The Puzzle and the Hot Moment

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Patrick: I can never think of a time when my brain is comfortable admitting that it doesn't know why. It always comes up with something, something plausible. The study really made me question how do I know that any time I've ever laughed, whether or not it's for the genuine reason that I thought that I laughed. And then I ask myself why I don’t need a surgical team asking me why I ask why. Patrick: One more thing about Anna, because I want to try to bring out a little bit in a richer way, the puzzle and the hot moment that each of you had.

While operating on a 16-year-old girl who suffered from severe seizures, neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried stumbled on the region of the brain that makes us laugh. To neuroscientist Patrick House, Fried's ability to produce laughter surgically raises deep and disconcerting questions about how the brain works. Join Fried, House, and EconTalk's Russ Roberts for a live broadcast from Jerusalem's Shalem College that is a sequel of sorts to House's earlier appearance on EconTalk. House and Fried discuss the mystery of consciousness and try to square the biological bases for emotions with the circle of our humanity.