It's Monday, July 29th, 2019, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Andravis Gontas.

Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

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Ever since I was an undergraduate studying psychology, I've been fascinated by how our brains

lead to the experience of being conscious.

Of course, a lot of people have written about this, and there's been a lot of controversy

both in the neuroscientific and the philosophical worlds.

But sometimes it's good just to get back to the basics and to update the basics by what we

know from what's changed in the last couple of decades.

And I think especially as we've learned more and more about what happens when we meditate,

I think it's an interesting way to look at the problem of consciousness if you talk to someone

who is an expert meditator.

So this week's interview is with Annika Harris. She's a New York Times best-selling author

of Conscious, a brief guide to the fundamental mystery of the mind. But she's also a master

meditator. Well, those are my words, not hers, but it's something that she's thought a lot about

and practiced a lot

as well. Over the past few years, she's actually spent a lot of time helping neuroscientists and even

physicists bring their ideas to light. And now she gets to have her say in her very own book.

Anika Harris, welcome to Inquiring Minds. Thank you. It's great to be here. So this book is a little bit of a

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