Theodore Schwartz on Neurosurgery, Consciousness, and Brain-Computer Interfaces

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get tickets to the CWT live show at 92NY with David Brooks!

Theodore Schwartz stands at the pinnacle of neurosurgical expertise. With over 500 published articles, 200 pieces of commentary, and 5 patents to his name—effectively producing a scholarly work every two weeks for three decades—Schwartz spent most of his career at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he pioneered new minimally-invasive surgical techniques and led the Epilepsy Research Laboratory, among many (many) other things. His recent book Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery offers readers an insider's view of one of medicine's most demanding specialties.

Tyler and Ted discuss how the training for a neurosurgeon could be shortened, the institutional factors preventing AI from helping more in neurosurgery, how to pick a good neurosurgeon, the physical and mental demands of the job, why so few women are currently in the field, whether the brain presents the ultimate bottleneck to radical life extension, why he thinks free will is an illusion, the success of deep brain stimulation as a treatment for neurological conditions, the promise of brain-computer interfaces, what studying epilepsy taught him about human behavior, the biggest bottleneck limiting progress in brain surgery, why he thinks Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the Ted Schwartz production function, the new company he’s starting, and much more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded January 31st, 2025.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone. This is Jeff, one of the producers of conversations with Tyler. I'm excited to let you
0:05.6	know about a special live show we've just announced. On July 22nd, Tyler will be joined by David Brooks
0:13.0	for a live taping of the podcast at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. Tickets are available to purchase right now at 92NY.org. This will actually be David's second
0:25.9	time joining Tyler. We're thrilled to welcome him back, and we haven't done a live conversation
0:30.3	with Tyler in a couple of years, so this is a rare chance to see the podcast recorded in person.
0:35.8	So don't miss your opportunity to be in the room for what's sure to be
0:38.8	a fascinating conversation. In fact, Tyler's already shared with me some of his chat GPT
0:43.5	informed prep. So again, tickets are available right now at 92NY.org. I expect them to go
0:51.1	quickly, so go grab your tickets now. Hope to see you all there.
0:59.4	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
1:04.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
1:08.5	Learn more at Mercadis.org.
1:10.7	For a full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, and real-world problems. Learn more at Mercatus.org.
1:13.4	For a full transcript of every conversation,
1:15.1	enhanced with helpful links,
1:18.4	visit Conversationswithtyler.com.
1:24.9	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler.
1:29.1	Today, I'm delighted to be chatting with Theodora H. Schwartz.
1:31.5	I saw his book in a Barnes & Noble.
1:32.3	I bought it.
1:32.8	I read it.
1:33.5	I loved it.
	...

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