Your identity is a story you tell yourself

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean Illing talks with neuroscientist Gregory Berns, author of The Self Delusion. Berns claims that the idea of a unified, persistent self is a kind of illusion, and that we are better understood as multiple selves at different moments in time, tied together by a story — which is what we call our identity. Sean and Greg also talk about whether the brain is a computer, how perception works, the limits of thinking too much about thinking, and what psychedelics can do to disrupt and change the stories we tell about ourselves. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area Guest: Gregory Berns (@gberns), author; professor of psychology and distinguished professor of neuroeconomics, Emory University References: The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent — and Reinvent — Our Identities by Gregory Berns (Basic; 2022) More on the "Ship of Theseus" by Noah Levin "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness" by David Chalmers (Journal of Consciousness Studies 2; 1995) More on "The Hard Problem of Consciousness" by Josh Weisberg (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) "The extraordinary therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs, explained" by Sean Illing (Vox; Mar. 8, 2019) Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by: Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Patrick Boyd Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for today's show comes from the financial times, better known as the FT.
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0:27.6	Visit FT.com slash Vox to read free articles and save 50% off an annual digital subscription.
0:58.2	What makes you, you, and what makes me, me?
1:09.2	It's a slippery question, I know.
1:11.6	But that's sort of the point.
1:13.6	We think we know who we are and what makes us, us.
1:17.8	But it's actually not that clear at all.
1:22.0	We have an idea of who we are.
1:24.0	But that's just a story.
1:26.3	And it's a story we're constantly telling ourselves about ourselves.
1:32.0	And if that's true, then it means our sense of self is a kind of delusion.
1:39.3	At the very least, it means the story of us is not written in stone.
1:45.1	We can change it.
1:46.7	We can tell ourselves a different story.
1:49.1	So why don't we do that more often?
1:52.8	I'm Sean Elling and this is the Gray Area.
2:09.6	My guest today is Gregory Burns.
	...

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