Featured Guests
The Brain Science Podcast provides a unique opportunity for scientists and writers to discuss their work and ideas in depth.
(Guest Interviewees updated once a month)
Check the Show Notes for more recent guests.
Frank Amthor, MD: Author of Neurobiology for Dummies; and Neuroscience for Dummies; Episode 110.
David J Anderson, PhD: Author of The Nature of the Beast: How Emotions Guide Us; Episode 195.
Michael Anderson, PhD: Author of After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain; Episode 124.
Michael Arbib, PhD: The role of mirror neurons in imitation and language; Episode 39.
Dan Ariely, PhD: Author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, was a guest on Books and Ideas #19.
Bernard Baars, PhD: Author of On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity; Episode 177.
David Badre, PhD: Author of On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done; Episode 190.
David Bainbridge, PhD: Author of Teenagers: A Natural History; Episode 63.
Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, PhD: Author of The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention; BS 181.
Lisa Barrett, PhD: Author of How Emotions Are Made; Episode 135.
Sian Beilock, PhD: Author of Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To; Episode 76.
Fabrizio Benedetti, MD: Author of Placebo Effects and The Patient's Brain; Episode 122, Episode 127.
Iris Berent, PhD: Author of The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature; BS 182.
Benjamin Bergen, PhD: Author of Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning; Episode 94.
Sandra Blakeslee: Co-author of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better; Episode 23.
Louann Brizendine MD: Author of The Female Brain; Episode 20.
Stuart Brown, MD: Author of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul; Episode 60.
Warren Brown, PhD: Co-author of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will; Episode 62.
Dean Burnett, PhD: Author of Happy Brain: Where Happiness Comes From, and Why; Episode 149.
Robert A. Burton, MD: Author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not; Episode 43: Author of A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves ; Episode 96
György Buzsáki, PhD: Author of Rhythms of the Brain; Episode 31; and The Brain from Inside Out; Episode 172.
Guy Caldwell, PhD: Discusses the use of C. Elegans and offers guidance to future scientists. Episode 59, Episode 205.
Paco Calvo, PhD: Author of Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Intelligence; Episode 206.
Alan Castel, PhD: author of Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging. Episode 154.
Anthony Chemero, PhD: Co-author of Phenomenology: An Introduction; Episode 123.
Patricia Churchland, PhD: Author of Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy; Episode 55. In Episode 81 Dr. Churchland returned to talk about her book Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality. In BS 158 we discussed Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition.
Andy Clark, PhD: Author of Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind; Episode 126.
Matthew Cobb, PhD: Author of The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience; Episode 171.
Bud Craig, PhD: Author of How Do You Feel?: An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self; Episode 121.
Antonio Damasio, PhD: Author of Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious; Episode 189.
Terrence Deacon, PhD: Author of Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter; Books & Ideas Episode 47.
Stanislas Dehaene, PhD: Author of How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now; BS 167.
Norman Doidge, MD: Author of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science; Episode 26; and The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroscience. Episode 116.
John E. Dowling, PhD: author of The Great Brain Debate and Understanding the Brain: From Cells to Behavior to Cognition. Episode 153.
Greg Downey, PhD: Author of The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology. Episode 97.
David Eagleman, PhD: Author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain; Episode 75; and Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain; Episode 187.
Alvaro Fernandez, MA: Co-author of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age; Episode 100.
R. Douglas Fields, PhD: Author of The Other Brain: The Scientific and Medical Breakthroughs That Will Heal Our Brains and Revolutionize Our Health; Episode 169.
Stephen Fleming, PhD: Author of Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness; Episode 185.
Allen Frances, M.D.: Author of Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life. Episode 102.
Angela Friederici, PhD: Author of Language in Our Brain: The Origins of a Uniquely Human Capacity. Episode 144.
Chris Frith, PhD: Author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World; Episode 57.
Jennifer Fugate, PhD: Co-editor of Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning; Episode 200.
Alice Gaby, PhD: Linguistics and its role in neuroscience; Episode 41.
CR Gallistel, PhD: Co-author of Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience; Episode 66.
Michael Gazzaniga, PhD: Author of Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience; Episode 117.
Daniel George: Co-author of The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis: Books and Ideas 36.
Arthur Glenberg, PhD: Embodied cognition; Episode 36.
Elkhonon Goldberg, PhD: Author of The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind, and, The Wisdom Paradox; Episode 18; Author of Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation; Episode 143.
Bruce Goldstein, PhD: Author of The Mind: Consciousness, Prediction, and the Brain; Episode 180.
Temple Grandin, PhD: Author of The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum; Episode 99.
Seth Grant, PhD: Mollecular biologist; Episode 51, Episode 101, Episode 137, Episode 150, Episode 176, and Episode 211.
Michael Graziano, PhD: Author of Consciousness and the Social Brain; Episode 108; Episode 142. Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience BS 162.
Pamela Greenwood, PhD: Co-Author of Nurturing the Older Brain and Mind; Episode 87.
Bill Harris, PhD: Author of Zero to Birth: How the Human Brain Is Built; Episode 201.
Jeff Hawkins: Author of On Intelligence; Episode 38; Episode 139; A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence; BS 183.
Herculano-Houzel, Suzana: Author of The Human Advantage: How Our Brains Became Remarkable; Episode 133.
