Nour Foundation: Exploring Meaning & Commonality in Human Experience

The Emerging Science of Consciousness:
Mind, Brain and the Human Experience

The complexity of the human brain and how it gives rise to our understanding and experience of the world around us is one of the greatest mysteries remaining in science today. While recent discoveries in neuroscience are providing us with new insights into the workings of the brain, a comprehensive science of the mind is only just beginning to emerge.

Moderated by Steve Paulson, Executive Producer of Wisconsin Public Radio's To The Best Of Our Knowledge, this four-part lecture series brings together leading experts from various fields to discuss how the latest research is challenging our understanding of the very nature and function of consciousness in our daily lives.

The Thinking Ape: The Enigma of Human Consciousness
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Nobel laureate psychologist Daniel Kahneman, philosopher David Chalmers, expert in primate cognition Laurie Santos, and physician-scientist Nicholas Schiff discuss the origin and nature of consciousness. Learn More

Brain World Dana Foundation Psychology Today

The Mystery of Memory: In Search of the Past
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Psychologist Daniel Schacter, neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, science historian Alison Winter, and novelist and comparative literature professor André Aciman discuss how memory impacts our perception, our personality, and our experience of the world. Learn More | Press Release

NBC News Brain World Dana Foundation LiveScience

Music & the Mind: The Magical Power of Sound
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Cognitive neuroscientists and musicians Jamshed Bharucha and Charles Limb join music therapy pioneer Concetta Tomaino and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer to discuss the ability of music to both heal and elicit specific emotions at the interface of body, mind, and memory. Learn More | Press Release

Scientific American Brain World NBC News LiveScience

Becoming Conscious: The Science of Mindfulness
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 | 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Sold Out

Neuroscientists Richard Davidson and Amishi Jha join mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn to explore the role of consciousness in mental and physical health, and what science is revealing about the transformation of consciousness through mindfulness and contemplative practice. Learn More | Press Release

Fox News Brain World LiveScience

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Perspectives on the Self:
Conversations on Identity and Consciousness

To Be or Not To Be: The Self as Illusion
Dec 7, 2010 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

Near-death experiences by Pim van Lommel

Quid Pro Quo: The Ecology of The Self
Feb 23, 2011 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

What do you think you are? by Christina Starmans and Paul Bloom
Self and identity: a brief overview by Roy Baumeister

The Pursuit of Immortality:
From the Ego to the Soul
Mar 23, 2011 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

Science, self, and immortality by John F. Haught
Immortality versus resurrection in the Christian tradition by Nancey Murphy

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
Linking Belief to Behavior
Apr 28, 2011 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

A self-fulfilling prophecy: linking belief to behavior by Esther Sternberg
The self in the Cartesian brain by Shaun Gallagher
Free will and determinism in relation to the self by V. V. Raman

Me, Myself, and I:
The Rise of the Modern Self
May 12, 2011 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

What is the self? by Robert Hanna
The modern notion of self by Gerald Izenberg
The American self and the long march to legal equality

Who Am I?:
Beyond 'I Think, Therefore I Am'
May 24, 2011 | The New York Academy of Sciences
Webcast Podcast Transcript

Self-knowledge and the practice of ethics by Elie During
"Much ado to know myself" by David Jopling
Understanding, justifying, and finding oneself by Frances M. Kamm

Meet Your Mind:
A User's Guide to the Science of Consciousness

This six-hour radio series features interviews with the world's leading neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, philosophers, writers, and artists as they take on the question: What is conscioussnes?

Mind and Brain
November 4, 2012
Neuroscientists have made remarkable discoveries about the brain, but so far, no one's cracked the biggest mystery of all: how a tangle of neurons inside your skull produces you?

Memory and Forgetting
November 11, 2012
Do you think your memory is a record of what actually happened? New findings show that with every act of remembering, our brains produce new neural circuits, creating new memories.

Wiring the Brain
November 18, 2012
Scientists are trying to develop a detailed map of the human brain. For some scientists, the goal isn't just to map the brain; it's to crack the mystery of consciousness.

The Creative Brain
November 25, 2012
Creativity is a little like obscenity: You know it when you see it, but you can't exactly define it, unless you're a neuroscientist.

Extraordinary Minds
December 2, 2012
Certain brain disorders can lead to remarkable insights, even genius. Peer into the world of autistic savants and dyslexics, and contemplate our cyborg future.

Higher Consciousness
December 9, 2012
Suppose neuroscientists map the billions of neural circuits in the human brain…are we any closer to cracking the great existential mysteries—like meaning, purpose or happiness?

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THE SCIENCE OF HEALING PLACES
With Dr. Esther Sternberg

The light and smells in places like hospitals can often depress us. And, our favorite room at home keeps us sane. But why? Immunologist Esther Sternberg explains the scientific research revealing how physical spaces create stress and make us sick — and how good design can trigger our "brain’s internal pharmacies" and help heal us.

INVESTIGATING HEALTHY MINDS
With Richard Davidson

Once upon a time we assumed the brain stops developing when we're young. Neuroscientist Richard Davidson helped overturn this idea by studying the brains of meditating Buddhist monks. Now he's working on conditions like ADHD and autism. He focuses not on fixing what is wrong, but on rewiring our minds with life-enriching behaviors.

LIVING BLUE
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle

We're fascinated with outer space, but the bottom of the ocean is just as alien, just as mysterious. Acclaimed oceanographer Sylvia Earle has walked on the bottom of the sea, and she takes us there with urgency and passion. She tells what she saw — and what she has learned — about the giant, living system that is the ocean.

MATHEMATICS, PURPOSE, AND TRUTH
"There are some truths that can never be proven to be true!"

As a theoretical physicist, Janna Levin probes whether the universe is finite or infinite. As a novelist, she explored the separate but parallel lives of two influential 20th-century scientists: Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. Their work laid the foundations for computer intelligence while challenging fundamental notions about how we can know what is true.

INTERFAITH SUMMIT ON HAPPINESS:
Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today’s Society

What do the world’s major faiths teach us about the concept of happiness? What beliefs do these ancient traditions share in common about this elusive yet highly sought state of being? How do they define and perceive happiness? Is happiness the purpose of our lives, or is it a reward that is available to us only in some version of the afterlife?

THE CIVIL CONVERSATIONS PROJECT
An Ongoing Series of Radio Shows

How do we speak the questions we don't know how to ask each other? Can we find ways to bridge gulfs between us about politics, morality, and life itself? Can we do that even while we continue to disagree, passionately? How is technology playing into all this, and how can we shape it?