Andreas Killen
Historian and Professor of History at City College, CUNY, author of Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War, specializing in the history of science, medicine, and psychiatry.
Best podcasts with Andreas Killen
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Feb 1, 2026 • 53min
Andreas Killen, "Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War" (Harper, 2023)
Andreas Killen, historian and professor at City College, CUNY, and author of Nervous Systems, explores 1950s brain science and its cultural fallout. He traces breakthroughs like EEGs and awake surgery. He links Cold War paranoia, brainwashing claims, MKUltra, and pop culture portrayals. He follows threads from clinical cases to later continuities in interrogation and the War on Terror.
Feb 1, 2026 • 53min
Andreas Killen, "Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War" (Harper, 2023)
Andreas Killen, historian and professor at CUNY who studies the history of science and psychiatry. He traces 1950s breakthroughs that made the living brain visible. Short tales of patients and methods like EEG, awake neurosurgery, sensory deprivation, and psychopharmacology appear. Cold War fears of conditioning, the rise of brainwashing myths, and links to MKUltra and later interrogations are explored.
