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Radiolab / May 08, 2007

Radiolab

Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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  • Who Am I?

    The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. Today, it’s neurologists who, armed with giant magnets, are asking the big questions, like "How does the brain make me?" We stare into the mirror with Dr. Julian Keenan, reflect on the illusion of self-hood with British neurologist Paul Broks, contemplate the evolution of consciousness with Dr. V. S. Ramachandran. Also, the story of woman who one day woke up as a completely different person.

Mind Wide Open

Where is that part that is "me"?

Looking into a mirror as a young child, Steven Johnson wondered, "How is that me?" We try to find that part of the brain that recognizes ones self with Montclair State University Professor Julian Keenan. Turns out: only half of your brain really knows who you are. Also, Independent radio producer Hannah Palin tells about her mother, who, after suffering an aneurism, woke up with a completely different personality. She looks the same, and has the same memories, but where did her old mother go? One possible answer: Vietnam. Later, Paul Broks continues the discussion on the fragility of the self.

Steven Johnson's Book: Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
Julian Keenan's Book: The Face in the Mirror: The Search for the Origins of Consciousness
Paul Broks' book: Into The Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology
Hear a longer version of Hannah Palin's story on Transom.org

  • "Prologue"   Alexandre Desplat - From the film Birth - New Line Records
  • "Fount"   Fourcolor - Water Mirror - Apestaartje
  • "The Little Green Thing"   Tom Recchion - L.A.F.M.S./The Lowest Form Of Music - RRRecords
  • "Quartet #3 in F Major, Op. 73"   Emerson String Quartet - Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets - Deutsche Grammophon
  • "Hiraethus"   Daedalus - Of Snowdonia - Plug Research
  • "Houston in Two Seconds"   Ry Cooder - From the film Paris, Texas
  • "Theme From Alamo Bay"   Ry Cooder - From the film Alamo Bay
  • "East St. Louis"   Ry Cooder - From the film Trespass

The Story of Me

We visit U.C. San Diego Neurologist, V.S. Ramachandran who tells us about the evolution of human consciousness...or the difference between the way we think of some abstraction, like love and the way a baboon thinks of a rear end. Something in the way our brain operates tells us about our ability to imagine and perceive ourselves. Paul Broks, author of Into the Silent Land, invites us into his childhood dreams, inhabited by tiny little men whom he had no control over. Robert Lewis Stevenson, famed spinner of dark tales, had his own little men in his head, that he exploited for fame and profit.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Book: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Actor Joshua Kane's website

  • "Maddalena"   Mus - Fai - Darla Records
  • "Vertigo"   Radian - Juxtaposition - Thrill Jockey
  • "Zwei Sonatinen for piano Op.1- No. I- II: Larghetto"   Stephen De Pledge - Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater - Black Box
  • "The Gal From Joe's "   Duke Ellington - The Duke: The Columbia Years, 1927-1962

I haven't been myself lately

Robert Sapolsky, a Neuroscience Professor at Stanford University, relates how porous the boundary can be between two distinct selves, and how maybe this is a perfectly healthy phenomenon.

More about Robert Sapolsky
Robert Sapolsky's Book: The Trouble wiht Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament

  • "Beauties Can Die"   M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts - Mute Records