Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett
Circulation Status
Why do we even have a brain? What is it good for? We may assume that the answer to these questions should be straightforward. We have a brain to allow us to think. From the ancient Greek philosophers to our present-day ideas the brain, we have assumed that rationality is our brain’s most important job. But, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges these assumptions. She upends these views by saying that the human brain’s most important jobs are not thinking and not our conscious experiences. Dr. Barrett asks us to think differently about how our brain interacts with the world. Her ideas have implications for how we learn and how we teach information literacy skills in our libraries.
-Troy Swanson, 31 January 2022
CI216 Show Notes
In Circulating Ideas, Episode 216, guest host Troy Swanson chats with Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, about her background, her neuroscience beach read, Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain, mindfulness, and why your brain is not for thinking.
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
You can read more about the book here, and purchase a copy for yourself!
Lisa Feldman Barrett | Neuroscientist, Psychologist, and Author
Dr. Barrett's website.
Dr. Barrett's Wikipedia page
'I'm extremely controversial': the psychologist rethinking human emotion
How we interpret our feelings depends on where and how we’re brought up, says professor Lisa Feldman Barrett - and not understanding this is making our lives harder
Videos
Recirculated
Troy is a regular guest host, primarily focused on the subject of "fake news" and misinformation. Check out some of his previous interviews and one recent episode where he was the guest!
In this episode, Troy chatted with Dr. Hugo Mercier, research scientist and author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe, about cognitive science, how humans think they make decisions (and how they actually do), intuition, and why we aren't as easily fooled as we think (...or are we?).…
In this episode, Troy chatted with journalism professor Jeremy Shermak, about the state of journalism, misinformation vs. disinformation, the collapse of local news, and the media literacy skills librarians need to understand.
In this episode, Steve chatted with Troy about his path to librarianship, how neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology can affect information literacy, and the chapter he co-wrote in Libraries Promoting Reflective Dialogue in a Time of Political Polarization.
168: Jacquelyn Whiting and Michelle Luhtala
And in this episode, Troy chatted with Jacquelyn Whiting and Michelle Luhtala, authors of News Literacy: the Keys to Combating Fake News, about teaching media literacy skills, helping students explore their own worldviews, guiding students through information overload, and the importance of mindfulness. Jacquelyn Whiting is a Google Certified Innovator because the fifth time's the charm.…
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