Mirror Neurons, Consciousness, and an Irreducible Self

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Society & Culture, Philosophy, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2026

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode, Mind Matters News host Dr. Robert J. Marks welcomes Dr. Mihretu Guta to discuss one of his chapters in the volume Minding the Brain titled “Mirror Neurons, Consciousness, and the Bearer Question.” Dr. Guta discusses the concept of “mirror neurons” – a type of brain cell that fires when a person observes an action being performed, as well as when the person performs the same action themselves. The properties of these neurons suggest they may play a role in empathy and understanding others’ actions. Dr. Guta explores the implications of mirror neurons to the mind-brain debate and how further study could illuminate these fascinating neural components.

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0:00.0	Welcome to ID the Future. I'm Andrew McDermott.
0:03.5	Today's episode comes to us from our sister podcast, Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery
0:09.3	Institute's Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.
0:14.0	You can learn more about the show and access other episodes at mindmatters.a.I.
0:24.4	Great to episodes at mind matters.a.ai. Greetings and welcome to Mind Matters News. I'm your bearer co-host, Robert J. Marks.
0:30.2	We'll find out what that means in a little bit. To me, consciousness is a squishy sort of thing
0:35.2	to talk about. It's a hard thing to define, but all of us have an idea of what consciousness is,
0:42.1	and that idea that we share is enough for us to talk about it.
0:46.4	And along with mirror neurons, that's what we're going to talk about today with our guest,
0:52.0	Dr. Muratou Guta.
0:54.2	Mind Matters News, and this podcast is a product of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural
0:59.4	and Artificial Intelligence at Discovery Institute.
1:03.2	A new podcast of Mind Matters News has dropped every Thursday, except the last Thursday of
1:09.1	the month.
1:10.0	Last 30th day of the month, we post what we call a binge cast, where multiple episode
1:15.2	interviews from the past are fused into a single podcast.
1:20.6	So welcome to Mind Matters News and thank you for listening.
1:23.8	My co-host today is Brian Krause, who is a bagpipe playing co-editor of the book
1:30.4	Minding the Brain. Hey, Brian. Hey, Bob. It's good to be here. I didn't bring my bagpipes.
1:35.6	You didn't bring your bagpipes. I was going to ask Brian his favorite bagpipe joke,
1:40.5	but he didn't think bagpipes were funny. It's very serious business. It's very serious. Okay, I have a bagpipe joke. A gentleman is somebody who knows how to play the bagpipes, but doesn't. What do you think? Is that pretty good? Well, I laughed, so I guess it worked. Yeah, it was. Yeah, but it was a polite laugh. It wasn't a deep belly laugh. But yeah, that was okay. Look, at My Matters News, we've been interviewing authors featured in the book, Binding the Brain, edited by Agnes Mnuge, Brian Krause, and myself. The book delves into the age-old question, is the mind more than the brain?
2:18.6	This debate spans centuries.
	...

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