Category Archives: Science

The MWS Podcast 78: Marc Lewis on why addiction is not a disease

Brain, Psychology, Science,

Our guest today is Dr Marc Lewis, a developmental neuroscientist and currently a professor at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. For many years his work centred on dynamic systems approaches to understanding the development of emotions and personality but recently he has perhaps become most well known for his account of his own personal experience of drug addiction Memoirs of Addicted Brain and merging that with the neuroscience of addiction. In his latest book The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is not a Disease he argues that seeing addiction as a disease is not only incorrect but also harmful and this will be the topic of our discussion today


MWS Podcast 78: Marc Lewis as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_78_Marc_Lewis

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The MWS Podcast 76: David Mcraney on how to beat your brain

Brain, Psychology,

Our guest today is David Mcraney, an internationally bestselling author, journalist, and lecturer who created the You Are Not So Smart blog, books, and podcast. David, who lives in Mississippi, cut his teeth covering Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and across the Deep South. Since then, he has been a beat reporter, editor, photographer, voiceover artist and television host. Before that, he had a varied working life, waiting tables, working construction, selling leather coats, building and installing electrical control panels, and owning pet stores. He’s here to talk to us today about his latest book ‘How to Beat your Brain’, an attempt to help us overcome our quirks and make decisions more effectively.


MWS Podcast 76: David Mcraney as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_76_David_Mcraney

If you’d like to listen to the full unedited version of the talk in which we go into the Middle Way in a bit more depth and talk a bit more about David’s hopes for the book, you can do so here:

MWS Podcast 76: David Mcraney full version as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_76_David_Mcraney_full_version

Here’s also the link to David’s blog post on Brand Loyalty that we talked about

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The MWS Podcast 70: Susan Greenfield on Mind Change

Brain, Science

We are joined today by Susan Greenfield. Baroness Greenfield is a neuroscientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords. Her research has focused on brain physiology, especially on the brain mechanisms of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. She’s also become well known as a populariser of science and has written many books including ‘Journey to the Centres of the Mind’, ‘The Private Life of the Brain’ ‘Inside the Body’ and ‘ You and Me: The Neuroscience of Identity’. She’s recently become interested in the potential impact digital technologies can have on the mind culminating in her latest book ‘Mind Change’ and this will be the topic of our discussion today.


MWS Podcast 70: Susan Greenfield as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_70_Susan_Greenfield

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