Ep167 "What Happens With Stone Age Brains + Godlike Tools?" with Steven Kotler

What happens when old brain circuitry collides with modern tech? Are we heading into an age of abundance, and can abundance create its own psychological problems? Do we need friction in our lives to become better humans? Could curiosity become the most important survival skill of the twenty-first c…

Ep166 "Could the Next Brain Interface Get Sprayed Up Your Nose?" with Tetiana Aleksandrova & Scott Meek

A brain computer interface (BCI) is any technology that allows you to connect your 3 pounds of wetware to a computer. But instead of implanting electrodes via neurosurgery, might the next revolution in BCIs come from something very small, like nanoparticles? Would this allow us to spy on millions (…

Ep165 "What's a Doom Loop & How Do You Escape It?" with Jonathan Downar

Have you ever spent hours with a thought cycling around in your head? What happens when the brain continuously worries, craves, or replays something without finding the exit? Where does the feeling of being “done” come from? Might depression, addiction, OCD, and PTSD all share the same problem? Is …

Ep164 "Why Do We Act Differently Around Different People?" With Claude Steele

Does your identity and performance change in different situations? What does this have to do with wondering how you’re being judged? What if polarization grows from uncertainty more than hatred? Might social uncertainty be more common than prejudice? Why do strangers become enemies so easily? Can w…

Ep163 "How Quickly Does AI Become Smarter Than Humanity?" with Ben Goertzel

What is artificial general intelligence (AGI) and how close are we to getting there? What defines the next step, called artificial superintelligence (ASI), and why might the gap between those two be so dangerous? When machines become smarter than us, what roles are left for humanity? Should we thin…

Ep162 "What Does Medicine Look Like in Ten Years?" with Jeanne Loring

For all of medical history, we’ve tried to persuade sick cells to behave better. What if instead we just swapped them out? Can we insert new brain cells grown from your own skin cells? And what does any of this have to do with sending one’s own cells into space, or rescuing animals on the very brin…

Ep161 "What Do Ancient Brains and Future AIs Have in Common?" with Read Montague

What do honeybee brains have in common with human brains -- and with the AI that beat the world's best Go player? What simple algorithm has been hiding inside brains for 100s of millions of years? When babies throw food from a high chair again and again, are they being mischievous or are they runni…

Ep160 "Do You Really Have a Self?" with Sam Harris

re you the author of your thoughts or just their witness? Do we simply watch our thoughts like we watch unfolding dream plots? What if the most familiar thing you experience — yourself — isn’t really there? If that’s the case, why does the experience of the self feel so solid that it often takes a …

Ep159 "If Your Brain Changed Slightly, Would You Still Be You?" with Masud Husain

Could a tiny injury to your brain change your personality? If your friends didn’t know something had happened in your brain, would they just think you're choosing to act strangely? What if the self is nothing but a fragile coalition of neural processes? Join Eagleman today with Masud Husain, a neur…

Ep158 "What do babies, animals, and AI have in common?" with Melanie Mitchell

When AI gets the right answer, how do we know it got there the right way? Why do we assume that fluent language means intelligence? What do infants and chatbots have in common? What do AI’s mistakes teach us about our own minds? And what does any of this have to do with Frankenstein’s creature, why…