Michael Egnor X Christof Koch X Michael Shermer | A Debate on the Mind, Soul, and the Afterlife

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A debate on the mind, soul, consciousness, and the afterlife.

Michael Egnor, MD, is Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He received his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and trained in neurosurgery at the University of Miami. He has been on faculty at Stony Brook since 1991. He is the neurosurgery residency director and has served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery and as vice-chairman of neurosurgery at Stony Brook Medicine. He has a strong interest in Thomistic philosophy, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, evolution and intelligent design, and bioethics and has published and lectured extensively on these topics. His new book is The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul.

Christof Koch is a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute and at the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, the former president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and a former professor at the California Institute of Technology. Author of four previous titles—The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can’t Be Computed, Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist, and The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach—Koch writes regularly for a range of media, including Scientific American. His latest book is Then I Am Myself the World.

Transcript

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1:10.3	You're listening to the michael shirmer show all right everybody it's time for another episode of the mich Shermer show. Hey, we've got a special episode for you today. You are not going to believe this. One of the most important and interesting topics there is. The nature of the soul, the mind, consciousness. Where does it all go? What happens after we die? My guest today, and this is going to be a debate format, as it were, between two authors
1:47.9	who have thought a lot long and hard about this, both professional scientists.
1:52.4	The first one is Michael Eggnor.
1:54.3	Here's his new book, The Immortal Mind.
1:56.6	Let me give it a proper introduction in total here.
1:59.4	He is a medical doctor, professor of neurosurgery
2:02.8	and pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He received
2:08.4	his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and
2:12.6	trained in neurosurgery at the University of Miami. He's been on the faculty at Stony Brook since 1991, and he's the neurosurgery
2:20.4	residence director and served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery and as vice
2:25.5	chairman of neurosurgery at Stony Brook Medicine.
2:28.0	Oh my God.
	...

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