The Mind v the Brain

In this Christmas episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage, Brian Cox and Robin Ince head to the North Pole to explore the dazzling science behind the northern lights, the extreme adaptations that help animals - and even Santa Claus - survive the Arctic cold, and how the Earth’s magne ...  Show more

In perhaps the monkiest Infinite Monkey Cage episode there’s ever been, Brian Cox and Robin Ince attempt to uncover the secrets of love, lust and friendship in primates. Swinging by to offer a hand (or tail) are evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, anthropologist Jo Setchell, ...  Show more

Philosophers have long pondered the concept of a brain in a jar, hooked up to a simulated world. Though this has largely remained a thought experiment, CrowdScience listener JP wants to know if it might become reality in the not-too-distant future, with advances in stem cell r ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the relationship between the mind and the brain as they discuss recent developments in Neuroscience. In the mid-19th century a doctor had a patient who had suffered a stroke. The patient was unable to speak save for one word. The word was ‘Tan’ whi ...  Show more

It's pretty obvious to each of us that we are conscious, as we go about our days and feel the experience of just ‘being ourselves'. But how do we know that someone else is conscious?

It’s something we lose during dreamless sleep, under anaesthesia or in a coma. But wha ...

Have you considered that you might be a brain in a vat of liquid floating in a laboratory somewhere? How can you know that the world around you is real, not just a simulation being piped directly to your brain? In episode 30, Ellie and David unpack one of philosophy's favorite ...