonging, stepping on the boundary between mental categories, flesh copyrights, and the future of personhood? Lees meer
-
Ep113 "What's special about inventors?" (with Pablos Holman)
21 juli 2025 · 57 min
Why do some people jump into entirely new categories of possibility? And what does this have to do with self-driving ships, solar panels in space, shooting mosquitoes with lasers, skateboarding tricks, silent drones, and our future as a species? Join Eagleman with guest Pablos Holman, a venture capitalist, author, and connoisseur of invention. Lees meer
-
Ep112 "How is computer code like magic?" (with Sam Arbesman)
14 juli 2025 · 43 min
What is code, and can it be thought of like a magic spell? Are we building a world so complex that we will lose the ability to understand its operations -- and has that already happened? What does any of this have to do with SimCity, or knowledge that already exists but no one has put together, or how coding will evolve in the near future? Join Eagleman with scientist Sam Arbesman, who has just written a book asking the question: what is code, really? Lees meer
-
Ep111 "Might we be surrounded with undetected minds?" (with Michael Levin)
7 juli 2025 · 52 min
What is intelligence? If we look hard, can we find it in unexpected places: not just in brains but in all kinds of structures? How should we recognize it? And what does any of this have to do with a bipedal dog born without front legs, or making small new organisms out of single cells, or how Wikipedia might be like an axolotl, or why we are so blind to the vast variety of minds that might surround us? Join Eagleman with guest Michael Levin, professor at Tufts, about how we might discover intelligence all around us in ways we don't typically intuit. Lees meer
-
Ep110 "Is consciousness related to quantum physics?" (with Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff)
30 juni 2025 · 48 min
Can we explain consciousness as emerging from classical neuroscience, or do we require deeper principles? Could quantum physics have something to do with it? Is it possible that consciousness predates biology, and biology evolved to take advantage of it? What are the right ways to build new theories in neuroscience when we don’t know the answers? Join Eagleman with Nobel laureate Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff to explore the controversial idea that there could be, even possibly, any connection between quantum theory and our awareness of the world. Lees meer
-
Ep85 rebroadcast - "What is a Thought?"
23 juni 2025 · 37 min
Brains bear thoughts like a peach tree bears peaches. Even for meditators it's almost impossible to stop the firehose of words and images and ideas. But what in the world is a thought, physically? How can you hear a voice in your head when there's no one speaking in the outside world? And what does any of this have to do with a small marine animal who eats its own brain? Join Eagleman for this week's deep dive into our inner life. Lees meer
-
Ep109 "Are you one mind or many drives?" with Jordan Peterson
16 juni 2025 · 43 min
Is your brain a one-person show or an ensemble cast of rivaling neural networks? How do we manage the conflict between different drives, and what does this have to do with literature, deities, maturation, and what Nietzsche meant when he said “every drive wants to be master, and it attempts to philosophize in that spirit”? Join Eagleman this week with Jordan Peterson as we examine the way lives are built on conflicting wants. Lees meer
-
Ep108 "Can brains increase their happiness?" (with Bruce Hood)
9 juni 2025 · 39 min
Is it possible to become happier? How much of your happiness has to do with genetics, social connection, comparison to other people, your balance of optimism vs pessimism, and whether it would be useful to keep a journal of your life? Join Eagleman this week with Bruce Hood, experimental psychologist and author of “The Science of Happiness”. Lees meer
-
Ep107 "Why do brains love stories?" (with Joshua Landy)
2 juni 2025 · 49 min
How do brains slip so easily from the real world into made up worlds? What do authors of great literature have in common with stage magicians and comedians? What does any of this have to do with cognitive shortcuts, prediction machines, Marcel Proust, Toni Morrison, Jane Austen, or why jokes are always structured in threes? Join Eagleman this week for a conversation with his Stanford colleague Joshua Landy as they discuss brains on story. Lees meer
-
Ep106 "What happens when brains watch movies?" (with Jeffrey Zacks)
26 mei 2025 · 48 min
Why do movies work so well? What does film reveal about the way the brain processes reality? What does any of this have to do with omniscience, simulation, jumping around in time, or why dogs don’t do story? Join Eagleman with guest Jeffrey Zacks, cognitive scientist at Wash U, as we dive into the peculiar magic that happens when the lights go down, the screen glows to life, and we find ourselves pulled into the world of a film. Lees meer
-
Ep105 "What if AI is not actually intelligent?" (with Alison Gopnik)
19 mei 2025 · 1 uur 10 min
Is AI an intelligent agent, or is there a different way we should be thinking about it? Is it more like a piece of cultural technology? What in the world is a piece of cultural technology -- and how would re-thinking this change our next steps? What does any of this have to do with the myth of the Golem, printing presses, Socrates, Martin Luther, or the story of stone soup? Join Eagleman this week with cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik for a new take on a new tech. Lees meer
