Annie Murphy Paul Talks The Extended Mind

Sarah is joined by Annie Murphy Paul, author of The Extended Mind: The Power of ...

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Sarah is joined by Annie Murphy Paul, author of The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, to discuss what it means to live in a brainbound society. Contrary to popular belief, our brains are not actually computers, and Paul teases out the science behind the importance of strengthening the ties between the physical life and the intellectual. How can we make our brains rise to meet the moment in this culturally techy age?

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Jaclyn Brown

    Great episode! I was in the process of painting my walls greens and purples (eh...not in the same room) to contrast all the neutral tones, which I feel like is somewhat relevant to the concept of places helping you think.

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    Something else that interests me is the way we learn. School was so difficult for me. I think I was bored a lot of the time, so I didn’t put in a lot of effort. I know I wasn’t very self motivated. What would have worked better? I know I’m very visual, so memorizing things has never been easy for me.

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    Maybe this isn’t relevant, but I wish we understood more about Alzheimer’s. As we age, it does seem as though our thoughts are more scrambled (maybe my ADHD is worse), and it’s harder to come up with names of things. I see things visually, but what’s it called again? I notice a lot of people have this issue. In fact, my husband and I will be talking about something, and neither of us can come up with the name, but we can describe it, and we KNOW what we’re talking about.

    Of course, it’s scary for me because my mom had Alzheimer’s, and it’s hard to remember or even be certain of when we first started noticing it. I was just with my girlfriend and her parents, and her mom has Alzheimer’s. We had a lovely time, and I really enjoyed her mom. Nothing was obvious to me, but her mom forgets who her husband is, and has called the police. I think it’s worse at night, and that’s another thing that happens with some elderly people; I think it’s called sundown syndrome.

    I also have a brother who mostly likely has Asperger’s. He once told me he had trouble *reading* people’s expressions, which is quite obvious. He can react to comments in surprisingly negative ways, and he will also say things that seem to come out of nowhere and can be quite hurtful. Yet, he can also be very kind.

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  4. mle

    Great podcast. I found that I enjoyed listening to Ms. Paul more than I enjoyed reading the book.

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