Best-selling author of Being You, superstar neuroscientist Anil Seth in discussion on selfhood, the fundamentals of consciousness and why we should be optimistic about the future of the science.
In the first episode of the new series of Enter the Psychosphere, Melanie talks with award-winning writer and scientist, Gaia Vince, on her book Transcendence and the cultural and cognitive shifts that have made us as transformative as we are.
Science writer, Brandon Keim joins Melanie for a discussion of animal personhood and how meeting animals as persons might alter how we behave towards them.
Philosopher David Livingstone Smith joins a discussion on dehumanization, racism, and what we can all do to resist the urge to see one another as less than human.
World-renowned researcher into the behavioural ecology of fishes, Culum Brown, speaks to Melanie about the frontiers of fish intelligence and how we should rethink the lives of one of the most numerous organisms on Earth.
Today’s guest is the trans writer and academic, Grace Lavery. Grace is an associate professor in the department of English at the University of Berkeley and General Editor of Transgender Studies Quarterly. Discussions of sex and gender, and the
Harvard Professor of Astronomy Avi Loeb discusses his book Extraterrestrial, the biases and prejudices that can make science resistant to earth-shattering new ideas, and the possibility of advanced alien intelligences.
Renowned neuroscientist and specialist on the minds of dolphins and whales, Lori Marino, speaks to Melanie about her work as a scientist-advocate, and what we can know about the intelligence and psychology of cetaceans.
Neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell, author of the book Innate, talks us through the development of our minds and what we can understand of how living entities come to see value and meaning from simple goals.
Psychologist Charles Fernyhough discusses his research on the phenomenon of "hearing voices", and what the studies can tell us about minds and neurodiversity.
Best-selling author of the book Kindred, archaeologist Rebecca Wragg-Sykes chats with Melanie about the intelligence of Neanderthals and what their skill with technology might reveal about their kind of mind.
A fascinating conversation with Carl Safina on the intelligence and culture of other animals, and how we should think about the rest of the living world.
Best-selling author of The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery talks with Melanie about animal minds and the special species she's connected with over the years.
Diver and philosopher, Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of Other Minds and Metazoa, among other works, discusses the origins of consciousness deep under the sea...
A provocative discussion with renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett and Professor Michael Levin on their ground-breaking work thinking about agency at the level of the cell and what we can learn about minds from bioelectrics.
In this episode, we meet philosopher of mind Peter Godfrey-Smith, the best-selling author of Other Minds and Metazoa. We enter the extraordinary world of octopuses and consider how consciousness might have evolved in the watery worlds of the se