Science, Philosophy & the mind 🪐

I talk with science journalist Ziya Tong about how what we see and think about shapes how we live in the world.

What do the things you own say about who you are? Psychologist Bruce Hood studies our relationship with our possessions – from beloved childhood objects to the everyday items we leave behind. If yo...Show More

Turn on, tune in and drop out … that was the catch cry of U.S. psychologist Timothy Leary in the 1960s. By 1966 psychedelics were demonised and banned, but now—in controlled scientific settings—there'...Show More

I talk with neuroscientist Dean Buonomano about how the brain reconstructs time and other aspects of reality.

Magic mushrooms have hit the headlines, with people saying that shrooms cured their depression and anxiety. But is this for real? How can taking a trip on psychedelics fix your brain? Today, magic mus...Show More

One of the great challenges of life is to learn to be alone peaceably, at home in oneself. The pandemic forced many of us inside both physically and emotionally, even if we were not home on our own. W...Show More

I talk with psychologist Kathryn Paige Harden about how our genes affect who we become, and what that means for questions of fairness.

In this episode, I talk with David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, New York Times bestselling author, TED speaker, and Guggenheim Fellow, all about the brain and how it works. It’s mysterious, malleable, ...Show More

Vox's Sean Illing talks with author Michael Pollan about his new book This Is Your Mind on Plants, why some societies condemn drugs that other societies condone, what will happen as the war on drugs d...Show More

For some people the number six is red and music evokes a range of colours and shapes. Seeing sounds and hearing colours is one type of synesthesia—where the senses are crossed.  Meet an 11-year-old gi...Show More

This week at Invisibilia, we're bringing you an episode from NPR's Throughline about an emotion you might be feeling a lot these days: nostalgia. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better days', many of...Show More

Nearly every civilization since ancient times has portrayed explicit sexual acts. Sexuality’s numinous aspect has long brought it into close association with spirituality and religion. The powerful po...Show More

The nature of reality may be a complex philosophical question, but from a psychological viewpoint, reality is largely a question of adaptation to the truths of our inner and outer worlds. How well do ...Show More

The realization that our lives are incredibly brief and we are almost certainly not going to be remembered by anyone 100 years from now can cause deep angst—but it can also liberate us to abandon work...Show More

"I am not magically transformed by my relationship with mushrooms, but I am certainly on the right path." – Krissy Kneen Faced with the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, award-win...Show More

After surviving a brutal upbringing in the South Bronx, a man finds himself on the other side of death following a minor accident and returns with a profound awakening.

Yuval Noah Harari’s first book, “Sapiens,” was an international sensation. The Israeli historian’s mind-bending tour through the trump of Homo sapiens is a favorite of, among others, Bill Gates, Mark ...Show More

Sean Illing talks with writer Daniel Pink about his book The Power of Regret. They discuss why regret can be not only useful, but potentially the most valuable emotion we have. Daniel and Sean talk ab...Show More

How do you feel right now? Excited to listen to your favorite podcast? Anxious about the state of American politics? Annoyed by my use of rhetorical questions? These questions seem pretty straightforw...Show More

I talk with Richard Dawkins about the origin of flight, as well as conceptual issues at the heart of evolutionary biology.

Guilt and shame are often used interchangeably, but researchers in emotion and psychology say they are distinct – and often motivate people into very different paths of behaviour. For the feeling of ...Show More

I talk with geneticist David Reich about what ancient DNA has taught us about the history of humankind.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jay Garfield about the illusion of the self. They discuss the default sense of subjectivity, the difference between absolute and conventional tru...Show More

You first need to understand the mind of a hoarder before you can tackle the clutter. Randy Frost explains the meaning possessions play in our lives and how and why this can go astray.

“Studying history aims to loosen the grip of the past… It will not tell us what to choose, but at least it gives us more options.” – Yuval Noah Harari Yuval Noah Harari is the star historian who shot ...Show More

Myths. We tend to think they’re a thing of the past, fabrications that early humans needed to believe in because their understanding of the world was so meagre. But what if modern civilisation were it...Show More

Sean Illing talks with neuroscientist Gregory Berns, author of The Self Delusion. Berns claims that the idea of a unified, persistent self is a kind of illusion, and that we are better understood as m...Show More

Sean Illing talks with political science professor Matt McManus about the political thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher with a complicated legacy, despite his crossover...Show More