Mind Field Season 2
Creator/host Michael Stevens takes us on an even deeper dive into the mysterious depths of the human psyche. Working with top Universities and cutting-edge Research Labs, Michael travels the world to explore the latest frontiers in psychology and neuroscience through groundbreaking demonstrations that test the powers and limits of the human mind. From testing psychedelic drugs in the Amazon jungle to investigating how unsuspecting test subjects handle terrifying life-or-death decisions, each episode offers an unprecedented journey into the ever-shifting boundaries of the Mind Field.
Episodes
E1Would you reroute a train to run over one person to prevent it from running over five others? In the classic “Trolley Problem” survey, most people say they would. But I wanted to test what people would actually do in a…
E2Do psychedelic drugs really bring about self-healing and personal enlightenment? New research says they may. In this episode, I travel to the Amazonian jungle of Peru to experience the mind-expanding effects of the…
E3Psychology. Neuroscience. Drugs. All can be tools of interrogation. In this episode, an expert shows me how to coerce unsuspecting subjects into signing false confessions; a police psychologist questions me about my…
E4Technology isn’t just changing our lives. It’s literally changing our brains -- and maybe for the better. In this episode, I’m a human lab rat in a groundbreaking study at UC Irvine, where scientists test how playing 3D…
E5What makes a hero? Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, now runs seminars to teach everyday people how to be heroes. But can heroism be learned? I put his unsuspecting…
E6Exactly how do placebos work? Researchers believe that, through the power of suggestion, placebos may unleash the power of our own subconscious minds to cure ourselves. I was honored to participate in McGill…
E7Scientists can’t dissect living people’s brains to study their function. But by examining the behavior of people whose brains are atypical (due to stroke, injury, or being born that way), we can learn a lot about all…
E8Our nervous system is fundamentally electric. We move our arm by sending a signal to the muscles that control it. That means we can bypass our brains and use electricity to control our bodies, or use our minds to…