The Giants Shoulder

Karl Friston, renowned neuroscientist and creator of the Free Energy Principle, offers a unifying theory linking perception, action, learning, and self-organisation. He explains predictive processing, active inference, interoception and how emotion and the self arise from bodily prediction. He also discusses psychedelics, precision-weighting, sensory attenuation and applications for therapy and behavior.

Dr. Michael Graziano, Princeton neuroscientist behind Attention Schema Theory, offers a mechanistic take on consciousness as the brain’s model of its own attention. He discusses when self-models likely evolved, how attention enables control, why phantom limb and puppet illusions matter, and what true AI awareness might look like. Short, provocative, and science-forward.

Charles Murray is one of the most influential — and most cancelled — social scientists of the last fifty years. Whether you see him as a dangerous contrarian or a data-driven truth-teller, Murray’s ideas have transformed how we think about intelligence, inequality, class, and what makes a society thrive.SPONSORS:Get Manta Sleep Mask: https://mantasleep.pxf.io/9LXagy and Code GIANTSMANTA10Mind Labs Pro Scientifically Rigorous Supplements: https://www.mindlabpro.com/?a_aid=67fd1cb8d9ad3&a_bid=6d45f5c3Expect to learn how his years in 1960s Thailand shaped his libertarian worldview, why he thinks welfare programs destroy long-term happiness, what “The Iron Laws of Social Programs” reveal about human behaviour, why he advocates for a Universal Basic Income — and why he believes it could save community, family, and meaning itself. We also cover the controversial genetics of intelligence, embryo selection, the dangers of elite cognitive stratification, and why he thinks Brave New World was more prophetic than 1984.And yes — we go there. Chapter 13. Race, IQ, academic cowardice, media distortion, and why Murray believes honest conversation is the only way forward.This one will provoke, challenge, and surprise you. You won’t walk away thinking the same.Timestamps: 00:00 – Charles Murray’s Mission: Happiness, Policy, and Meaning02:37 – Culture Shock in 1960s Thailand That Changed His Worldview06:07 – What Rural Thai Villages Taught Him About Human Nature12:31 – The Real Argument Behind Losing Ground17:15 – The Iron Laws of Social Programs (And Why They Fail)25:33 – Psilocybin, Cannabis & the Future of Drug Policy29:36 – The Bell Curve: What It Really Said About IQ and Class35:03 – Chapter 13: Race, IQ, and the Media Firestorm40:03 – Why Academia Privately Agreed but Publicly Condemned45:25 – Coming Apart and the Acceptable Version of the Same Argument47:03 – Should Scientists Be Held Responsible for Dangerous Ideas?57:15 – Murray’s Surprising Case for Universal Basic Income01:04:34 – Embryo Selection, Polygenic Scores & IQ Engineering01:12:07 – Brave New World vs 1984: Which Future Are We In?01:16:28 – Fertility Collapse and the Future of Human Societies01:19:11 – What the Internet Gets Wrong About Charles Murray...❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/

Dr. Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist specializing in psilocybin-assisted therapy and integration. She discusses how psychedelics can unlock transformative experiences but emphasizes the importance of integration afterward. Rosalind shares her own profound ayahuasca journey, revealing her birth trauma and connection to her emotions. She explains the concept of 'ego dissolution' and offers insights into holotropic breathwork as an integration tool. They also explore the impact of trauma on the body and the societal barriers to psychedelic therapy.

Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist and former UK chief drug adviser, ranks a variety of drugs by their withdrawal risks. He reveals surprising insights about benzodiazepines, noting their dangers compared to heroin. The conversation shifts to ayahuasca and DMT, discussing their pharmacologies and therapeutic potentials. Nutt also tackles the relative safety of vaping versus smoking and debates the contentious role of kratom in medicine. Learn about caffeine’s risks at high doses and the unintended consequences of nitrous oxide bans.

Dr. Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Affective Brain Lab, dives into the fascinating world of behavior change. She reveals why mere facts don’t change beliefs, emphasizing the power of emotional storytelling. Tali discusses how social incentives and rewards can effectively cultivate lasting habits. She shares an intriguing hospital case where small tweaks skyrocketed handwashing compliance. Additionally, she warns of social media's impact on our emotions and perceptions, while highlighting the potential of AI in neuroscience research.

Michael Levin, a pioneering biologist known for his work on xenobots, discusses cells exhibiting surprising regenerative capacities and their unexpected behaviors. Philosopher Anna Ciaunica argues that cognition predates neurons, presenting intelligence as an adaptive survival mechanism across scales. Physician-scientist William Miller suggests that individual cells are conscious and resolve ambiguity, reshaping our understanding of autonomy. Science writer Philip Ball delves into the ethical implications of growing brain organoids from personal cells, prompting critical reflections on consciousness.

I’ve distilled the most revealing moments from a year of Giant conversations on inner experience & neurodiversity into 52 minutes. This episode explores how radically different our minds really are, why most of us misunderstand our own thoughts, and what happens when you rigorously examine consciousness from the inside out using Descriptive Experience Sampling.Through deep discussion and lived examples, Russell Hurlburt reveals why inner speech is far rarer than people believe, how imagery, emotion, sensory awareness, and unsymbolized thinking shape everyday consciousness, and why questionnaires consistently fail to capture the true structure of the mind. The conversation moves from aphantasia and face blindness to meditation, dreaming, and the unsettling discovery that we may be conscious far more often than we think, even during sleep.Expect to learn why people routinely mislabel their own inner experience, how experience sampling exposes hidden forms of thought, why dreaming and imagination rely on different brain mechanisms, how consciousness can persist outside of dreams during sleep, and why the human brain may be best understood as a vast space for cognitive difference rather than a single shared mental template.Timestamps: 02:15 The Five Main Types Of Inner Experience. Which Do You Have? 16:18 Most People With Faceblindness Don’t Even Know They Have it! 23:52 Why Do Most People With Aphantasia Have Vivid Visual Dreams? 34:14 Are We Secretly Conscious When We Think We’re Sleeping? 45:32 Why Does Everybody Think They Inner Speak? Full Episodes 1) No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and How Your Mind Lies to You - https://youtu.be/j0gKl-g3DNg2) Meet the Woman With Zero Mental Imagery, Face Recognition or See in 3D! - https://youtu.be/4NeY7OwwJzk3) The Blind Mind’s Eye: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting Consciousness ! Dr Adam Zeman https://youtu.be/SgA2up6-Bok4) Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and Why You Can’t Trust Your Own Thoughts 5) No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: I Spent 90 Days Discovering If I Really Inner Speak (SHOCKING) https://youtu.be/N9tO1OLdJto❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/

Dr. Russell Hurlburt, a clinical psychologist and founder of Descriptive Experience Sampling, teams up with philosopher Gualtiero Piccinini to delve into the intriguing nuances of inner experience. They explore how individuals often misjudge their own inner monologue, revealing that many overestimate their inner speech. The conversation uncovers the dominance of sensory awareness, the complexity of emotions existing without conscious awareness, and the fascinating concept of thinking without content access. Their insights challenge common assumptions about consciousness and highlight the rich variability of personal inner worlds.

Dr. Robert Prentner is a philosopher of mind and consciousness researcher known for his work on conscious agent theory. He dives into the revolutionary concept that consciousness is fundamental to reality itself. Prentner discusses how consciousness may reshape our understanding of biology, AI, and physics. He contrasts subjective experience with materialist views, introduces the fitness beats truth theorem, and explores the implications of interface theory. Their conversation raises intriguing questions about how perceptions construct our reality and the nature of information in biology.