Hidden Brain

Unleashing Your Creativity

Most people think about creativity as something that just strikes you — like a bolt of lightning. But research suggests that creativity is less about sudden inspiration and more about the associations your brain makes between concepts. The more unusual and distant those associations, the more creative the idea.

EconTalk

Facing Death (with Sebastian Junger)

When Junger nearly died from a ruptured artery, he experienced something unexpected: he saw his dead father, and felt completely calm and unafraid. The experience didn't make him religious, but it made him think that the human brain may have evolved to make death easier — that the terror of dying may be much less than the terror of anticipating it.

TED Radio Hour

A neuroscientist's guide to managing our emotions

Our brain is like our very own Stradivarius. When our emotions are triggered out of proportions, that's akin to me trying to play a Stradivarius violin. It can cause enormous pain for both the player as well as those around us.

Book of the Day

To understand consciousness, Michael Pollan looked at plants, AI and himself

Sensience is kind of the base default case of having a certain awareness of your environment and a sense of the changes taking place in your environment and whether they're good for you or bad for you and then the ability to move toward the positive and away from the negative. Consciousness is kind of how we do sensience.