What does eating that cookie have to do with the hero of the Trojan war?

We all have goals, and we all face temptations that get in the way. So what’s happening in the brain when we act in a manner that isn’t in accordance with who we want to be? Computers don’t have these problems, but being human can be tough. In the previous two episodes we exposed the rivaling networks battling it out under the surface. Today we’re going to talk about the gap between what you intend to do and what you actually do when temptation is there.

Episode Audio

Episode Video

More Information:
Eagleman DM. Incognito. Canongate Canons, 2016.

Eagleman DM. (2016). The Brain: The Story of You. Canongate Books.

Radiolab Podcast – You v. You (2008)

PBS: The Brain with David Eagleman – The Ulysses Contract

Eagleman DM (2009). America on Deadline. New York Times. Dec 3, 2009.

"A popularizer of impressive gusto...[Eagleman] aims, grandly, to do for the study of the mind what Copernicus did for the study of the stars."
- New York Observer

"David Eagleman is the kind of guy who really does make being a neuroscientist look like fun."
- New York Times

"David Eagleman offers startling lessons.... His method is to ask us to cast off our lazy commonplace assumptions.
- The Guardian

"Eagleman has a talent for testing the untestable, for taking seemingly sophomoric notions and using them to nail down the slippery stuff of consciousness."
- The New Yorker