-
Ep104 "What is your internal world really like?" (with Russell Hurlburt)
12 mei 2025 · 42 min
If you had to give a detailed description of what flits through your mind, how good would you be at it? Might you be surprised at how many of your thoughts don't involve language? Are your thoughts changed by paying attention to them? What does this have to do with getting surprised by a random beep and immediately writing down what you’re thinking? Join Eagleman this week in conversation with Russell Hurlburt, a clinical psychologist who developed a new method to probe inner life. Lees meer
-
Ep103 "Could you ever know what it’s like to be someone else?" (Part 2)
5 mei 2025 · 39 min
What would it take to get inside someone else's head, and could new brain technologies ever help us get there? Will there be dream celebrities, in which uploads go viral? What does consciousness feel like from the inside, and why do movies always get this wrong? Why don't you see your own blinks? What would it be like if exactly 1/2 of your brain was numbed to sleep? And what would it be like to become a horse? Lees meer
-
Ep102 "Could you ever know what it’s like to be someone else?" (Part 1)
28 april 2025 · 36 min
What does it mean to stand in another’s shoes—and when are the gaps between us too wide to cross? This week, Eagleman explores bats, kicked robots, Helen Keller, empathy, storytelling, and the phrase “I know exactly how you feel.” We'll weave through neuroscience, philosophy, literature, and technology to ask: Can we ever truly understand another’s inner world? Lees meer
-
Ep101 "Why do people walk away from bad events with different outcomes?"
21 april 2025 · 1 uur
What enables some people to keep going when everything falls apart? We all know someone who’s been through hell and comes out standing. This episode is about resilience. Join Eagleman with guest Dr. Jonathan Downar to discover what happens in the brain when we face adversity. Is resilience something you’re born with, or is it something your brain can develop? What does any of this have to do with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, using magnetic fields to zap the brain, the less famous partner to the reward system, or what seemingly unrelated disorders in psychiatry all have in common? Lees meer
-
Ep100 "Why do brains love slow motion video?"
14 april 2025 · 44 min
What does The Matrix tell us about the brain and time perception? And what does that have to do with champion bicyclists, hidden data, elementary particles, secret murderers, or time machines? Today’s episode is about slow motion: what’s going on in the brain, and why we are so mesmerized by it. Whether watching a sword battle, basketball dunk, or sprinters, we're pulled to slow motion like moths to flame... but have you ever wondered from a neuroscience perspective what that’s all about? Me too, and hence today’s 100th weekiversary episode. Lees meer
-
Ep99 "Why do brains sometimes make things up?"
7 april 2025 · 41 min
Your brain occasionally cooks up falsehoods that you believe entirely, but why does this confabulation happen, and how frequently? What does this tell us about memory, truth-telling, and your life as a story that drifts? And what does this have to do with a paralyzed Supreme Court judge, a blind person who insists she can see, whether Nelson Mandela did or did not die in the 1980s, or whether Curious George had a tail? Lees meer
-
EP98 "What's the future of AI relationships?" (with Bethanie Maples)
31 maart 2025 · 49 min
How many people are having relationships with artificial neural networks? Should we think of AI lovers as traps, mirrors, or sandboxes? Is there a clear line between relationship bots and therapist bots? And what does this have to do with Eliza Doolittle, a doll cabinet in your head, loneliness epidemics, or suicide mitigation? Join Eagleman with guest researcher Bethanie Maples to discover where we are and where we're going. Lees meer
-
Ep 97 "Can we rewrite the human code?" (with Trevor Martin)
24 maart 2025 · 46 min
You're defined in part by the genome you arrive with -- so what does it mean when you can edit it? What does this have to do with viruses, copy-pasting, and whether we will modify the story of our own species? Join Eagleman with guest Trevor Martin, CEO of Mammoth Biosciences, for this week's episode about the remarkable situation we find ourselves in, now that we know how to read and write our biological inheritance. Lees meer
-
Ep96 "What’s the future of education in an AI world?" (Part 2: Sal Khan)
17 maart 2025 · 52 min
Now that we’re careening into our AI future, what are the most important things for our students to learn? Do we keep teaching as we always have, do we drop our heads on the desk, or are there clever ways to steer and optimize education? What would Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, say about all this? Find out in this week's episode. Lees meer
-
Ep95 "What's the future of education in an AI world?" (Part 1)
10 maart 2025 · 47 min
How can we rethink schools to meet the future? What does this have to do with the invention of the printing press, the prevalence of desk calculators, or the spread of Google? And how is this connected to the writer Goethe, a digital replica of the philosopher Aristotle, or the two lasting bequests that we should give our children? Join Eagleman this week for surprises about what AI means for the next generation. Lees meer
-
Ep94 "How does the brain construct reality?"
