Ep64 "Why do familiar things lose their shine (& what can we do about it)? "
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? W...
24 Jun 202451min
Ep63 "Why do brains love faces?"
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...
17 Jun 202436min
Ep62 "Is it possible to rehumanize the enemy?"
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. B...
10 Jun 202459min
Ep61 "When should you (not) trust your intuition?"
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 ...
3 Jun 202439min
Ep60 "Can we think better by wrestling with conflicting ideas?"
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? Th...
27 Mai 202455min
Ep59 "Do you visualize like I do?"
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...
20 Mai 202455min
Ep58 "What do brains teach us about whether AI is creative?"
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 r...
13 Mai 202442min
Ep57 "When should new technologies enter the courtroom?"
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 ...
6 Mai 202440min
