Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

Week 2 of Mental Health Awareness month: Anxiety is close to everyone’s experience, either because you've had it or someone close to you has. Does your brain accidentally teach itself to stay anxious by looping on the same fears? Is anxiety helping you perform better, or does it make everything harder? Is it possible to unlearn worry the same way you learned it? Join Eagleman with Dr. Jud Nelson, who suffered with anxiety as a young man... and then became a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies anxiety and developed a very different approach to its treatment.

What do you do when your own mind stops feeling safe? How does a person sing on stage while panicking inside? How do you catch your thoughts before they catch you? Join Eagleman with singer/songwriter Jewel to talk about mental health: the battles she’s lived, the wisdom she’s earned, and the lives she’s helping shape. This episode kicks off Mental Health Awareness month, when we’re reminded to look directly at what is typically hidden. A troubled mind with stormy weather can often remain dark; join us this month to bring some light.

Why do we generally feel like the world is getting worse, when by almost all measures it’s getting better? How do ideas "have sex”, and why does that matter for innovation? Why do brains tend to systematically misread the future? What if optimism is a more rational stance than pessimism? If innovation isn’t primarily about lone geniuses, what’s it really about? Join Eagleman with scientist and author Matt Ridley to explore what it means to be, in Ridley’s phrasing, a "rational optimist".

Can you influence what you dream about tonight? Are you spending years of your life in a world you don’t recall? Can nightmares be manipulated as a therapy? Are dreams sometimes predictive of changes in your health before you become aware of them? Join Eagleman with Adam Haar Horowitz, a neuroscientist and dream engineer who spends his working days trying to help people during their night time.

How can a brain grow up in chaos but find its way to order? There are many ways to have a bad childhood, but why do some children break while others bend and keep going? How much of who you are is written in your genes & how much is sculpted by your environment? How many versions of you were possible & why did this one win out? Join Eagleman today with David Sussillo, who was abandoned as a child but grew up to become a neuroscientist & technologist. We’ll explore what his trajectory teaches about our genes, brains, and our own lives.