The Giants Shoulder

Michael Levin, a pioneering biologist known for his work on xenobots, discusses cells exhibiting surprising regenerative capacities and their unexpected behaviors. Philosopher Anna Ciaunica argues that cognition predates neurons, presenting intelligence as an adaptive survival mechanism across scales. Physician-scientist William Miller suggests that individual cells are conscious and resolve ambiguity, reshaping our understanding of autonomy. Science writer Philip Ball delves into the ethical implications of growing brain organoids from personal cells, prompting critical reflections on consciousness.

I’ve distilled the most revealing moments from a year of Giant conversations on inner experience & neurodiversity into 52 minutes. This episode explores how radically different our minds really are, why most of us misunderstand our own thoughts, and what happens when you rigorously examine consciousness from the inside out using Descriptive Experience Sampling.Through deep discussion and lived examples, Russell Hurlburt reveals why inner speech is far rarer than people believe, how imagery, emotion, sensory awareness, and unsymbolized thinking shape everyday consciousness, and why questionnaires consistently fail to capture the true structure of the mind. The conversation moves from aphantasia and face blindness to meditation, dreaming, and the unsettling discovery that we may be conscious far more often than we think, even during sleep.Expect to learn why people routinely mislabel their own inner experience, how experience sampling exposes hidden forms of thought, why dreaming and imagination rely on different brain mechanisms, how consciousness can persist outside of dreams during sleep, and why the human brain may be best understood as a vast space for cognitive difference rather than a single shared mental template.Timestamps: 02:15 The Five Main Types Of Inner Experience. Which Do You Have? 16:18 Most People With Faceblindness Don’t Even Know They Have it! 23:52 Why Do Most People With Aphantasia Have Vivid Visual Dreams? 34:14 Are We Secretly Conscious When We Think We’re Sleeping? 45:32 Why Does Everybody Think They Inner Speak? Full Episodes 1) No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and How Your Mind Lies to You - https://youtu.be/j0gKl-g3DNg2) Meet the Woman With Zero Mental Imagery, Face Recognition or See in 3D! - https://youtu.be/4NeY7OwwJzk3) The Blind Mind’s Eye: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting Consciousness ! Dr Adam Zeman https://youtu.be/SgA2up6-Bok4) Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and Why You Can’t Trust Your Own Thoughts 5) No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: I Spent 90 Days Discovering If I Really Inner Speak (SHOCKING) https://youtu.be/N9tO1OLdJto❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/

Dr. Russell Hurlburt, a clinical psychologist and founder of Descriptive Experience Sampling, teams up with philosopher Gualtiero Piccinini to delve into the intriguing nuances of inner experience. They explore how individuals often misjudge their own inner monologue, revealing that many overestimate their inner speech. The conversation uncovers the dominance of sensory awareness, the complexity of emotions existing without conscious awareness, and the fascinating concept of thinking without content access. Their insights challenge common assumptions about consciousness and highlight the rich variability of personal inner worlds.

Dr. Robert Prentner is a philosopher of mind and consciousness researcher known for his work on conscious agent theory. He dives into the revolutionary concept that consciousness is fundamental to reality itself. Prentner discusses how consciousness may reshape our understanding of biology, AI, and physics. He contrasts subjective experience with materialist views, introduces the fitness beats truth theorem, and explores the implications of interface theory. Their conversation raises intriguing questions about how perceptions construct our reality and the nature of information in biology.

I've condensed a full year of Giant conversations on topics of drug science and psychedelics into just 59 minutes. From life-saving medical cannabis to MDMA therapy, the serotonin myth, DMT entities, and the future of psychedelic mental health care, this episode brings together the most shocking, eye-opening and culturally important insights from leading experts — all in one place.Expect to learn from David Nutt on why medical cannabis laws are still failing sick children, from Dr Joanna Moncrief on how the serotonin imbalance theory of depression collapsed under scientific scrutiny and why antidepressants may work for reasons entirely different from what we’ve been told, from David Nutt on how MDMA helps people safely revisit trauma, the real neurobiology of psychedelic experiences and from Adam Saffron on what DMT is doing in the brain, why some users encounter “entities,” how misinformed drug policy has distorted science for decades, and much more…Timestamps: 00:42 David Nutt: "They're Lying To You About Cannabis"09:42 Christof Koch: "The Psychedelic Trip That Convinced Me Consciousness is Fundamental" 23:17 Joanna Moncrief: "Debunking the Serotonin Hypothesis of Depression"37:11 David Nutt: "The Insane MDMA Classification Story" 49:49 Adam Saffron: Why Do People See Mechanical Elves on DMT?...Episode Links: 1) Meet the Neuroscientist Fired For Exposing the Truth! Dr David Nutt - https://youtu.be/BLk6a5Vb2O02) The Psychedelic Trip that Convinced Christof Koch Consciousness is Fundamental - https://youtu.be/kJlV-b2bvaE3) Meet the Psychiatrist Debunking The Chemical Imbalance Myth That Fooled Millions! - https://youtu.be/lJq400heTaE4) Neuroscientist Ranks Every Drug By How Hard They Are to Quit! Tier List - https://youtu.be/G-OZ_UBGvvo5) Meet the Neuroscientist Unifying Consciousness, Free Energy & Psychedelics! - https://youtu.be/wlFt7jcaZC0...❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/

