In a world racing toward artificial general intelligence, one of the world’s leading consciousness researchers argues we’re chasing the wrong goal entirely. What if the brain isn’t a computer at all—and consciousness requires something silicon can never replicate?



Professor Anil Seth is a cognitive and computational neuroscientist at the University of Sussex, editor-in-chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness, and bestselling author of “Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.” His TED talk has been viewed over 15 million times. Rather than getting swept up in AI hype, Anil has become one of the most compelling voices challenging the assumption that advanced AI will—or even could—become conscious, advocating instead for “biological naturalism”: the idea that consciousness is intimately tied to being alive.











What You’ll Discover:



🧬 Biological Naturalism Explained




Why consciousness might require biological substrate, not just sophisticated computation



The critical difference between simulating something and actually creating it



How we’ve confused the metaphor of “brain as computer” with reality itself




🤖 Four Scientific Reasons to Be Skeptical of AI Consciousness




The psychological biases that make us project consciousness into anything that speaks to us



Why nobody thinks protein-folding AI is conscious (but language models seduce us completely)



The trap of conflating intelligence with consciousness—and why they’re fundamentally different things




🪞 AI as Mirror, Not Mind




Why seemingly conscious AI poses clear and present dangers to society right now



The cognitive impenetrability problem: even when you know it’s not conscious, you can’t help but feel it is



How AI welfare movements may be accelerating dangerous hype cycles




⚖️ The Precautionary Principle Paradox




Why erring on the side of caution about AI consciousness might actually be more dangerous



The psychological brutalization of treating conscious-seeming systems as mere tools



How humanity’s terrible track record of withholding moral status complicates this debate




🎯 Designing the Future We Actually Want




Why the march toward human-like AI isn’t inevitable—it’s a choice we’re making



The difference between AI as “tool” versus “colleague” and why it matters urgently



How to navigate toward socially beneficial AI without the transhumanist fantasy








Key Insights:



“We’ve taken what has been a very powerful metaphor for what brains are—a computer of some kind—and we’ve forgotten that it’s a metaphor. We’ve confused the metaphor with the thing itself. We’ve mistaken the map for the territory.”



“A simulation of a weather system doesn’t create wind and rain. The only time a simulation would create the thing is if what you’re simulating is itself a computation. So it’s circular to say that simulating the brain would give rise to consciousness.”



“We need to get out from being enthralled by the bagga...

What if the secret to happiness isn’t finding more pleasure, but learning how to keep feeling the pleasure you already have? Neuroscientist Tali Sharot reveals why our brains are wired to stop noticing the good things in life—and what we can do about it.



Tali Sharot is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and author of influential books including “The Optimism Bias,” “The Influential Mind,” and “Look Again” (co-written with Cass Sunstein). Her groundbreaking research on decision-making, belief, and emotion has reshaped how we understand why we believe what we believe and how we can design better lives in an age of AI and algorithmic influence.











What You’ll Discover:



🧠 The Neuroscience of Habituation




Why your favorite song sounds better with interruptions (and what this reveals about joy)



The surprising finding that massages with breaks are more enjoyable than uninterrupted ones



How the happiest moment of vacation is actually 43 hours in—and why joy declines from there








🔄 The AI Bias Feedback Loop




How artificial intelligence doesn’t just reflect human biases—it amplifies them



The dangerous snowball effect when humans learn from biased AI, then feed that data back



Why interacting with AI can make you more biased than you were before (and how to prevent it)








💡 Practical Strategies for Sustained Happiness




Why shorter, more frequent vacations beat long ones for maximizing joy



How changing your commute route or spinning class bike can transform your experience



The power of breaks, variety, and sabbaticals in maintaining meaning at work








🎭 The Psychology of Incomplete Satisfaction




Why anticipating a celebrity kiss is worth more than the kiss itself



How cliffhangers and open loops keep us engaged (and what comedians know about timing)



The delicate balance between closure and curiosity in creating lasting impact








🤖 Human Connection in the Age of AI




What happens in our brains when we form emotional bonds with AI assistants



Why perceived agency matters more for mental health than actual control



The surprising truth about optimism bias: a little delusion is good for you








Key Insights:



“AI doesn’t just reflect our biases—it enhances them. We start with a small bias, it becomes greater in the AI, then it becomes greater in the human, then it becomes greater in the AI. It’s a continuous loop, a snowball effect.”



