Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

This week we reach into the archive for one of the most popular episodes of Inner Cosmos.
Why do brains dream, and why are dreams so bizarre? Why doesn't your clock work in your dreams? And even though you spend much of your working day looking at your cell phone and computer – why do they almost never make appearances in your dream content? Is dream content the same across cultures and across time? Are dreams experienced in black & white, or in color? Are dreams the strange love child of brain plasticity and the rotation of the planet? What is the relationship between schizophrenia and dreaming? In the future, will we be able to read out the content of somebody's dream? Join Eagleman this week to learn why and how we spend a fraction of our sleep time locked in different realities, swimming in plots which aren't real but which compel us entirely nonetheless.

What's a feeling for? What is jealousy measuring and motivating? Why do both awe and grief slow us down? What happens when ancient emotions meet dating apps and like buttons? Does the intensity of a feeling decide which part of you takes control? Can understanding an emotion loosen its grip? Today we sit down with evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban to understand the logic behind the our varied panoply of emotions.

Can your smartwatch detect subtle changes before you feel them? Might a continuous glucose monitor pick up on things you didn’t know about yourself? Could a drop of blood map your future health? Why does your personal baseline matter more than a population average? Could AI decode the massive signaling networks of your body? Does seeing your own data change your behavior? Join Eagleman with Michael Snyder, Stanford professor of genetics and a pioneer in massive personal data, to understand what happens when healthcare moves from a snapshot of your body to a movie.

Why do two people facing the same choice feel different urges? How much effort hides behind resisting a cookie? Why can the brain keep wanting something long after pleasure fades? Can a molecule crank down the volume of your internal radio? Does a biological understanding of behavior reduce responsibility, or does it deepen compassion? And how would your life change if your loudest urge went quiet? Today Eagleman examines free will through the lens of eating disorders, with guest Paige Gordon, an author and former model who spent decades suffering an invisible internal battle.

What happens when we start birthing babies on Mars? Might a Martian human become unable to survive on Earth because of differences in microbes and gravity? How much of your body is shaped by the details of this planet? Will radiation accelerate human evolution on Mars? Could living on Mars eventually create a new species of human? Could Mars change the way humans dream? Would a Martian child find Earth's oceans as strange and awe-inspiring as we find another planet? Could two branches of humanity become too different to recognize each other? Today we’re joined by Scott Solomon, evolutionary biologist and author of the book “Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds”.