What is consciousness?
To the general public it's one of the most profound and enduring mysteries of the human psyche. To specialists it's something we don't worry about much. In this episode, Katie and Patrick explore the semantic gap between broad popular conceptions of consciousness and narrower understanding held by neuroscientists and philosophers.
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1:10:38
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1:10:38
Cognitive Biases: Why Everyone Is Stupid Except Me!
On this episode Katie & Patrick discuss why cognitive biases are so popular—at least when applied to other people—even though these reasoning foibles are not exclusive to humans, probably not caused by the brain, and unlikely to explain much about behavior.
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57:14
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57:14
Learning Science, Learning Magic
Everyone knows that learning takes hard work, deep reading, study, and repeated practice. But wouldn't it be rad if it didn't? On this episode Katie and Patrick talk about the science of learning and the often more appealing—but less real—magic of learning.
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1:09:22
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1:09:22
AI Winter is Coming
AI oscillates between impressive breakthroughs and laughable failures. In this episode Katie & Patrick discuss AI booms and winters and what makes the technology so brittle. What can AI learn from neuroscience?
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1:04:05
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1:04:05
Hat Trick
What's so great about having a "normal" brain? Katie & Patrick discuss a trio of patients from Oliver Sacks' iconic book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat who have adapted to unusual configurations of their neural hardware. Listen to explore the diverse neuropsychology of the human species.
Neuroscientists Katie McAllister and Patrick Watson discuss the nervous system, scrutinize pop neuroscience, and attempt to understand why—despite millions of published articles and advances in artificial intelligence—everyone still seems to think the brain is a mysterious organ.