The Importance of Humor

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Haines: It's a very difficult thing to understand why we laugh. I have yet to hear a compelling explanation, like full scientific explanation for that simple emotion. And of course, if you write in your book, we don't know why people are sad, really. Right? Let's talk about artificial intelligence. Haines laughter is not over. It's a sound that reminds us of human laughter. Roger Scruton's book on human nature reflects on this at some length.

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.