The Philosophical Debate

The discussion around free will is not merely academic; it has real-world implications. The philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that the version of free will that assumes a ghostly self making choices independently of causes is a misconception. Instead, true agency arises from reasoning shaped by prior experiences.

What if your choices aren’t really yours?

In this episode, we break down one of the most unsettling questions in neuroscience and philosophy: Do humans actually have free will? From the famous experiments of Benjamin Libet to modern brain scans that predict decisions before you’re aware of them, the science points in a direction most people aren’t ready for.

But this isn’t just theory.

We explore how brain injuries, trauma, and unseen biological factors can completely reshape behavior—using real cases like Phineas Gage and the University of Texas tower shooting. If behavior is driven by the brain… then what does that mean for guilt, blame, justice, and personal responsibility?

You’ll also hear a deeply personal perspective on living with a traumatic brain injury—and how it changes the way you see your own decisions.

This episode dives into:

• The Libet experiment and why your brain decides before “you” do
• Why people confidently explain choices they never actually made (confabulation)
• The argument from Robert Sapolsky: free will might not exist at all
• The counterargument from Daniel Dennett: why free will still matters
• How trauma, environment, and biology shape behavior without you realizing it
• What this means for criminal justice, punishment, and accountability
• And the one idea from Viktor Frankl that might still give us a form of freedom

If everything you do is shaped by forces you didn’t choose…
what do you do with that truth?

In this episode of All The Things, Travis breaks down a surprising truth backed by neuroscience: nearly half of your waking life might be happening without you fully experiencing it. Your body is there—but your mind is somewhere else.

We dive into:

• The Harvard study that found your mind wanders 47% of the time
• The brain’s Default Mode Network—the system quietly pulling you out of the present
• How your basal ganglia puts your life on autopilot (without asking)
• Why stress, trauma, and burnout can make entire chunks of time disappear
• And the uncomfortable reality: if you weren’t present… did you really live it?

This isn’t about forcing mindfulness or optimizing every second. It’s about understanding what your brain is doing—and deciding what’s actually worth being present for.

Because the moments you remember?
Those are the moments you lived.

Everything else… just passed.