All in the Mind - It's a Mindfield! All in the Mind at the 2010 Sydney Writers' Festival

I didn't think this would be that interesting, as much as I like books, but it turned out to be an entertaining podcast. I need to learn not to doubt Natasha Mitchell - her shows are generally among my favorite podcasts.

The book under discussion (Mindfield: How Brain Science is Changing Our World by Lone Frank) looks great, and is now on my wishlist:


Before the podcast, here is the All in the Mind blog entry for this show, which as usual contains good stuff not in the podcast.

Tackling the neurorevolution at the 2010 Sydney Writers' Festival

ABC Radio National had a ball at the 2010 Sydney Writers' Festival this year. The team worked extraordinarily hard to set up a portable radio station down at Sydney's beautiful Walsh Bay to capture the festival and broadcast it on ABC digital radio and online (kudos to the technical & production crew). It was tremendous fun, and I really hope we get to do it again in 2011!

I also hosted a conversation with Danish science journalist and former neurobiologist, Dr Lone Frank, author of Mindfield: How Brain Science is Changing the World.

It was a hoot, and I must say reading her terrific book was uncanny. A sort of "This is Your Life", as many of the people she has met and interviewed for the book, I have too for All in the Mind over the years. And I've visited many of the places she describes.....held a brain at Harvard.... peered curiously at the preserved slices of the precious organ with George Tejada at the Harvard Brain Bank out at McLean hospital....submitted myself to a brain scan in the interests of science journalism. Parallel working lives in some ways, but in different hemispheres of the world and in different languages!

Catch the discussion with the lively Lone Frank on-air or on the All in the Mind website here.

As promised, here are some extra titbits from our conversation not in the radio & podcast version, including questions from the ever enthusiastic Writers' Festival audience.

LoneFrank_cognitive_parasites

- Anthropologist and psychologist Pascal Boyer describes religion as a 'parasite of the cognitive apparatus', and as 'being well adapted to our mental equipment'. Lone Frank explains his idea.

LoneFrank_lie_detection

- NoLie fMRI is one of two companies who have set up in the USA claiming that brain scans will become the new lie detection devices. On what basis, and will they find use in the courts anytime soon?

For more on the case I mentioned in the conversation with Lone (but don't detail), have a read of Alex Madrigal's coverage for Wired magazine.

And....

The Sydney Writers' Festival audience pose some questions to Lone Frank

LoneFrank_QandA

Enjoy.

Would you be up for a bit of neuroenhancement? Comment here or over on the All in the Mind webpage for this week's show here.

So now the podcast:

It's a Mindfield! All in the Mind at the 2010 Sydney Writers' Festival

Listen Now - 2010-05-29 |Download Audio - 29052010

Is neuroscience the new philosophy? Danish science writer and neurobiologist Lone Frank thinks the radical self-knowledge it offers us will help us transcend human nature. From the stage of the Sydney Writers' Festival, she dons The God Helmet, encounters her chemical self, and hesitates before having a brain scan.

Show Transcript

Guests

Dr Lone Frank
Science writer and neurobiologist
Denmark
http://www.lonefrank.dk/

Further Information

All in the Mind blog with Natasha Mitchell - features EXTRA audio from this week's interviews
You can comment on the program on the blog, or here on the program page directly too - it's easy - just look for Add Your Comment above.

Sydney Writers Festival (SWF)

You Are Not Your Brain Scan!
Public lecture given by Natasha Mitchell at the 2009 Adelaide Festival of Ideas

Lie-Detection Brain Scan Could Be Used in Court for First Time
Story by Alex Madrigal in Wired magazine, May 2009

The Brain on Trial
Broadcast on All in the Mind, ABC Radio National, 2010

Mind Reading (part 1 of 2)
Broadcast on All in the Mind, ABC Radio National, 2007

Neuroethics and the 21st Century Brain
broadcast on All in the Mind, 2005

You are not your brain scan! Critical reporting on the mind sciences
Broadcast on All in the Mind, ABC Radio National, 2007

Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement
Broadcast on All in the Mind, 2008

The Coming of the Neurosociety
Broadcast on All in the Mind, 2004

When words and science meet (All in the Mind at the 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival)

Courage: Guts, grit, spine, heart, and verve (All in the Mind at the 2008 SWF)

Writing the Brain: Part 1 - Into the Silent Land with Paul Broks (All in the Mind at the 2007 SWF)

Mind games: coma calamities and delusional deliberations (All in the Mind at the 2007 SWF)

Writing the Brain: Part 2 - Neuroscience and creativity with Sue Woolfe
Broadcast on All in the Mind, 2007

Publications

Title: Mindfield: How Brain Science is Changing Our World (published in English and Danish)
Author: Lone Frank
Publisher: One World, Oxford, 2007, 2009

Title: The New Life (published in Danish)
Author: Lone Frank
Publisher: Gyldendal, 2004

Title: Cloned Tigers (published in Danish)
Author: Lone Frank
Publisher: Gyldendal, 2005

Tags: brain, Psychology, mind, self concept, Philosophy, All in the Mind, Natasha Mitchell, Mindfield, How Brain Science is Changing Our World, Lone Frank, neuroscience, neurobiology