What is consciousness?

What is consciousness?

Professor Brian Cox and an expert panel explore the elusive science of consciousness – what it is, how it arises, whether it can be observed in the brain, and the most compelling theories explaining it.

In a deep, often mind-bending discussion, the panel tackles the many ways of interpreting consciousness itself, and how fields like psychophysics can be used to quantify imagination and perception.

With questions from the audience, the conversation delves into hallucinations and reality, how memory helps to build identity, and whether AI could ever be conscious too.

Panellists

  • Anil Seth – Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex
  • Katharina Schmack – Consultant Psychiatrist and Group Leader, Neural Circuits and Immunity in Psychosis Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute
  • Steve Fleming – Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
  • Alex O’Connor – Host of ‘Within Reason’ podcast

Watch the video version of this episode and read a transcript on our website: www.crick.ac.uk/podcast/consciousness

A BBC Studios Production for the Francis Crick Institute.

Music by John Biddle

© BBC Studios / Francis Crick Institute 2025

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episoder(19)

Rethinking sex, artificial wombs and how to up your sperm count

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of global warming and how society should adapt, with two experts returning to answer more of your questions. Will new green technologies reall...

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Cancer vaccines, tumour-killing cells and does fasting work as a treatment?   

Cancer vaccines, tumour-killing cells and does fasting work as a treatment?   

Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of cancer, with a panel of returning experts answering more of your questions. Do tumours communicate with the brain, is glucose carcinogenic a...

11 Mar 30min

Ultra processed foods, weight loss jabs and why don’t we eat enough fibre?

Ultra processed foods, weight loss jabs and why don’t we eat enough fibre?

Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of nutrition, with a panel of returning experts answering more of your questions. What is food noise, what is the impact of artificial sweete...

4 Mar 36min

Longevity by luck, vaccines for dementia and how fame ages you

Longevity by luck, vaccines for dementia and how fame ages you

Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of ageing, with two experts returning to answer more of your questions. How do men and women age differently? Why is it healthy to forget thing...

25 Feb 29min

Introducing.... More Questions of Science

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Introducing More Questions of Science – bite-size episodes where we revisit some of the biggest ideas from the first 12 episodes of the series and take the conversation even further. Professor Brian C...

10 Des 20251min

Can We Build A Human?

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Professor Brian Cox and our expert panel explore the frontier of human bioengineering and building, replacing, and enhancing our bodies. Will we ever have bionic brains and cloned humans? Is there a...

3 Des 202538min

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