November 2, 2008
Freethinking Festival 2008
It’s that time freethinking time again:
BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival is back in Liverpool from 31 Oct to 2 Nov 2008, with conversation, film, performance, drama and debate about the ideas that are changing the world.
Better online access this year, so no need to hug the speakers close with an eye on the clock — it’s archived here
November 15, 2007
Freethinking encore
Tis back. The Freethinking Festival is on in Liverpool and BBC Radio 3 right now. Last year there were some interesting ruminations on the brain.
Check it out this year here
December 16, 2006
Neuro Henry on brain, science and medicine.
Here’s the listen again link to the Free thinking program with Henry Marsh — neurosurgeon.
He puts the cap on notion of the soul and afterlife, so basically you can relax on that front. By the sounds of it unlikely we’ll be returning as frogs or anything wiggly. He also somewhat dismisses the implied significance of left/right brain divisions, saying it’s not as absolute as previously purported by some factions. There’s a whole wadge of other stuff, but due to poor memory I cannot recall. It’s probably the most engaging thing I have heard on this yellow brick road of lunching with logic. Maybe because it’s audio. Maybe because he’s a bit of a skeptic, which appeals to my first language: pessimism.