In this episode, we explore the fascinating world of the brain’s hemispheres and their profound impact on how we perceive and engage with reality.

My guest is Dr. Iain McGilchrist.

Iain is a true polymath—a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, philosopher, and literary scholar.

He’s been a Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford and an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College. He’s also a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and previously served as Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital in London. He’s been a research fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins and was a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He is also the author of a number of groundbreaking books, but is best-known for The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World and his monumental two-volume work, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World.

Iain contends that the way the two hemispheres of the brain operate is fundamentally distinct. It’s not that the hemispheres handle different functions, but that they approach these functions in entirely different ways.

In this episode…

The Divided Brain
Attention and Survival
Hemispheric Differences
Historical Shifts in Society
Mental Health and Modern Society
Black and White Thinking
Mindfulness and Meditation
Intuition and Emotion
The Importance of Open-Mindedness
Consciousness and the Brain
The Role of AI and Mechanization
The Purpose of Life and Evolution

Ian’s ability to weave neuroscience, history, philosophy, and even poetry into a compelling thesis is unparalleled.

Enjoy!

For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com

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