Dr. David Eagleman Interview

I thought it was very interesting how Dr. Eagleman talked about how every action we do is backed up by a lightning storm of brain activity. This is something I was aware of before, but it is always interesting to hear how someone else explains this. The aspect of everything in our brains being done by "teams of rivals" is not something I had heard before. He described this as being like a Parliament, two opposite sides that both think they know what is best trying to take control of the brain and dictate the function that is done. This notion makes complete sense and I am surprised I had not heard of it until now.

Another interesting thing Dr. Eagleman brought up was how brain tumors can affect one's behavior and that our biology is really a large part of who we are. The different cases that were brought up of people changing how they act very suddenly and feeling as if something is different in their minds were incredible to hear about. The points he then made about criminal behavior due to mental illness were extremely important. I agree with him that we should stop throwing people with mental illnesses in jail and actually help them, but not let them get away with what they did. It needs to be acknowledged that brains are individuals and need to be treated as such when it comes to legal matters, just like Dr. Eagleman stated. Otherwise, we will continue to have overpopulated prisons, which helps no one. Overall, I thought the podcast was very informative and it opened my eyes to different issues in regards to our brains.