The Brain with David Eagleman

Last updated
The Brain with David Eagleman
GenreScience documentary
Created by David Eagleman
Written by David Eagleman
Directed byJulian Jones, Toby Trackman, Nick Stacey, Catherine Gale, Johanna Woolford Gibbon, Dan Clifton, Glenn Barden, [1] [2]
StarringDavid Eagleman
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes6
Production
ProducersJustine Kershaw
Jennifer Beamish
Running time56 minutes
Production companyBlink Films
Original release
Network PBS (United States), BBC (United Kingdom), SBS (Australia)
ReleaseOctober 2015 (2015-10) 
present

The Brain with David Eagleman is a PBS documentary series created and presented by neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman. Eagleman explores the wonders of the human brain with the goal of revealing why we feel and think the things we do. [3] [4] [5] The series debuted on PBS in 2015, [6] followed by airings on the BBC in the United Kingdom and the SBS in Australia.

Contents

Episode List

The series consists of six 1-hour episodes: [7]

EpisodeTitle
01What Is Reality?
02What Makes Me Me?
03Who's in Control?
04How Do I Decide?
05Why Do I Need You?
06Who Will We Be?

Book

Eagleman's book to accompany the series, The Brain: The Story of You, [8] was co-published by Pantheon Books (US) and Canongate Books (UK).

Reception

The series and accompanying book garnered wide critical acclaim. The New York Times listed it as one of the best television shows of 2015. [9] Forbes magazine wrote that "in the fine tradition of Carl Sagan, Eagleman shows that science is captivating without hyped embellishment, and, if you pay attention, you'll find yourself immersed in it". [10] The scientific journal Nature described the series as "an ideal introduction to how biology generates the mind... structured around crucial and wide-ranging questions, saturated with personal and social relevance. And Eagleman's answers are consistently clear, engaging and thought-provoking." [11] Actor Hugh Laurie described the series as one of the influences for his television series Chance. [12] Hugh Laurie also tweeted his advice about the show: "I recommend a facial truss, to prevent your chin hitting the floor hard and often." [13] Texas Monthly Magazine suggested that Eagleman is "the Carl Sagan of neuroscience". [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Sagan</span> American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)

Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. He argued in favor of the hypothesis, which has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus are the result of the greenhouse effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry David</span> American comedian, writer and actor (born 1947)

Lawrence Gene David is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom Seinfeld, on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons. He gained further recognition for creating and writing the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which he also stars as a fictionalized version of himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Laurie</span> English actor, comedian, and musician (born 1959)

James Hugh Calum Laurie is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two acted together in a number of projects during the 1980s and 1990s, including the BBC sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the P. G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster. From 1986 to 1989 he appeared in three series of the period comedy Blackadder, first as a guest star in the last two episodes of Blackadder II, before joining the main cast in Blackadder the Third, and going on to appear in Blackadder Goes Forth and many specials.

<i>Charlie Rose</i> (talk show) American television interview show

Charlie Rose is an American television interview and talk show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show was syndicated on PBS from 1991 until 2017 and is owned by Charlie Rose, Inc. Rose interviewed thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, businesspersons, leaders, scientists, and fellow newsmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Berlin</span> American neuroscientist

Heather A. Berlin is an American neuroscientist and licensed clinical psychologist noted for her work in science communication and science outreach. Her research focuses on brain-behavior relationships affecting the prevention and treatment of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric disorders. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Berlin is host of the PBS Nova series Your Brain, the PBS series Science Goes to the Movies, the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, and StarTalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Eagleman</span> American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator (born 1971)

David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator. He teaches neuroscience at Stanford University and is CEO and co-founder of Neosensory, a company that develops devices for sensory substitution. He also directs the non-profit Center for Science and Law, which seeks to align the legal system with modern neuroscience and is Chief Science Officer and co-founder of BrainCheck, a digital cognitive health platform used in medical practices and health systems. He is known for his work on brain plasticity, time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw.

The Science Network (TSN) is a non-profit virtual forum dedicated to science and its impact on society. It was initially conceived in 2003 by Roger Bingham and Terry Sejnowski as a cable science TV network modeled on C-SPAN. TSN later became a global digital platform hosting videos of lectures from scientific meetings and long form one-on-one conversations with prominent scientists and communicators of science, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, V.S. Ramachandran, Helen S. Mayberg, and Barbara Landau. TSN has also sponsored and co-sponsored scientific forums, such as Stem cells: science, ethics and politics at the crossroads, held at the Salk Institute in 2004 and the Beyond Belief conference series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Bingham</span> British science communicator, writer, and public television producer and host

Roger Bingham was a science educator, author and television host based in La Jolla, California. He was co-founder and director of the Science Network (TSN), a virtual forum dedicated to science and its impact on society. Bingham was also the creator of the Beyond Belief conferences.

