All in the Mind
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| Last updated Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00
All In The Mind is Radio National's weekly foray into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour - everything from addiction to artificial intelligence.
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All in the Mind: 2008-08-30 Beyond coma: the plight of the persistent vegetative state
Download Now · | Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:48
A woman thought to be in a persistent vegetative state, unresponsive and unconscious to herself and the world, is asked to play a game of 'mental' tennis. Extraordinarily, brain scans reveal she can. In Australia, new ethical guidelines govern the care of people in this devastating situation. Besides new technologies and terminologies -- what prospects for those living frozen lives?
All in the Mind: 2008-08-23 The Mind of the Market - National Science Week forum
Download Now · | Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:29
Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more -- with outspoken founder of the US Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.
2008-08-16 The Stuff of Thought with Steven Pinker
Download Now · | Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:00
Why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function? What do linguistic taboos do to your brain? How are new words born? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self-confessed verbivore. To him language offers a window into the human mind and how it works. He joins Natasha Mitchell in a feature interview to argue there´s nothing mere about semantics. Radio National often provides links to external websites to complement program information. While producers have taken care with all selections, we...
2008-08-09 Being your own therapist - Buddhist style
Download Now · | Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:00
Venerable Robina Courtin, acclaimed Australian Tibetan Buddhist nun, has excavated the suffering mind at its greatest depths of despair. Founder of the Liberation Prison Project, she´s helped thousands of inmates release themselves from the prison within—their mind—using Buddhist techniques. Venerable Tenzin Palmo was one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun, spending years undergoing intense meditative practice in an isolated cave in the Himalayan mountains. We can all be our own therapist is their powerful claim.
2008-08-02 Is being gay in your biology?
Download Now · | Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:00
What makes someone gay? The quest for the biological roots of sexual orientation remains rife with controversy. Is it in your genes, handedness, or the hormonal soup of the early foetus? Or, is the answer hidden deep inside the brain? Homo or hetero—the science of sexual attraction captures everyone´s attention.
2008-07-26 Special Series (Part 3 of 3) Up the Line to Goodna: Patient rights and staff fights
Download Now · | Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:00
As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. During a time of major institutional and cultural upheaval, the Office of the Patient´s Friend opened its doors in 1977, the first patient advocacy service to operate within the confines of an Australian psychiatric hospital. Part advocate, part whistle-blower—running the service has taken a might of steel and a heart of gold. Thirty years later, Nadia Beer remains in the role.
2008-07-19 Special Series (Part 2 of 3) Up the Line to Goodna: stories from inside the asylum
Download Now · | Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00
As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind unearths stories from people who lived and worked there. A nurse reflects on life in the asylum during World War II before the dramatic arrival of modern medications, and two sisters reminisce on growing up at Goodna with their matron aunt in the 1930s. Very different insights from opposite sides of the ward walls.
Download Now · | Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:12
As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia´s largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there; from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts-and-all recollections of madness, care and abuse.
Download Now · | Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:40
As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia´s largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there; from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts-and-all recollections of madness, care and abuse.
Download Now · | Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:00
As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia´s largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there; from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts-and-all recollections of madness, care and abuse. PLEASE NOTE: The transcript and audio of this story has been modified to remove the identity of one person.
2008-07-05 Apes, legal personhood and the plight of Nim Chimpsky
Download Now · | Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:00
In Austria, animal activists have taken the case of a chimp called Matthew as far as the European Court of Human Rights. Controversially, they´re fighting for his right to legal personhood. And, the incredible saga of Nim Chimpsky. A landmark effort to teach a chimp sign language and raise him like a human child. Project Nim became a scientific soap opera of epic proportions.
2008-06-28 Brain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousness
Download Now · | Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:00
What happens when your brain sees the world not as it really is? This week, the scientific effort to simulate out-of-body experiences to probe the limits of the self. And, remarkable stories of vision gone heywire—what they reveal about our `seeing brain´. Two scientists join Natasha Mitchell with extraordinary insights into how your brain creates your mind...
2008-06-21 Michael Gazzaniga: Split brains and other heady tales
Download Now · | Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:00
One of the big names of the brain is Michael Gazzaniga, whose career was forged in the lab of Nobel laureate Roger Sperry. His striking experiments continue to uncover the differences between your left and right hemispheres. Today he´s on the US President´s Bioethics Council, heads up a major project on neuroscience and the law, and is a prolific writer of popular neuroscience. He joins Natasha Mitchell to reflect on the brain's left and right, and the mysterious nature of free will.
2008-06-14 Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement
Download Now · | Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:00
An April Fools prank this year saw the launch of the World Anti-Brain Doping Authority. Jokes aside, drugs like Ritalin for ADHD and Modafinil for sleeping disorders are now being popped by people who want to be weller than well. Some argue that the spectre of 'smart drugs' and 'cosmetic pharmacology' pose a challenge to our authentic selves. Do we know the long term risks? And in the classroom, would brain-doping be cheating?
2008-06-07 Courage: Guts, grit, spine, heart, and verve.
