Ideasicle Podcast

We continue our Ideasicle Podcast series with Gaurav Suri, author and fMRI specialist at Stanford University. Mr. Suri is the author of "A Certain Ambiguity" (Princeton, 2007), an award winning novel that examines how we know what we know--and if we can be certain about it. His next novel, in progress, examines the mechanisms of the human brain. How do we decide? Where do ideas come from? What makes us who we are? Mr. Gaurav is involved with several fMRI studies at Stanford University that seek to isolate the drivers of human preference in the brain. He has also driven significant research on the role of emotion and affect in decision making. Show notes: We begin by discussing how Gaurav became interested in the brain in the first place, and his book "A Certain Ambiguity." He discusses the mechanics of the brain - neurons, synapses, electric impulses, etc. He goes into fascinating detail about the difference between the cerebral cortex (the conscious brain) and the more primal brain (the unconscious). He giv