<i>Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives</i> 2009 book by David Eagleman

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, also simply called Sum, is a work of speculative fiction by American neuroscientist David Eagleman. It is in press in 28 languages as of 2016. The Los Angeles Times described it as "teeming, writhing with imagination." Barnes and Noble named it one of the Best Books of 2009.

Possibilianism is a philosophy that rejects both the diverse claims of traditional theism and the positions of certainty in strong atheism in favor of a middle, exploratory ground. The term was invented by Robbie Parrish, a friend of neuroscientist David Eagleman who defined the term in relation to his 2009 book, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Cytowic</span> American neurologist and author

Richard E. Cytowic is an American neurologist and author who rekindled interest in synesthesia in the 1980s and returned it to mainstream science. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his New York Times Magazine cover story about James Brady, the Presidential Press Secretary shot in the brain during the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Cytowic’s writing ranges from textbooks and music reviews, to his Metro Weekly "Love Doctor" essays and brief medical biographies of Anton Chekhov, Maurice Ravel and Virginia Woolf. His work is the subject of two BBC Horizon documentaries, “Orange Sherbert Kisses” (1994) and “Derek Tastes of Earwax” (2014).

Apollo Robbins is an American sleight-of-hand artist, security consultant, self-described gentleman thief and deception specialist. Forbes has called him "an artful manipulator of awareness".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Vaughn</span> American neuroscientist

Don Vaughn is an American neuroscientist and science communicator. He is a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior and adjunct faculty at Santa Clara University.

Sean Lewis Hill is an American neuroscientist, Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, and inaugural Scientific Director of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics in Toronto, Canada. He is also co-director of the Blue Brain Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne located on the Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland. He is known for the development of large-scale computational models of brain circuitry, neuroinformatics, and innovation in AI for mental health.

<i>Knowing Neurons</i>

Knowing Neurons is a neuroscience education website created in 2012 by PhD graduate students at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The website features regular content focused on elucidating fundamental neuroscience concepts, new research, and current hypotheses. Special series featured on Knowing Neurons include the weekly 52 Brain Facts infographics than ran from 2015 to 2016 and the series Weird Animal Brains on comparative neurobiology that debuted in 2016. Most content on Knowing Neurons is in the form of articles, infographics, book reviews, and interviews with prominent neuroscientists. Knowing Neurons has also produced several YouTube videos, including interviews with people with synesthesia and an animated video This Is Your Brain on Music narrated by actor Bob Turton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moran Cerf</span> American-French-Israeli neuroscientist and business professor

Moran Cerf is an American-French-Israeli neuroscientist, professor of business, investor and former white hat hacker.

<i>Livewired</i> (book) 2020 book by David Eagleman

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain is a non-fiction book by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University. The book explores and extends the phenomenon of brain plasticity, with the term livewired proposed as a term to supersede plastic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michele Ross</span> Author, reality tv star, cannabis advocate

Michele Noonan Ross, also known as Michele Ann Noonan, Michele Osztrogonacz, and Michele Osztrogonacz Ross, is an American neuroscientist, author, and media personality. She is a noted drug policy reform activist, promoting cannabis, magic mushroom, and kratom legalization.

References

  1. "BBC Four - The Brain with David Eagleman, Why Do I Need You?". BBC. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  2. The Brain with Dr. David Eagleman (TV Series 2015– ) - IMDb , retrieved 2019-09-05
  3. "David Eagleman's New TV Show The Brain Gets Inside Your Head". Newsweek. 15 October 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  4. "David Eagleman Wants You to Meet Your Brain". New York Magazine. 14 October 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  5. Gareth Cook (Oct 6, 2015). "Exploring the Mysteries of the Brain - David Eagleman answers questions about his major PBS series". Scientific American.
  6. "The Brain with David Eagleman". Public Broadcasting Service.
  7. "The Brain with David Eagleman". TV Guide.
  8. The Brain: The Story of You
  9. "The Best TV Shows of 2015". New York Times. Dec 7, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  10. David DiSalvo (Oct 13, 2015). "The Cosmos Inside Your Head: Neuroscientist David Eagleman Tells The Story Of The Brain On PBS". Forbes Magazine.
  11. Daniel Bor (Oct 1, 2015). "Neuroscience: The mechanics of mind". Nature. 526 (7571): 41–42. Bibcode:2015Natur.526...41B. doi: 10.1038/526041a .
  12. Ned Zeman (Mar 31, 2016). "Face to Face With Hugh Laurie". Wall Street Journal.
  13. "Tweet from Hugh Laurie about The Brain".
  14. Michael Hardy (October 14, 2015). "Is David Eagleman Neuroscience's Carl Sagan?". Texas Monthly.

The Brain with David Eagleman on the Internet Movie Database