| ABOUT | SHOW NOTES | EPISODE LIST | GUEST LIST | TRANSCRIPTS | BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|---|
The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 107) is an interview with Dr. Penelope Lewis, author of The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest.
Click here to play the interview.
Click here for the full show notes and episode transcript.
I have just posted the February episode of the Brain Science Podcast and so I wanted to give you an update.
The new Premium Subscription is off to a good start. In addition many listeners are buying individual episodes and transcripts. These are on sell for only $1 each. However it is important to note that the most recent 25 episodes remain free to download or stream. Last year the Brain Science Podcast also became available on Stitcher.
Here is a brief description of the most recent free episodes:
Michael Merzenich (BSP 105)BSP 105 is an interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich, author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life. Although this is Merzenich's first book, he was also interviewed back in BSP 54. This interview focuses on why the choices each of us make effects whether brain plasticity is our friend or foe.
Listen to BSP 105 (right click to download)
BSP 106 is an interview with Dr. Luiz Pessoa, author of The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration. Although this book is aimed at students and
Luiz Pessoa (BSP 106) working scientists, this interview gives all listeners a chance to learn about how recent experiments are challenging traditional assumptions about emotion and cognition.
Listen to BSP 106 (Right click to download)
Please visit the Brain Science Podcast website for detailed show notes and episode transcripts.
Ginger Campbell with Rusty and GretaEarlier this month my Brain Science Podcast celebrated its seventh anniversary. I haven't been doing a very good job of updating this website in recent months, but I wanted to take a moment to look back at 2013. While I only published two episodes of Books and Ideas, I did publish 12 episodes of the Brain Science Podcast and I am looking forward to some major changes in 2014.
BSP 103 featured the return of Olaf Sporns who was also interviewed back in BSP 74. Last month we talked about his most recent book Discovering the Human Connectome.
BSP 104 is our seventh annual review episode, which highlights the main ideas that we explored in 2013. I also announced that beginning on December 30, 2013 I will be offering a Premium Subscription. The most recent 25 episodes of the Brain Science Podcast will remain free while older episodes and episode transcripts will be available via subscription. Subscribers will get unlimited access to the entire library of content while individual episodes and transcripts can be purchased on the BSP website.
Thanks to a library of 100+ episodes the Brain Science Podcast is now averaging over 100,000 downloads per month and recently passed 5 million downloads.
I am particularly grateful to all my loyal listeners who have helped the show grow by sharing it with others.
The Brain Science Podcast has a discussion group at Goodreads.com, a Fan Page on Facebook and a page on Google+.
If you haven't checked it out yet I hope you will.
Alvaro FernandezLast month I posted episode 100 of the Brain Science Podcast. To celebrate this milestone I supplemented the discussion of Brain Fitness with Alvaro Fernandez with feedback from listeners.
Visit the Brain Science Podcast website for the full show notes and free episode transcript.
Comment: During the interview with Alvaro Fernandez he talked about the upcoming SharpBrains Virtual Summit, which is scheduled for September 19-20. Fans of the Brain Science Podcast have been offered a 25% discount. Just use the code brainpodcast when you register.
photo by Rosalie WinwardLast month in BSP 98 I reviewed Temple Grandin's latest book The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum. That podcast focused on the current science, but this month's follow up interview (BSP 99) is a little different. It focuses on Dr. Grandin's practical advice for living with autism. Besides emphasizing the need for more research into the sensory problems that are common in autism and applying the recent discoveries about brain plasticity. Dr. Grandin believes very strongly in nurturing strengths while accommodating weaknesses. She said that it is very important that "we accommadate weaknesses in a way that is enabling." She is particularly worried that many young people are not being taught the social skills they need to succeed in a work environment, even thought they have valuable talents to contribute.
In my opinion, Dr. Grandin's advice carries extra weight because her personal example shows how an autistic person can make a unique contribution if given extensive training and support.
Listen to Dr. Grandin's interview.
Visit Brain Science Podcast website for full show notes and a free episode Transcript.
