The Gray Area with Sean Illing
Society & Culture:Philosophy
Sean Illing talks with neuroscientist Gregory Berns, author of The Self Delusion. Berns claims that the idea of a unified, persistent self is a kind of illusion, and that we are better understood as multiple selves at different moments in time, tied together by a story — which is what we call our identity. Sean and Greg also talk about whether the brain is a computer, how perception works, the limits of thinking too much about thinking, and what psychedelics can do to disrupt and change the stories we tell about ourselves.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Gregory Berns (@gberns), author; professor of psychology and distinguished professor of neuroeconomics, Emory University
References:
Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
This episode was made by:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gaza, Camus, and the logic of violence
This is your kid on smartphones
Life after death?
The world after Ozempic
UFOs, God, and the edge of understanding
How to listen
Everything's a cult now
Fareed Zakaria on our revolutionary moment
Life is hard. Can philosophy help?
The American dream is a pyramid scheme
The chaplain who doesn't believe in God
Can a friend be our most significant other?
The power of climate fiction
The denial of death
A brief history of extinction panics
The new(ish) world order
The free-market century is over
Music and mysticism
The case for banning...millionaires?
The joy of uncertainty
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Today, Explained
Re/Code Decode
The Vergecast
Explain It to Me
Shutdown Fullcast