Season 2 · Episode 8 — The Electric Brain
Our nervous system is fundamentally electric. We move our arm by sending a signal to the muscles that control it. That means we can bypass our brains and use electricity to control our bodies, or use our minds to control other bodies. In this episode, I explore how we can use electricity and our brains to control cockroaches, move other people’s limbs, restore motion to people who are paralyzed, and even read people’s minds.
Season 2 episodes
E1Would you reroute a train to run over one person to prevent it from running over five others? In the classic “Trolley Problem” survey, most…
E2Do psychedelic drugs really bring about self-healing and personal enlightenment? New research says they may. In this episode, I travel to t…
E3Psychology. Neuroscience. Drugs. All can be tools of interrogation. In this episode, an expert shows me how to coerce unsuspecting subjects…
E4Technology isn’t just changing our lives. It’s literally changing our brains -- and maybe for the better. In this episode, I’m a human lab…
E5What makes a hero? Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, now runs seminars to teach everyda…
E6Exactly how do placebos work? Researchers believe that, through the power of suggestion, placebos may unleash the power of our own subconsc…
E7Scientists can’t dissect living people’s brains to study their function. But by examining the behavior of people whose brains are atypical…
E8Our nervous system is fundamentally electric. We move our arm by sending a signal to the muscles that control it. That means we can bypass…