In this episode we sit down with Dr. Christof Koch- one of the world’s most influential neuroscientists and a pioneer in the scientific study of consciousness. Christof has spent his career trying to understand how the brain creates our inner world: our perceptions, emotions, fears, dreams, and our very sense of self.

This conversation moves far beyond theory. We explore what consciousness feels like from the inside- how anxiety and fear arise in the brain, why psychedelics can dissolve the boundaries of the self, and what dreams reveal about the machinery of the mind. We dig into the practice of confronting one's inner demons, cultivating inner peace, and how exercise, diverse experiences, and strong community shape who we become.

Along the way, they touch on everything from evolutionary biology to the Amish, weaving science with deeply human questions about meaning, identity, and how to live a fuller life.

If you’ve ever wondered what it truly means to be human - and how the brain constructs the reality you experience - this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Your brain says “breathe,” but your body can’t.

In this episode, we break down how fentanyl hijacks the nervous system-shutting airways, stiffening the chest, and breaking the link between the brain and the breath. Based on two new papers from the lab, this story explains the real physiology behind opioid overdose and what it means for emergency response and recovery.

In this episode, Dr. Joel Snyder joins us to unpack his recent Nature Neuroscience paper challenging Integrated Information Theory (IIT). We dive into the limits of testability, the allure of elegant models, and whether systems like the brainstem’s respiratory rhythm generator might force us to rethink where consciousness begins.