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Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

10. Mark Epstein (Buddhist Psychotherapist) – Nature/Nurture/Neither

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6594 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Will nanobots someday deposit Shakespeare directly into our brains? If we paid politicians tons of money would they do a better job? Does epigenetics solve the nature/nurture debate? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, host Jason Gots is joined by Mark Epstein, Buddhist-influenced psychiatrist and author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and The Trauma of Everyday Life. Interview clips from Stephen Dubner, Kayt Sukel, and Nicholas Negroponte launch a probing discussion of education, free will, and a contemporary twist in the "nature/nurture" debate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?

0:04.3

Not much to it, is there?

0:06.2

Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.

0:10.9

Mmm, that is good.

0:12.9

Now that's what Asani should sound like.

0:15.8

Go all crisp in with walkers.

0:19.0

Delicious.

0:20.1

Hi there, I'm Jason Gottz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

0:25.3

Big Think is an online forum for the world's most interesting thinkers and doers to share their

0:30.4

ideas on video.

0:32.0

Since 2008, we've shared over 10,000 of them.

0:35.2

And on the Think Again podcast, we surprise our guests and me, your host,

0:38.9

with unexpected clips unearthed from these labyrinthine archives, and then we talk about them.

0:44.0

I am honored today to be joined by Mark Epstein, psychiatrist and author of many influential

0:48.4

books about the intersection of Buddhist thought and psychotherapy, including thoughts without

0:53.6

a thinker, going to pieces without

0:55.4

falling apart, and the trauma of everyday life. Welcome to think again, Mark. Thank you. I'm hoping

1:01.2

this show will not be part of the trauma of your everyday life. It is already. Excellent. Okay, so

1:07.6

here's how this works. Our producers have chosen short surprise interview clips for us to listen to and discuss, and they could be on any subject and they're a surprise to me too. Shall we begin?

1:17.1

Let's go. Fantastic. What's up first, Erin? This is Kate Sukle on how love affects the brain.

1:25.8

I think that the revolution in neuroscience is sort of happening in two

1:30.5

fronts. One is the study of epigenetics. And the best way to think of the epigenome is that if our

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