Rachel Herz, PhD: Author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering our Enigmatic Sense of Smell; Episode 34; and That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion; Episode 86.
Cecilia Heyes, PhD: Author of Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking. BS 168.
Gregory Hickok, PhD: Author of The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition; Episode 112.
Bruce Hood, PhD: Author of SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable; Books and Ideas 34; The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity; Episode 88.
Mark Humphries, PhD: Author of The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds; Episode 186.
Alan Jasanoff, PhD: Author of The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are; Episode 146.
Allan Jones, PhD: Talked about the brain mapping projects at The Allen Institute for Brain Research; Episode 61.
Shella Keilholz, PhD: Talked about brain imaging in Episode 46. (Recorded live at Dragon*Con 2008)
Christof Koch, PhD: Author of The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach; Episode 22. In Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist. Episode 84. The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed. BS 163.
Nina Kraus, PhD: Author of Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World; BS 192.
Hakwan Lau, PhD: Author of In Consciousness we Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience; BS 196.
Daniel H. Lende, PhD: Author of The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology. Episode 97.
Joseph LeDoux, PhD: The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains. BS 161.
Penelope Lewis, PhD: Author of The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest; Episode 107.
Scott Lilienfeld, PhD: Co-author of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior; Episode 70.
Gary Lynch, PhD: Author of Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence; Episode 48.
Donald G MacKay, PhD: author of Remembering: What 50 Years of Research with Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us about Memory and How It Works; Episode 157.
Kevin J Mitchell, PhD: author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are; BS 159; Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will; BS 213
Stephen Macknik, PhD: Co-author of Sleights of Mind; BS 165 and BS 166
Sheila Macrine, PhD: Co-editor of Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning; Episode 200
Jon Mallatt: Evolutionary Biologist; Co-author of The Ancient Origins of Consciousness; Episode 128
Eve Marder, PhD: Pioneer researcher of neural circuits; Episode 148.
Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD: Co-author of Sleights of Mind; Episode 72.
John Medina, PhD: Author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School; Episode 37; author of Brain Rules for Aging Well: 10 Principles for Staying Vital, Healthy, and Sharp; Episode 138.
Michael Merzenich, PhD: Pioneered the study of brain plasticity; Episode 54. Episode 105.
Batja Mesquita: Author of Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions; BS 199.
Thomas Metzinger, PhD: Author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self; Episode 67. Episode 212.
Middlebrooks, Paul, PhD: Creator and host of the Brain Inspired podcast; Episode 155.
Brenda Milner, PhD: Pioneering neuroscientist; Episode 49; Episode 129.
Read Montague, PhD: Author of Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions; Episode 15.
Miguel Nicolelis, MD, PhD: Author of Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives, Episode 79.
Andreas Nieder, PhD: Author of A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct; BS 170.
Alva Noë, PhD: Author of Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, Episode 58.
Georg Northoff, MD, PhD: Author of The Spontaneous Brain: From the Mind–Body to the World–Brain Problem; BS 174.
Mary-France O'Connor, PhD: Author of The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss; BS 194.
Jaak Panksepp, PhD: Author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions; Episode 65; The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotion, Episode 91; Remembering Jaak Panksepp, pioneer of affective neuroscience, Episode 134.
Luiz Pessoa, PhD: Author of The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration; Episode 106; The Entangled Brain: How Perception, Cognition, and Emotion Are Woven Together; BS 209.
Rolf Pfiefer, PhD: Author of How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence; Episode 25.
Russell Poldrack, PhD: Author of The New Mind Readers: What Neuroimaging Can and Cannot Reveal about Our Thoughts; Episode 156.
Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, PhD: Author of The Forgetting Machine: Memory, Perception, and the "Jennifer Aniston Neuron." Episode 141.
John J Ratey, MD: Author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain; Episode 33 and Episode 111. In Episode 45 Dr. Ratey returned to talk about ADD.
Jason Schneiderman, PhD: Talks about brain imaging; Episode 46.
Anil Seth, PhD: Author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness; Episode 188.
Sebastian Seung, PhD: Author of Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are; Episode 85.
Stuart Shanker, PhD: How the study of communication among bonobos provides clues about the role of emotional signaling in the evolution of language; Episode 7.
Lawrence Shapiro, PhD: Author of Embodied Cognition; Episode 73.
Daniel J Siegel, MD: Meditation and the Brain; Episode 44.
Mark Solms, PhD: Author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Origins of Consciousness; Episode 184.
Olaf Sporns, PhD: Author of Networks of the Brain; Episode 74, and Discovering the Human Connectome, Episode 103.
Peter Sterling, PhD: Author of What Is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design; BS 178.
Edward Taub, PhD: Revolutionary approach to stroke rehabilitation; Episode 28, Episode 119, Episode 120.
Carol Tavris, PhD: Author of Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts; Episode 175.
Evan Thompson, PhD: Author of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Episode 89) and Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy (Episode 115); interview on meditation and embodied cognition (Episode 202).
William Uttal, PhD: Author of Mind and Brain: A Critical Appraisal of Cognitive Neuroscience; Episode 83.
Sander van der Linden, PhD: Author of Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity; Episode 208.
Peter Whitehouse, MD: Co-author of The Myth of Alzheimer’s; Episode 68.
Maryanne Wolf, PhD: Author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain; Episode 29; author of Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century; Episode 145.