The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 96) marks the return of one of my favorite guests: retired neurologist and author Dr. Robert Burton. We discussed his new book A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves. In this book Dr. Burton expands on the ideas he first presented in On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. He also argues that because mental sensations like certainty, agency, and causation originate outside of conscious awareness there are inherent limits in our ability to use neuroscience to understand the Mind. This is a somewhat controversial and definitely thought-provoking position, which I invite you to explore further by listening to this interview.
Go to Brain Science Podcast website for complete show notes and free episode transcripts.
Last month we launched a completely redesigned website for the Brain Science Podcast. It is intended to be more accessible to people on mobile devices, but it also makes it easier for visitors to submit feedback directly from the site.
Here is a brief summary of our most recent episodes:
Click image to listenBSP 95 is the second part of our discussion of Understanding Pain: Exploring the Perception of Pain by Fernando Cervero, who is the current president of the International Society for the Study of Pain. Dr. Cervero was interviewed in BSP 93 and in this episode I discuss additional key ideas from his book. (BSP 93 and 95 can be enjoyed in any order.
Click here for the detailed show notes.
Dr. Benjamin BergenBSP 94 was an interview with linguist Benjamin Bergen author of Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning.
Go to the complete show notes.
Click Logo to ListenDr. Fernando Cervero of McGill University has been studying pain since the beginning of his career back in the 1960's. These decades have seen tremendous advances in our neuroscientific understanding of what causes different types of pain as well as changing attitudes. Pain was once regarded as something that most people had to endure, but now most of us demand adequate pain relief, sometimes even to the point of not tolerating minor pain. Dr. Cevero's new book Understanding Pain provides an accessible account of both the history of pain research and a thoughtful consideration of the challenges facing the field.
The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 93) is an interview with Dr. Cervero. This is Part 1 of a planned two part series.
Click Here for Detailed Show Notes and Episode Transcripts
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast: 
Dr. Jaak Panksepp (click to play audio)In his new book The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions Jaak Panksepp set out to make his life's work more accessible to a general audience. To be honest, reading this book requires a significant commitment, but I think he does a wonderful job of updating his classic textbook Affective Neuroscience. Anyone who is interested in this field will definitely want this book as a reference. The other strength of Archeology of Mind is its evolutionary approach. The primary emotional processes that Panksepp has spent his career studying have their origins in the ancient parts of the brain that are shared by all mammals. This contradicts longstanding assumptions in neuroscience, but it has important implications for both humans and other animals.
In Episode 91 of the Brain Science Podcast Dr. Panksepp and I talked about some of the new information contained in Archeology of Mind with a particular focus on FEAR, which contrary to what many researchers claim, does NOT begin in the amygdala, but begins much lower. We do talk briefly about the experimental evidence, but this was covered in more detail during Dr. Panksepp's previous appearance on the Brain Science Podcast in BSP 65.
Click here for detailed shownotes and free transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast: 
Episode 90 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of Self Comes To Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio. Damasio's book focuses on the answer to two key questions: How does the brain generate the Mind? and How does the Brain generate Consciousness? His approach is unusual because many scientists and writers treat the Mind and Consciousness as identical. In contrast, Damasio argues that Mind proceeds Consciousness. Listen to this podcast to learn how the Mind becomes Conscious.
Click here for show notes and free episode transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
Disgust is an universal emotion, but unlike emotions like fear and anger, disgust must be learned. This is the main conclusion of Dr. Rachel Herz's latest book That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion. In a recent interview (BSP 86) Dr. Herz told me why she spent the last several years studying this rather unusual subject. We also discussed what the study of disgust can tell us about how our brains process emotion.
This is Dr. Herz's second visit to the Brain Science Podcast. Back in BSP 34 we talked about her first book The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell.
Episode Transcript (Free PDF)
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
Annoucements:
Dr. Sebastian SeungDr. Sebastian Seung (MIT) is an ambitious young scientist; his goal is to unravel the entire wiring diagram of the human brain. Considering that it took over a decade to determine the wiring diagram for the roundworm C elegans, which has a mere 302 neurons, it is clear that scientists can't leap directly to the 80 billion neuron human brain. Even so, in his new book Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are, Seung makes a very good argument for the value of this long term project. In Episode 85 of the Brain Science Podcast I talked with Dr. Seung both about the challenges and potential benefits of this work.