Dr. Johannes Kleiner, a mathematician and physicist pioneering mathematical consciousness science, explores the intersection of math and subjective experience. He discusses how mathematical structures can reveal the geometry of consciousness, the role of meditation in understanding minimal experiences, and the significance of color spaces. Kleiner also critiques current AI systems for their lack of consciousness, outlines the implications of Integrated Information Theory, and emphasizes the potential for new computational models to explore consciousness in innovative ways.

Anil Seth, a neuroscientist renowned for his work on perception, dives into how our brains rely on predictions to shape reality. Michael Levin shares his radical views on cognition in simple systems and the potential for synthetic life to possess awareness. Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the evolution of agency and why nervous systems are critical for subjective experience. Nick Lane connects metabolism and bioelectricity to feelings, even suggesting bacteria might experience basic emotions. Mark Solms emphasizes that raw feelings form the heart of consciousness, driven by brainstem systems.

Dr. Adam Frank is a theoretical astrophysicist, NPR science commentator, and professor at the University of Rochester whose work spans the cosmos—from dying stars to the deep nature of consciousness.In this episode, we explore why life—not black holes—is the most mind-blowing problem in physics, how bacteria challenge our view of machines, and why the science of the future must take subjective experience seriously. We break down why LLMs aren’t even in the right stadium when it comes to sentience, how quantum mechanics reveals the blind spots of reductionism, and what it would take to detect intelligent life on distant worlds. Plus, a journey through Zen meditation, alien technosignatures, and the real problem with Skynet.Expect to learn why science needs a reboot, why your brain isn’t just code, and how a planet’s lights might give away its civilization.Timestamps: 02:30 The Emergence of Life Beyond Reductionism 05:33 The Journey from Physics to Consciousness 08:28 Interrogating Inner Experience 11:25 The Role of Subjectivity in Science 14:25 AI and the Misconceptions of Consciousness 17:23 Quantum Mechanics and the Measurement Problem 23:18 Life as an Emergent Phenomenon 29:26 Rethinking Cognition and Experience 32:30 The Challenge of Subjective Experience in Science 36:26 Agency and the Physics of Life 38:57 Astrobiology and the Search for Life 45:25 Technosignatures and the Search for Intelligent Life 51:59 Mars Discoveries and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life...Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/Get Adam Franks Books: The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience: https://amzn.to/4p56MDUThe Little Book of Aliens: https://amzn.to/3KbkBBJ

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is a neurogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin and author of Innate and Free Agents, two very influential books on how brain wiring shapes who we become.Autism is one of the most heritable conditions in psychiatry — yet for years, headlines have claimed gut bacteria, probiotics, and mouse models could explain or even treat it. Kevin’s new paper tears that story open, revealing how tiny samples, noisy data, and weak statistics created an illusion of evidence that never truly existed.Expect to learn why early microbiome studies were almost guaranteed to produce false positives, how mouse “models of autism” rely on behaviours that barely map onto human symptoms, why effect sizes of ~1.1 don’t mean what people think, what proper replication actually looks like, why placebo-controlled trials keep finding nothing, how hype and incentives distort entire fields, and how bad science creates real-world harm for autistic people and their families.Timestamps: 03:30 Introduction and Gratitude04:30 The Link Between Gut Microbiome and Autism07:08 The Tylenol Controversy and Misinterpretation of Data11:24 The Complexity of Autism and Its Causes16:12 Exploring the Gut-Brain Axis25:34 Evidence Line 1: Human Observational Data 42:42 Understanding Causation in Microbiome Research45:16 The Role of Effect Size in Autism Studies48:04 Confounding Factors in Scientific Research54:30 Evidence Line 2: Mouse Models of Autism59:20 The Limitations of Germ-Free Mouse Studies01:05:45 Statistical Flaws in Microbiome Research01:13:14 Skepticism in Behavioural Studies and Drug Testing01:17:15 Understanding Autism's Heterogeneity01:19:14 The Challenges of Diagnosing Autism01:24:35 Evidence Line 3: Human Trials 01:29:28 The Importance of Placebo-Controlled Trials01:34:42 The Role of Citations in Scientific Literature01:40:15 The Ethics of Marketing Probiotics for Autism01:45:17 Current Research and Future Directions...

Lee Cronin, the visionary Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, delves into the intersection of chemistry and the quest for alien life. He discusses his groundbreaking 'Chemputer' aimed at programmable matter, revolutionizing drug discovery. Hear insights on Assembly Theory, which quantifies complexity in biology. Lee also speculates on extraterrestrial life, suggesting it may be vastly different from Earth's. The conversation touches on digitizing chemical processes and the ethics of democratizing innovation in science, making it a thought-provoking listen!