3 maart 2025 · 1 uur 8 min
Do you perceive red the same way I do? What is wrong with the textbook model of vision? Why do brains have so many internal feedback loops? And what does any of this have to do with Plato’s cave, Ernest Hemingway, or artificial neural networks that perceive dogs everywhere? Join Eagleman with guest Anil Seth, author of “Being You”, to explore the scientific problem of consciousness. Lees meer
-
David Eagleman on Joy A Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson
28 februari 2025 · 51 min
Meet David Eagleman - neuroscientist, author, and more. He is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw and is currently a neuroscientist at Stanford University. I thoroughly enjoyed picking his brain and I hope you enJOY too! Lees meer
-
Ep93 "Will AI kill our creativity or enhance it?"
24 februari 2025 · 34 min
How will creative people make a living in a world with AI? Is there a different way to think about the economy of the future -- and how might it involve mystifying and elevating humans? What does the term “data dignity" mean? Join Eagleman with guest Jaron Lanier -- computer scientist, artist, futurist -- as they discuss AI's boundless creative output and how we might thoughtfully navigate into the future. Lees meer
-
Ep92 "Why is it hard to keep a secret?"
17 februari 2025 · 43 min
How are secrets in the brain like Abraham Lincoln’s political cabinet? Will AI in the near future hide things from you? And what does any of this have to do with political hierarchies, the formula for Coca-Cola, or deceptive chimpanzees? Join Eagleman to understand what neuroscience tells us about secrets: what they are, why they weigh on us, and how they sometimes grow into tangled webs we never meant to weave. Lees meer
-
Ep91 "What is love?"
10 februari 2025 · 49 min
What are we talking about neurobiologically when we talk about love? What does it have to do with how you were raised, the symmetry of someone's face, or the smell of their underarms? What do we learn from heartbreak, rom-coms, and little rodents called prairie voles? And what is the future of love & AI? Join Eagleman for a Valentine's Day special to learn what unseen sparks in the skull set the heart ablaze. Lees meer
-
Ep90 "What's the future of connecting our tech to our brains?"
3 februari 2025 · 56 min
A brain's 86 billion neurons are always chattering along with tiny electrical and chemical signals. But how can we get inside the brain to study the fine details? Can we eavesdrop on cells using other cells? What is the future of communication between brains? Join Eagleman with special guest Max Hodak, founder of Science Corp, a company pioneering stunning new methods in brain computer interfaces. Lees meer
-
Ep89 "Why do you love some flavors and not others?"
27 januari 2025 · 36 min
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. Lees meer
-
Ep88 "Might there exist very different kinds of minds?"
20 januari 2025 · 47 min
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. Lees meer
-
Ep 87 "How do we operate in the present when we perceive the past?"
13 januari 2025 · 35 min
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. Lees meer
-
Ep86 "What are emotions?"
6 januari 2025 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
-
Ep39 rebroadcast "What is the future of AI relationships?"
30 december 2024 · 38 min
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. Lees meer
-
Ep10 rebroadcast "Why is it so hard to spot a counterfeit bill?"
23 december 2024 · 36 min
What do charlatans have to understand about human perception? Why are you so bad at recognizing a real penny among fakes? What did Eagleman have to do with the redesign of the Euro, and why did he campaign to the European Central Bank that all their bills should be blank with a single hologram in the middle? In this episode, explore the crossroads of perception and deception. Brief appearance from special guest Adam Savage. Lees meer
-
Ep85 "What is a Thought?"
16 december 2024 · 37 min
Brains bear thoughts like a peach tree bears peaches. Even for meditators it's almost impossible to stop the firehose of words and images and ideas. But what in the world is a thought, physically? How can you hear a voice in your head when there's no one speaking in the outside world? And what does any of this have to do with a small marine animal who eats its own brain? Join Eagleman for this week's deep dive into our inner life. Lees meer