Click here for full show notes and free episode transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
In his latest book Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain respected neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explores how the discoveries of neuroscience impact how we see ourselves as human beings. After providing a brief review of 20th century neuroscience, and even some of the work from the past decade, Dr. Gazzaniga concludes that nothing neuroscience has discovered changes the fact that "we are personally responsible agents and are to be held accountable for our actions."
Gazzaniga's position contrasts with those who think that recent discoveries show that the brain creates the mind in solely "upwardly causal" way, and who argue that since much of what our brain does is outside our conscious awareness or control, we should not be held responsible for our actions. Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain presents what I think is a convincing argument against this common position.
In the latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 82) I present a detailed discussion of Dr. Gazzaniga's book.
Click here for detailed show notes and FREE episode transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
In his new book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain neuroscientist David Eagleman describes consciousness as "the smallest player in the operations of the brain" (page 5) because most of what the brain does is outside conscious awareness (and control). In a recent interview (BSP 75) Dr. Eagleman reviews some of the evidence for this startling position as well as the implications both for the average person and for social policy.
Click here for full show notes and free episode transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
Olaf Sporns, PhDNetworks of the Brain by Olaf Sporns is an excellent comprehensive introduction to the use of Network Theory to study both the brain and the nervous systems of invertebrates. In Episode 74 of the Brain Science Podcast I interviewed Dr. Sporns (Indiana University) about some of the key ideas in his book. Network Theory is becoming increasingly important as a tool for dealing with the massive amaounts of data being generated by current techniques, such as brain imaging. It is also a valuable tool with dealing with the fact that nervous systems consist of multiple scales (from the molecular level up to billions of neurons), which can not be reduced to a single scale.
While Networks of the Brain will be of greatest interest to those working in neuroscience and to those with a background in fields like engineering, mathematics, and computer science, this interview provides an introduction for listeners of all backgrounds.
Click here for detailed show notes including a free episode transcript.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 71) is our 4th annual review episode. As usual I review highlights from this year's interviews, but this year I added a new feature: my personal reflections on how the Brain Science Podcast has impacted my life. This episode also contains a special announcement for UK listeners.
Click here for full show notes and episode transcript.
The Brain Science Podcast has been nominated as the best Science Podcast in this year's People's Choice Podcast Awards.
The deadline for voting is December 15, 2010, but you are allowed to vote once a day until then.
Thank you for your support.
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
Send me feedback at gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 205-202-0663.
Recent research has discovered that glial cells (the non-neuronal cells that make up about 85% of the cells in the human nervous system) actually do more than just support neurons. In Episode 69 of the Brain Science Podcast I explore some of these recent discoveries with pioneering researcher, R. Douglas Fields, PhD. Dr. Fields is the author of The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science. The Other Brain provides a compelling introduction to this exciting new field. It is aimed at general readers, but it should also be on the must-read list for all students of neuroscience.
Click here for detailed show notes and episode transcript
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast: 
The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (2008) argues that we should re-evaluate our current approach to dementia. Earlier this month I posted an interview with the book's main author, Dr. Peter Whitehouse (BSP 68). Episode 36 of my Books and Ideas podcast is a follow-up interview with his co-author, Daniel George. As a medical anthropologist George helps put current attitudes into an historical perspective. Labeling large numbers of older people with the diagnosis of "Alzheimer's Disease" is a relatively new practice and a closer examination of how this occurred provides an interesting example of how the history of medicine (and science) is interwoven with political and social history. While Whitehouse and George challenge the current approach to dementia, there message is actually one of hope. I am recommending The Myth of Alzheimer's to people of all ages.
Listen to Episode 36 of Books and Ideas
Episode Transcript (Download PDF)
Subscribe to Books and Ideas Podcast: 
References:
Subscribe to Books and Ideas Podcast:
Episode 65 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Jaak Panksepp, PhD, author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Dr. Panksepp has done pioneering work on the neural origins of emotions. In this interview we discuss how his work challenges some of the common assumptions about emotions and some of the important implications of his discoveries. New listeners may want to go back and listen to Episode 11 for an introduction to the neuroscience of emotion.
Listen to Episode 65
Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:
Click here for full show notes and episode transcripts.
Listen to Episode 93