“Sometimes the imagination and the anticipation makes us more happy than the event itself. The happiest day of vacation was the day before—they were still in the office working, but in their mind they were on vacation.”







About Tali Sharot:



Tali Sharot is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and founding director of the Affective Brain Lab. Her research on optimism, emotion, and decision-making has been published in leading scientific journ...

In this episode I sit down with psychologist Barry Schwartz whose groundbreaking work continues to shape how we understand choice, freedom, and human flourishing in our rapidly evolving world.



Eight years after our first conversation, Barry returns to explore how his seminal ideas from “The Paradox of Choice” have become even more relevant—and challenging—in our AI-driven era. With over 35 million views on his TED Talks, Barry’s insights have influenced millions, yet as he candidly admits, the problems he identified in 2004 have only grown worse.











What You’ll Discover:



🧠 The Psychology of Modern Choice




Why having 20,000 types of jeans makes every purchase a statement of identity



The hidden stakes behind seemingly simple decisions like ordering dinner



How unlimited options transform shopping into existential crisis




⚖️ Finding the Sweet Spot




The crucial balance between individuality and belonging



Why societies that are too tight OR too loose both fail their citizens



Research revealing where people truly thrive psychologically and physically




🤖 Choice in the Age of Algorithms




How AI curation solves one problem while creating another



Why algorithmic recommendations might make decision-making harder, not easier



The false promise of “perfect” choices and why maximizers suffer most




💡 Practical Wisdom for Daily Life




The profound difference between “satisficing” and “settling”



Why the real work in relationships begins AFTER you find someone



How to protect against becoming indifferent to truth in our digital world




👶 Preparing the Next Generation




Essential skills for children entering an AI-dominated world



The art of perspective-taking and why failure is a gift



How children can teach us as much as we teach them








Key Insights:



“There is no best. If you feel like you need to find the best, it requires you to do an exhaustive search. By the time I figure out the best movie to watch on Netflix tonight, it will be way past my bedtime.”



“You don’t discover a perfect match. You discover someone with whom to create a perfect match. That’s when the work begins.”



“The first thing you need to ask when you see something online is: where did it come from? Your attitude should be one of suspicion rather than acceptance.”







About Barry Schwartz:



Barry Schwartz is a renowned psychologist, author, and thought leader best known for “The Paradox of Choice,” “Why We Work,” and “Practical Wisdom.” His research on decision-making, motivation, and human behavior has influenced leaders across business, education, and public policy. Currently revising “The Paradox of Choice” with new chapters on identity and the sweet spot of optimal choice.







🎯 Perfect for: Anyone struggling with decision fatigue, parents preparing children for an uncertain future, leaders navigating AI integration,

Today I’ve got a friend back on the show for round 2, Carl Honoré. Carl is the author of the international bestseller, ‘In Praise of Slow’ which dissects our speed-obsessed society and celebrates those who have gotten in touch with their “inner tortoise”, as well as the books: ‘Under Pressure’, ‘The Slow Fix’ and his latest book, ‘Bolder’. Carl’s TED Talks have been viewed million times and he’s been described as “The unofficial godfather of a growing cultural shift toward slowing down”.







Links mentioned



The Pharmacy Sketch (no subtitles)



Connect with Carl



CarlHonore.com



Carl on Twitter

Today I have the pleasure of having Dr. Michael Shermer back on the show for round 2! Dr. Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the Science Salon podcast, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers; Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on Earth. His new book is Giving the Devil His Due. He’s appeared on Oprah, The Colbert Report, Larry King Live and his two TED talks have been viewed by millions. Neil deGrasse Tyson described Michael as “a beacon of reason in an ocean of irrationality.”







