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This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/neuroscience
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Book-centered interviews make complex questions about minds, learning, perception and animal behavior legible without sanding away uncertainty.
New Books in Neuroscience uses book-centered conversations to follow the mind across unusually varied terrain. Discussions move from context-sensitive neural networks and the stories people tell about their own decisions to Buddhist accounts of consciousness, classroom…
Eyes twitch inside an MRI; your kind of rabbit hole starts there.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful conversation about addiction, moral judgment, and the social damage that can gather around destructive compulsion.
Addiction is treated here as a question of interpretation as well as compulsion. The conversation weighs a disease model against the moral judgments that attach to self-destructive behavior, with Drugstore Cowboy grounding the discussion in the sight of people becoming more and…
A measured conversation about what neural recordings can, and cannot, reveal about consciousness.
Consciousness turns into a question of method here, as Alan McComas moves from a patient's hand, where nerve impulses were recorded during reading and simple arithmetic, to the larger problem of what brain measurements can really show.
A thoughtful account of synesthesia between degeneration, evolution, art, mysticism, and science.
Paulina's conversation with Dr. Miranda Melcher traces synesthesia through European modernism, treating sensory crossover as more than a curiosity.
A clear, measured account of how psychoanalysis, brain science, and psychopharmacology changed mental health care.
This episode follows a turning point in mental health care, moving from psychoanalysis's strong hold on psychiatry to the rise of drug-centered diagnosis and treatment.
A clear look at how memory can be activated, altered, and made strange.
Steve Ramirez and Caleb Zakarin frame the episode around a plain but unsettling question: what does it mean to alter a memory, and when does that change start to become something else?
A clear, reflective conversation about what animals may understand, and what humans make of knowing death is coming.
Justin Gregg's discussion of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal turns animal cognition into a question about the weight of being human. Dr. Miranda Melcher draws out his distinction between a basic grasp of death, where an animal can tell the living from the dead, and the more human…
A steady account of the brain as an organic computer.
The piece treats the brain as an organic computer and follows that idea through neuronal ensembles and Hopfield-style attractors, showing how coordinated activity can give rise to thought.
A steady case for testing wellness habits and treating failure as useful data.
How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend frames brain health less as a fixed routine than as a matter of identity, environment, and response. The guest asks listeners to test their habits honestly: notice what a diet or practice does in real life, and stay alert to the consumer…
Mushroom culture from soil to society.
Clear neuroscience for curious minds.
Plant papers, jokes, and useful uncertainty.
Weed science, from genomes to paddocks.
Biomedical careers, described from the inside.
Human stakes behind biomedical progress.
Gregory McNiff speaks with Eduardo Mercado III about Why Whales Sing, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in the United States in November 2025.
Neurologist Adam Zeman says people spend more of their waking time in imagery and inner speech than aware of their surroundings, a finding from descriptive experience sampling.
Your brain fired before you felt like moving—that experiment shattered free will.
Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez discusses his book 'How to Change a Memory', explaining the physical basis of memory (engrams), how memories can be artificially activated and altered (including creating false memories in rodents), and the potential therapeutic applications for conditions like PTSD and depression.
Gregory McNiff speaks with Rafael Yuste about Lectures in Neuroscience.
A neuroscientist reveals how discovering neuroplasticity saved her academic life.
Host Gregory McNiff interviews Gaurav Suri and Jay McClelland about their book 'The Emergent Mind,' exploring how intelligence arises from non-intelligent components through neural networks.
Gregory McNabb speaks with Jeffrey Sharon about The Great Balancing Act, An Insider's Guide to the Human Vestibular System.
Caleb Zakrin speaks with James Kimmel Jr.
Frances Egan discusses her book 'Deflating Mental Representation,' arguing against traditional naturalistic accounts of mental content.
Paul Thagard discusses his book 'Bots and Beasts,' comparing intelligence across humans, animals, and machines.
Emily Dufton speaks with Judith Grisel about addiction and the brain, especially the idea that drugs can push the brain into the opposite state from the one users wanted.
Rebecca Limov, a professor of history of science at Harvard University, discusses The Instability of Truth, Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion with host Renee Garfinkel on the Van Leer Institute series on ideas.
Host Anne-Marie Varenna interviews Dr.
Miranda Melcher speaks with Jeremy Stolow about Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography and uses the book to open up broader questions about how bodies get represented.
Renee Hale speaks with an author about Writing for the Reader's Brain.
Caleb Zakrin talks with Kira Green, co-author with Gillian Murphy of Memory Lane, The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember, about how human memory actually works.
Jessica Zhu introduces Peter to talk about consciousness through a Buddhist lens.
Grace Lindsay discusses her book 'Models of the Mind,' exploring how physics, engineering, and mathematics shape our understanding of the brain.
Adrian Perkle talks with the host about his book on human aggression.
An interview with a philosopher about her new book on neuroscience, part of the New Books Network.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with neuroscientist Camilla Nord about her book on the science of mental health.
An interview with neuroscientists about their book on healthy habits for brain health and happiness.
An interview with a professor about the role of imagination in human innovation, part of the New Books in Neuroscience podcast.
An interview with Caroline Dicey-Jennings about her chapter on attention, technology, and creativity in the book 'Scenes of Attention'.
An interview with Shane O'Mara about his book on the neuroscience of conversation.
An interview with Kimberly Wilson about her book 'Unprocessed' exploring how ultra-processed foods fuel the mental health crisis.
An interview with a scholar discussing their recently published research in neuroscience, featuring a segment on St.