Author: This Is Your Brain producer
Where do imagination and creativity live in the brain – and how can we tap them? Neuroscientist and author Anna Abraham reveals the three elements of creativity and explores the myths surrounding it. Phil Stieg: Our guest today is Dr. Anna Abraham, a neuroscientist and renowned expert on one of the most fascinating aspects of the human brain, creativity and imagination. We are here to discuss her most recent book, The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths. She’ll answer some of the most perplexing questions about the creative mind. Do our brains work differently when creating a poem or painting compared…
Dolphins have large, complex brains that are a lot like the human model — what if we could get inside their heads and communicate with them? Meet cognitive psychologist and marine mammal scientist Diana Reiss, PhD, who has been doing just that. Turns out our underwater friends have a lot going on in their brains, if only we could learn to decode it. Plus… Hear from one of the musician/scientists who discovered fifty years ago that whales produce actual songs. Phil Stieg: Hello. Some of us remember the TV show Flipper and how he developed an appreciation for the intelligence…
Candace Pert discovered the opioid receptor, created a drug to stop AIDS in the brain, and identified stress as a cause of disease. She also inadvertently unleashed the overdose epidemic, got kicked out of the NIH, and was denied credit for much of her work. Largely forgotten, Pert was a trailblazing yet mercurial neuroscientist. Emmy award winning writer and producer Pamela Ryckman shines a light on Pert’s breakthroughs and her fascinating legacy on the podcast. Dr. Phil Stieg: Today our guest is Pamela Ryckman, Emmy award-winning film producer, screenwriter, journalist, and business executive who has focused much of her career…
ASMR, or the autonomous sensory meridian response, is a state of deep calm accompanied by a sense of “brain tingles.” Not everyone experiences it, but if you do, you know what triggers it: a whisper or other soft sounds, a gentle touch or movement, even watching a Bob Ross video. Physiologist Craig Richard explains the science behind ASMR, and why in some people, it induces a deeply relaxing response that can resolve insomnia, relaxation, and stress. Plus: who are the top “artists” of ASMR? Phil Stieg: Hello. I’d like to welcome Professor Craig Richard, founder of ASMR University. ASMR is…
We will never create true artificial intelligence (if we really want that) until we know more about how the human brain works. Tech entrepreneur and author Max Bennett explains how AI learns, where it falls short, and how it stacks up against our own intelligence. As it turns out, what’s easy for humans is hard for AI, but AI is better at doing some things that are quite hard for us. Mostly, what AI teaches us is just how remarkable the human brain is – it is much better at continued learning than AI is, and it requires less input to come…
Language originates as brain signals—mysterious lines of squiggles—that somehow turn into speech. Meet the neuroscientist who is turning those squiggles into conversations, using artificial intelligence to translate brain activity into words and sentences. Dr. Edward Chang of UCSF talks with Dr. Stieg about the painstaking “magic” of decoding that has allowed a paralyzed man to speak after 20 years of aphasia, essentially live streaming signals from his brain and transforming them into language. Plus, why are A.I. voices always female? Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to welcome Dr. Edward Chang, professor, and chair of neurological surgery at the University of…