Download Now · | Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:00
Polish-born Sabina Wolanski, now 80, was a teenager when her entire family was killed by Nazis, and was the sole Holocaust survivor to speak at the launch of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Russian-born Maria Tumarkin came to Australia as a teenager in 1980s. Her new book unearths courage in the crevices of everyday life, and she´s defiantly not interested in heroes. They join Natasha Mitchell in an intimate exchange about brave minds.
Download Now · | Fri, 30 May 2008 14:00
Stefan Merrill Block´s debut novel, The Story of Forgetting, is a clever tale about familial Alzheimer´s disease. Spanning time and place, it's the surprising story of a gene, a fantasy land where memory is absent, a hunchback, and one boy´s quest to understand the disease stealing his mother´s mind. And, Canadian emergency physician Dr Vincent Lam takes us inside the lives of four young doctors in his compelling debut, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. They join Natasha Mitchell in discussion from the 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival.
All in the Mind: 2008-05-24 Museums Week: A magical mystery tour through the scientific psyche
Download Now · | Fri, 23 May 2008 14:00
A collection of butterfly genitalia gathered by novelist Nabokov; a precious sand dollar from Darwin´s epic Beagle voyage; tapeworms from the stomachs of wealthy Bostonians - Harvard´s acclaimed Natural History Museum is a vast treasure trove of biological objects and oddities. Reaching back to the 1700s, the collection represents a who´s who of great minds of science. Join Natasha Mitchell for a magical mystery tour through the rarest of the rare - and a glimpse into the making of the modern scientific psyche. [Find out more about and contribute to Marvellous Museums week on ABC Radio National...
All in the Mind: 2008-05-17 The science of happiness
Download Now · | Fri, 16 May 2008 14:00
The pursuit of happiness is a global obsession. But can science investigate its slippery, subjective nature? What are the metrics—self report, brain activity, or the good deeds we do? Five world leaders in the field join Natasha Mitchell in conversation—neuroscientist Richard Davidson, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace, psychologist Daniel Gilbert and philosopher David Chalmers.
All in the Mind: 2008-05-10 Quitting the habit: neurobiology, addiction and the insidious ciggie
Download Now · | Fri, 09 May 2008 14:00
Smokers cling to the ciggies for dear life, knowing it will likely be a much shorter one. An anti-smoking drug released in Australia targets nicotine receptors in the brain, working differently to traditional nicotine replacement therapies. But are we too fixed on a quick fix for addiction? And, the challenge of investigating post-marketing reports that the drug may trigger suicidal thoughts and behaviour in some users. Real side effect of the meds, or part of nicotine withdrawal?
Download Now · | Fri, 02 May 2008 14:00
Maori people believe the body is derived from the earth, and returns to the ancestral earth at death—complete. The flesh, and all its bits, are sacred. The new Human Tissue Bill in New Zealand has provoked debate over who owns your body at death—you or your family? The Maori Party argues the legislation is Western-centric and racist. And, a young Maori scientist working with post-mortem brain tissue is breaking new ground, to keep her lab life 'culturally safe', in consultation with her tribe.
Download Now · | Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:00
The incredible saga of Ishi, California´s last 'wild' Indian, is the stuff of American folklore. It´s also the quest for a lost brain, taken from Ishi´s tuberculosis ravaged body at death—only to be rediscovered and repatriated 80 years later. And next week—a young Maori scientist working with post-mortem brain tissue is breaking new ground, to keep her lab life 'culturally safe'.
All in the Mind: 2008-04-19 Stone Age brains in 21st century skulls
Download Now · | Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:00
Front up to your shrink, and you bring a menagerie of hunter gatherers, anteaters and reptiles from your ancestral past with you. Or so Professor Daniel Wilson and Dr Gary Galambos believe. Both clinical psychiatrists, they provocatively challenge their profession to look to the Darwinian roots of human neuroses, and the evolutionary battleground that is our stone-age brain.
All in the Mind: 2008-04-12 A day in the life of...Meet the Ingersons
Download Now · | Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:00
Four-year-old Tara has a very special brain. Like Rain Man, she was born without a Corpus Callosum. It´s the head´s superhighway -- a thick band of nerve fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. Join Natasha Mitchell as she experiences a day in the life of the Ingerson family, with rare insights into one of the most complicated neurological birth defects.
All in the Mind: 2008-04-05 Poetic Science: Bodies, brains and the art of experimentation
Download Now · | Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:00
Meet polymath Ian Gibbins -- neuroscientist, anatomist and university professor by day; poet, performer and composer by night. In a unique audio portrait, All in the Mind takes you inside all of his worlds; contemplating cadavers, nerve cells and the creative arts.
All in the Mind: 2008-03-29 Your irrational mind
Download Now · | Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:00
Like it or not, you´re not the beast of reason you think you are. Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist at MIT, argues that we´re surprisingly and predictably irrational. Sex, freebies, expectations, placebos, price -- they all cloud our better judgment in rather sobering ways. Dan´s unique research was partly inspired by a catastrophic accident which caused third degree burns to 70% of his body. He joins Natasha Mitchell in conversation.
