Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

Release Date

All Episodes

Ep143 "How do things last?" Part 1: neurons to civilizations

What makes things last, and what do very different lasting things have in common? Why might a space alien not be able to understand music? Why do windows in medieval cathedrals look thicker at the bottom, and what does this reveal about the world’s religions? What was the most im ... Show more

. 44min 23sec

Ep142 "Do breakthroughs require rule-breakers?" with Eric Weinstein

Why do revolutionary ideas so often come from outsiders? Do good scientists sometimes crowd out great ones? Do we still have room for scientific cowboys? And what is the relationship between national security and modern science? Are scientists participants in a larger game they b ... Show more

. 1h 32min

Ep141 "What do brains and weather systems have in common?" with Nicole Rust

Does brain science need a new grand plan? Is the brain less like an assembly line and more like a weather system? What does this mean for what counts as explanatory, and how might AI help us in the near future? What does any of this have to do with how the drug Ritalin got its na ... Show more

. 36min 42sec

Ep140 "How does your brain decide what’s true?" with Sam Harris

Why do we believe what we believe? Why is changing our opinions so difficult, and why does a challenged belief so often feel like a personal attack? What if beliefs didn’t evolve to be true, but to be socially useful? Today we speak with Sam Harris about the topic of our beliefs: ... Show more

. 1h 20min

Ep139 "What does alignment look like in a society of AIs?" with Danielle Perszyk

Is intelligence a property of individual brains, or is it something that emerges from many brains trying to align with one another? How can we build AI agents to improve our understanding of the world and to mediate between rivaling humans? For this and much more, we speak today ... Show more

. 58min 24sec