Connect with Michael



Skeptic.com



MichaelShermer.com

Today’s guest is Mark Wolynn. Director and founder of The Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco, Mark is a world leader in the field of inherited family trauma. A bestselling author and sought-after lecturer, he teaches at hospitals, clinics and universities around the world including: the University of Pittsburgh, JFK University and the Western Psychiatric Institute. His book: ‘IT DIDN’T START WITH YOU: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle’ is the winner of the 2016 Silver Nautilus Book Award in psychology and has been translated into 19 languages.







Connect with Mark



MarkWolynn.com



Mark’s Facebook, Twitter

Marci Shimoff is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. Her books include the international bestsellers ‘Love for No Reason’ and ‘Happy for No Reason’. Marci is also the woman’s face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history as co-author of six books in the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series. With total book sales of more than 15 million copies worldwide in 33 languages, she is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time. She is also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, ‘The Secret’ and the host of the national PBS TV show called ‘Happy for No Reason’.

Today I’m speaking with Laura Huang. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself—only to be left frustrated and discouraged. Or we try to force ourselves into the mould of someone we think is “successful,” but in doing so, we stifle the creativity and charm that make us unique and memorable. Laura is a professor at Harvard Business School, who has spent her academic career studying interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. Her research has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes and Nature. She’s been named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40, and she’s the author of EDGE: Turning Adversity into Advantage.







Connect with Laura



LauraHuang.net



Laura on Twitter, Instagram

Best selling author, Dr. John Ratey M.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognised expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and 11 books published in 17 languages. With the publication of  ‘Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain’, Dr. Ratey has established himself as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection. Recognised by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America since 1997, Dr. Ratey was recently honoured by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society as “Outstanding Psychiatrist of the Year” for advancing the field. He’s frequently profiled in the media from: ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and that’s just scratching the surface. (This interview was recorded in April 2019).







Connect with Dr. Ratey



JohnRatey.com



SparkingLife.org



John Ratey, MD Facebook page

Dr. Michael Greger is a physician, an internationally recognised speaker on a number of important public health issues, and a bestselling author of multiple titles including the instant New York Times bestseller ‘How Not To Die’. He’s testified before Congress, has appeared on shows such as: The Colbert Report and The Dr. Oz Show, and Oprah Winfrey invited him to be her expert witness in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. He is a Council of Directors member of True Health Initiative which is a coalition of more than 360 world experts representing 35 countries, who together offer clarity as to the principles behind healthy eating and healthy living.







Connect with Michael



NutritionFacts.org

Hank Greely is a professor of law and a professor of genetics at Stanford University. He specialises in ethical, legal and social issues arising from advances in the biosciences, particularly from genetics, neuroscience and human stem cell research. He was the president of the International Neuro-ethics Society and is the chairman of the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research. He joined Stanford in 1985 after working in private law practice and in the Defence and Energy Departments during President Carter’s administration. Last but not least he is the author of the book ‘The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction’.







Connect with Hank



Hank’s website

Dr. Scilla Elworthy is a three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with the Oxford Research Group, a non-governmental organisation she founded in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. In 2002 Cilla founded ‘Peace Direct’a charity to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and she advised Peter Gabriel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’. She now leads ‘The Business Plan for Peace’ to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world, because peace is possible; and she lays out how in her latest books: The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War and The Mighty Heart: How to Transform Conflict. Last but not least her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed by over 1,500,000 people.







Connect with Scilla



The Business Plan For Peace website



The Mighty Heart: How to transform conflict Free Ebook

Maria Konnikova is an award winning journalist and the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes and The Confidence Game which is an investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists. Her latest book, The Biggest Bluff is a journey into the world of high-stakes poker – it’s an exploration of the role that luck plays in our lives and what it truly means to take control of our destinies. Maria doesn’t do things half heartedly so in the process of researching this book she went from having never played a single game of poker in her life, to becoming an international poker champion, turning professional and earning over $300,000 in tournament earnings.







