All In The Mind
Science & Medicine
All In The Mind is Radio National's weekly foray into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour - everything from addiction to artificial intelligence. (Author: ABC Radio National)
| Subscribe | Subscribe via iTunes™ |
| Author | ABC Radio National |
| Feed | http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/mind.xml |
| Site | http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/default.htm |
| Badge |
|
Recent episodes from All In The Mind
-
Published: Sep 12, 08The dogma used to be that the adult brain was a rigid, unchangeable organ, but that pessimistic perspective is now being radically revised. Psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge journeyed into the labs and lives of the `neuroplasticians´ -- once scientific mavericks, they're challenging the old neurological nihilism. Professor Jeffrey Schwartz is one. They both join Natasha Mitchell in discussion to reveal how the human brain has underestimated itself! Next week, plasticity on the couch...
-
Published: Sep 5, 08Alcohol and pregnancy don´t mix. In extreme cases children are born with low birth weight, cranio-facial abnormalities, and restricted brain development. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a term now used to describe the range of devastating impacts. Some believe the lid needs to be lifted on this 'invisible disability', but others argue the label has the potential to discriminate too.
-
Published: Aug 29, 08A woman thought to be in a persistent vegetative state, unresponsive and unconscious to herself and the world, is asked to play a game of 'mental' tennis. Extraordinarily, brain scans reveal she can. In Australia, new ethical guidelines govern the care of people in this devastating situation. Besides new technologies and terminologies -- what prospects for those living frozen lives?
-
Published: Aug 22, 08Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more - with outspoken founder of the U.S Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.
-
Published: Aug 15, 08Why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function? What do linguistic taboos do to your brain? How are new words born? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self-confessed verbivore. To him language offers a window into the human mind and how it works. He joins Natasha Mitchell in a feature interview to argue there´s nothing mere about semantics.Radio National often provides links to external
-
Published: Aug 8, 08Venerable Robina Courtin, acclaimed Australian Tibetan Buddhist nun, has excavated the suffering mind at its greatest depths of despair. Founder of the Liberation Prison Project, she´s helped thousands of inmates release themselves from the prison within—their mind—using Buddhist techniques. Venerable Tenzin Palmo was one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun, spending years undergoing intense meditative practice in an isolated cave in the Himalayan mountains. We
-
Published: Aug 1, 08What makes someone gay? The quest for the biological roots of sexual orientation remains rife with controversy. Is it in your genes, handedness, or the hormonal soup of the early foetus? Or, is the answer hidden deep inside the brain? Homo or hetero - the science of sexual attraction captures everyone´s attention.
-
Published: Jul 25, 08As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. During a time of major institutional and cultural upheaval, the Office of the Patient´s Friend opened its doors in 1977, the first patient advocacy service to operate within the confines of an Australian psychiatric hospital. Part advocate, part whistle-blower—running the service has taken a might of steel and a heart of gold. Thirty years later, Nad
-
Published: Jul 18, 08As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind unearths stories from people who lived and worked there. A nurse reflects on life in the asylum during World War II before the dramatic arrival of modern medications, and two sisters reminisce on growing up at Goodna with their matron aunt in the 1930s. Very different insights from opposite sides of the ward walls.
-
Published: Jul 11, 08As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia´s largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there; from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts-and-all recollections of madness, care and abuse.
-
Published: Jul 11, 08As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia´s largest and oldest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there; from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts-and-all recollections of madness, care and abuse.
-
Published: Jul 4, 08In Austria, animal activists have taken the case of a chimp called Matthew as far as the European Court of Human Rights. Controversially, they´re fighting for his right to legal personhood. And, the incredible saga of Nim Chimpsky. A landmark effort to teach a chimp sign language and raise him like a human child. Project Nim became a scientific soap opera of epic proportions.
-
Published: Jun 27, 08What happens when your brain sees the world not as it really is? This week, the scientific effort to simulate out-of-body experiences to probe the limits of the self. And, remarkable stories of vision gone heywire—what they reveal about our `seeing brain´. Two scientists join Natasha Mitchell with extraordinary insights into how your brain creates your mind...
-
Published: Jun 20, 08One of the big names of the brain is Michael Gazzaniga, whose career was forged in the lab of Nobel laureate Roger Sperry. His striking experiments continue to uncover the differences between your left and right hemispheres. Today he´s on the US President´s Bioethics Council, heads up a major project on neuroscience and the law, and is a prolific writer of popular neuroscience. He joins Natasha Mitchell to reflect on the brain's left and right, and the mysterious nature of free will.
-
Published: Jun 13, 08An April Fools prank this year saw the launch of the World Anti-Brain Doping Authority. Jokes aside, drugs like Ritalin for ADHD and Modafinil for sleeping disorders are now being popped by people who want to be weller than well. Some argue that the spectre of 'smart drugs' and 'cosmetic pharmacology' pose a challenge to our authentic selves. Do we know the long term risks? And in the classroom, would brain-doping be cheating?
Advertisement
Popular Podcasts
-
Health -
Health -
News -
Music -
Sports & Recreation -
Sports & Recreation -
Music -
Music -
-
Arts & Entertainment