The story of your brainThe story of your brain
All In The Mind
Locked in the darkness of your skull—the grey mush of your brain devises rich narratives of your reality and identity. Neuroscientist David Eagleman draws on his extensive brain research to tell the story of you. What creates reality? How does the brain determine what you see, how do you make decisions and could new technology expand what it means to be human?
28:48•31 Jan 2016
The Story of Your Brain: How Three Pounds of Mush Build Your Reality
Episode Overview
- Identity emerges from a mix of genetics and accumulated experiences, as the brain constantly rewires its own circuitry.
- Human behaviour is tightly linked to brain biology, including injury, tumours and unconscious processes.
- Most mental activity is unconscious; the conscious mind often lags behind and may only receive the final results of complex brain processing.
- Decision making involves competing neural networks — a "neural parliament" — rather than a single, rational self in charge.
- New technologies can extend our sensory experience and bodily control, making ethical oversight crucial as we expand what it means to be human.
“"Who you are depends on where you've been because the brain is a relentless shapeshifter and it's constantly rewriting its own circuitry."”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This episode of All In The Mind zooms out from day-to-day behaviour to the bigger question: what is your brain actually doing when it creates "you"? Host Lynne Malcolm chats with neuroscientist David Eagleman, who has spent decades studying brain plasticity, perception, addiction, and brain–computer interfaces. Eagleman compares the brain to a bustling city, where identity and decisions emerge from countless tiny interactions rather than one neat control centre.
As he puts it, "who you are depends on where you've been because the brain is a relentless shapeshifter". You’ll hear why half of who you are may be down to your genes, and the other half to every experience that’s left "footprints" in your nervous system. Eagleman illustrates this with striking cases, from Charles Whitman’s brain tumour and violent actions to Kenneth Parks’ sleepwalking homicide, arguing that human behaviour can’t really be separated from biology.
The episode also examines how the brain constructs reality, including colour and vision, and how much of what you "see" is internally generated. Expect some mind-bending ideas about dreams, schizophrenia, and why your conscious awareness lags behind what’s actually happening. For anyone interested in recovery, there’s particular relevance in Eagleman’s description of the brain as a "neural parliament", where competing drives and networks argue over every chocolate-chip cookie, craving, or impulse.
He explains how culture and social connection shape our brains, how empathy works in in-groups and out-groups, and why understanding these patterns might help reduce cruelty and dehumanisation. Finally, Eagleman turns to future tech: robotic limbs controlled by thought, vests that let deaf people "hear" through their torso, and data streams that could expand what it means to be human – all tempered with a call for strong ethical guardrails.
If your brain is busy reshaping itself with every choice you make, what story do you want it to be writing from today onward?
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