Links Mentioned



‘How People Learn to Become Resilient’ New Yorker article



Lodden Thinks







Connect with Maria



Maria’s Website, her Twitter

Dr. Dan Siegel is a: Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a clinical professor of psychiatry, an award winning educator and an internationally acclaimed author of five New York Times bestselling books. Amongst these are: Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain; Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, and Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human. Dan is also the executive director of the Mindsight Institute and has lectured for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, Google University and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.







Connect with Dan



Dan’s website



Wheel of Awareness



The Mindsight Institute

Greg Lukianoff is: an attorney, a New York Times best-selling author, and the President and CEO of FIRE, which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. His books include, ‘Unlearning Liberty’ and ‘The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure’ which he co-authored with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He’s an executive producer of ‘Can We Take a Joke?’, a feature-length documentary that explores the collision between comedy, censorship and outrage culture. He frequently appears on TV shows such as CBS Evening News and The Today Show and he’s testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives about free speech issues on America’s college campuses.







Connect with Greg



FIRE website



TheCoddling.com



Greg on Twitter

Adam Alter is the New York Times bestselling author of two books: ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, which investigates how hidden forces in the world around us shape our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and his recent work, ‘Irresistible’, which considers why so many people today are addicted to so many behaviours. He’s an Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department. His research has been published widely in academic journals, and featured in dozens of TV, radio and print outlets around the world. He’s written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic and has been invited to share his ideas to companies such as Google, Microsoft and Fidelity.






Connect with Adam



Adam’s website



Adam on Twitter

David Meltzer grew up really poor so all he wanted to do was make a load of money so he could buy his mum a house and a car. He became the CEO of the world’s first ever smartphone, he retired early, bought his mum the house, bought a golf course, a ski mountain, countless other houses and had a net worth of over $120 million. Then he lost everything, every single penny, they even took his mum’s house. However that’s not the end of the story, he made it all back again. He became CEO of the world’s most notable sports agency, before co-founding Sports 1 Marketing, one of the world’s leading sports & entertainment marketing agencies. However despite his amazing business success that is not why I invited him on the show today, what I think is most interesting is his mindset. He’s also an award-winning humanitarian, an international public speaker and a best-selling author.







Connect with David



DaveMeltzer.com



Dave’s Instagram

(Guest Interview) Hi everyone, my name’s Atuksha Poonwassie and I’m the co-founder of the UK crowdfunding platform Simple Crowdfunding. For this podcast we’ve decided to mix things up a bit and I’m going to interview Duncan so that you can learn more about the person behind Spirit Pig. So I met Duncan at a property event 6 years ago and we’ve met and stayed in contact regularly ever since. He runs the podcast ‘Spirit Pig’ which has been rated by iTunes as one of the top self help podcasts in the world. So how has he achieved it? Driven by the mission; Fulfilment For Everyone, Duncan has spent years tracking down and interviewing the top and coolest thoughts leaders on the planet about happiness and fulfilment. Over the last 130 episodes he’s interviewed pioneering scientists, Academy Award nominated directors, New York Times bestselling authors, Mt. Everest climbers and 32 TED speakers. He also life coaches CEOs of companies that are positively impacting the world. Over the time that I’ve known Duncan his goal has been clear and he has done whatever it takes without faltering and compromise. He lives and breathes happiness and it comes across clearly in everything he does. I am so grateful that I have the pleasure of interviewing Duncan today.






Connect with Duncan



Duncan on Twitter

Mastin Kipp is the author of 2 bestselling books and is a world renowned public speaker recognised by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins and Arianna Huffington as a thought leader in accelerated life transformations. He is the creator of Functional Life Coaching™ which differs from his peers and predecessors in that it focuses not just on rapid behavioural change but on identifying and dissolving the root cause that is impeding optimal human progress and success. He’s helped over 2 million people in over 100 countries around the world. Mastin appears regularly on television and in print and was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s Emmy award winning show ‘Super Soul Sunday’ as a leader of the next generation of spiritual thinkers.

 
Link Mentioned
Ep 95. Christian Picciolini
 
Connect with Mastin
MastinKipp.com
‘Claim Your Power’ book website
Mastin’s next event is Prosper Live