All in the Mind
Psychology Brain Tech Consciousness Science Mind
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| Last updated Fri, 03 Oct 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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2008-10-04 Wakey Wakey! The many lives of amphetamine
Download Now · | Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:00
The 1929 discovery of amphetamine heralded the dawn of the age of Speed -- a drug with an extraordinary and triumphant career. The first modern antidepressant, a powerful prop in warfare, a diet pill, a devastating illicit drug -- now reincarnated as a treatment for ADHD. Historian of science Nicolas Rasmussen unearths the making of modern medicine, Big Pharma, and a humble stimulant.
2008-09-27 Skeptics on skeptical thinking
Download Now · | Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:00
Nobody likes being told their most cherished beliefs are based on myth and misconception. But the global skeptics movement does just that. In the classroom and beyond, All in the Mind excavates the nature of the skeptical enquiry with magician The Amazing Randi, Mythbusters' Adam Savage and other enquiring minds.
All in the Mind: 2008-09-27 Skeptics on skeptical thinking - UPDATED
Download Now · | Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:32
Nobody likes being told their most cherished beliefs are based on myth and misconception. But the global skeptics movement does just that. In the classroom and beyond, All in the Mind excavates the nature of the skeptical enquiry with magician The Amazing Randi, Mythbusters' Adam Savage and other enquiring minds.
All in the Mind: All in the Mind: 2008-09-27 Skeptics on skeptical thinking
Download Now · | Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:28
Nobody likes being told their most cherished beliefs are based on myth and misconception. But the global skeptics movement does just that. In the classroom and beyond, All in the Mind excavates the nature of the skeptical enquiry with magician The Amazing Randi, Mythbusters' Adam Savage and other enquiring minds.
2008-09-20 Part 2 of 2 - The power of plasticity
Download Now · | Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:00
The brain is more plastic than scientists once believed. But what does this mental malleability mean for humanity? More compelling stories from psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge as he enters the labs and lives of the new `neuroplasticians´. And, neuroplasticity on the couch - does psychotherapy physically change your brain?
2008-09-13 Part 1 of 2: The Power of Plasticity
Download Now · | Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:00
The dogma used to be that the adult brain was a rigid, unchangeable organ, but that pessimistic perspective is now being radically revised. Psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge journeyed into the labs and lives of the `neuroplasticians´ -- once scientific mavericks, they're challenging the old neurological nihilism. Professor Jeffrey Schwartz is one. They both join Natasha Mitchell in discussion to reveal how the human brain has underestimated itself! Next week, plasticity on the couch...
2008-09-06 Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: probing the label
Download Now · | Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:00
Alcohol and pregnancy don´t mix. In extreme cases children are born with low birth weight, cranio-facial abnormalities, and restricted brain development. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a term now used to describe the range of devastating impacts. Some believe the lid needs to be lifted on this 'invisible disability', but others argue the label has the potential to discriminate too.
All in the Mind: 2008-09-06 Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: probing the label
Download Now · | Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:28
Alcohol and pregnancy don´t mix. In extreme cases children are born with low birth weight, cranio-facial abnormalities, and restricted brain development. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a term now used to describe the range of devastating impacts. Some believe the lid needs to be lifted on this 'invisible disability', but others argue the label has the potential to discriminate too.
2008-08-30 Beyond coma: the plight of the persistent vegetative state
Download Now · | Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00
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?
2008-08-23 The Mind of the Market - National Science Week forum
Download Now · | Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:00
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.
All in the Mind: 2008-08-16 The Stuff of Thought with Steven Pinker
Download Now · | Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:52
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...
All in the Mind: 2008-08-09 Being your own therapist - Buddhist style
Download Now · | Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:12
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.
All in the Mind: 2008-08-02 Is being gay in your biology?
Download Now · | Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:48
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.
Download Now · | Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:28
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.
Download Now · | Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:48
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 · | Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:28
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.
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.
All in the Mind: 2008-07-05 Apes, legal personhood and the plight of Nim Chimpsky
Download Now · | Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:12
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.
All in the Mind: 2008-06-28 Brain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousness
Download Now · | Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:56
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...
All in the Mind: 2008-06-21 Michael Gazzaniga: Split brains and other heady tales
Download Now · | Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:32
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.
All in the Mind: 2008-06-14 Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement
Download Now · | Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:50
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?
All in the Mind: 2008-06-07 Courage: Guts, grit, spine, heart, and verve.
Download Now · | Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:20
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 · | Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:48
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.
Download Now · | Mon, 26 May 2008 18:32
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...
