Brainwave 2010
The third annual BRAINWAVE brought thinkers from multiple disciplines to sit down with scientists to wrap our minds around the things that matter. BRAINWAVE 2011 will focus on Dreams and Prophecy. Scroll down for links to view videos of the sessions from last year or listen to WNYC's audio recordings.
See the Brainwave 2010 brochure (2.5mb)
Why Does Movement Move Us?
Choreographer Mark Morris + neurologist Bevil R. Conway
Video
One of America's greatest living choreographers explores how the brain responds to dance and motion with the Wellesley College neurologist.
Wednesday
February 17, 7:00 p.m.
$30, includes a light dinner reception after the program
The Cosmos: What Do We Really Know?
Curator Martin Brauen + astrophysicist Steven Soter
Video
The co-curators of Visions of the Cosmos discuss the meaning of the exhibition.
Saturday
February 20, 4:30 p.m
$15
How Do We Listen to the Music of the Spheres?
Composer Philip Glass + astronomer Greg Laughlin
The astronomer, who has developed software to map planetary systems as audible waveforms, meets with the renowned composer of Kepler and Galileo Galilei to interpret the sound of the musica universalis.
Sunday
February 21, 6:00 p.m.
$25
The Living Mandala Experience
Have you ever dreamt of stepping inside a painting? Under the guidance of Khenchen Tsewang Gyamtso Rinpoche you will be able to enter a living mandala. In this two-hour workshop the noted lama of the Nyingma tradition will induct participants by physically guiding them through a tantric meditation initiation process, retuning their minds to enable them to reach the center of the mandala.
Monday
February 22, 7:00 p.m.
$65
Is Feng Shui All in the Mind?
Feng Shui expert Steven Post + neurosociologist John Zeisel
The author of The Modern Book of Feng Shui engages with the noted member of the Academy for Neuroscience in Architecture on how we perceive spatial relationships.
Wednesday
February 24, 7:00 p.m.
$15
Is Meditation the Medicine of the Mind?
Bon meditation instructor Alejandro Chaoul + cancer specialist Dr. Lorenzo Cohen
Video
Two doctors evaluate the healing potential of meditation.
Saturday
February 27, 4:00 p.m.
$15
How Do Our Brains Cope with Long-term Stress?
Tibetan lama Arjia Rinpoche + neuroscientist Bruce S. McEwen
Video
A survivor of the Chinese Cultural Revolution talks to the Rockefeller University neuroendocrinologist about how stress hormones act on the brain and if Buddhist practice has anything to teach us about how we can control stress levels.
Wednesday
March 3, 7:00 p.m.
$15
Who Is the Shaking Woman?
Writer Siri Hustvedt + neuroscientist Hans Breiter
Video
The novelist Siri Hustvedt engages the director of Harvard Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Genetics about her neurological condition, marking the publication of her new book The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves.
Friday
March 5, 7:00 p.m.
$15
What Time Is It?
Screenwriter/director Charlie Kaufman + physicist Brian Greene
The creator of timewarping films Synecdoche, New York and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets the famous proponent of string theory to understand how time passes us by. Greene is currently working on a cantata with Philip Glass and David Henry Hwang based on his children's book Icarus at the Edge of Time, to be premiered at this year's World Science Festival.
Saturday
March 6, 3:30 p.m.
$30
How Did the Universe Get Its Spots?
Performance artist Laurie Anderson + astrophysicist Janna Levin
Video
The first (and only) artist-in-residence at NASA engages in a free-form conversation with the novelist and professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College.
Saturday
March 6, 6:00 p.m.
$25
What Makes the Mindset of a Radical?
Writer Stephen Batchelor + neurophilosopher Owen Flanagan
Video
The author of Confession of a Buddhist Atheist argues that the Buddha was a radical innovator. What is it in our brains that makes some of us upend tradition and most of us follow the herd?
Sunday
March 7, 2:00 p.m.
$15
How Can I Find Peace of Mind?
Meditation Teacher/ Psychotherapist Loch Kelly + neuroscientist Zoran Josipovic
According to Tibetan Buddhism, and many of the world's wisdom traditions, we have the ability to access a type of awake awareness that is "the peace that passes understanding". This natural awake awareness is simply a type of human consciousness that has been overlooked. We will see how awake awareness affects the brain functioning, and present some simple and direct methods for accessing it.
Sunday
March 7, 4:30 p.m.
$20
What Does Ecstasy Smell Like?
Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel + neurobiologist Stuart Firestein
The famed creator of Elton John Black Candle and Ralph Lauren Polo Blue talks to the Columbia University neuroscientist about how our sense of smell is processed by the brain.
Saturday
March 13, 4:00 p.m.
$20
Is There Life Out There?
Rock musician Claire Evans + astrophysicist Fred C. Adams
One half of the indie band Yacht addresses a fundamental question about the universe with the author of The Five Ages of the Universe.
Sunday
March 21, 6:00 p.m.
$20
What Makes Us Wise?
Science journalist Stephen S. Hall + neuroscientist Andre Fenton
The author of Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience deliberates what it is in our brains that makes us "wise" with a neuroscientist and a philosopher.
Wednesday
March 24, 7:00 p.m.
$15
Can Children Meditate?
With Linda Lantieri + Lisa Jane Miller, Ph.D
The educator and author of Building Emotional Intelligence meets with a neuroscientist to understand when children's brains mature.
Saturday
March 27, 3:30 p.m.
$20
How Can We Use Our Brains Better?
With neuroscientist Richard Restak
Saturday
March 27, 6:00 p.m.
$15
Does Chaos Have Meaning?
Film director Shekhar Kapur + astrophysicist Piet Hut
Video
The director of the Elizabeth films and Bandit Queen debates the meaning of the universe with the Princeton astrophysicist.
Wednesday
March 31, 7:00 p.m
$20
A Crack in the World: The Alternate Universe of the Beyul
An illustrated talk by Thomas K. Shor about a charismatic and visionary Tibetan lama who, at a time of international crisis in 1962, led over 300 followers up a remote Himalayan mountain slope between Nepal and the Kingdom of Sikkim to a land of immortality.
Saturday
April 10, 2:00 p.m.
$12
The Inner Cosmology of Tibetan Medicine: Images and Myths of the Sacred City of Medicine
An illustrated talk by Barbara Gerke
Saturday
April 10, 4:00 p.m.
Where Does Life Begin?
Artist Michael Joaquin Grey + astrobiologist Chris Impey
Video
Together artist and astrobiologist construct an organism and a conversation using ZOOB, a building toy designed by Grey and inspired by biological and social networks.
Saturday
April 10, 6:00 p.m.
$20
Are We Wired for Worship?
Anthropologist Lionel Tiger + neuroscientist John Kubie
The author of Men in Groups and God's Brain seeks to unveil the relationship between our divine passions and our neurological heritage.
Wednesday
April 14, 7:00 p.m.
How Do We Get High-strung?
Guitarist Lenny Kaye + neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux
The lead guitarist of the Patti Smith Band meets with a leading expert on how fear is registered in the brain to talk (and play) music, nerves, and other matter. Director of the multi-institutional Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety in New York City, LeDoux is also singer and guitarist of the "heavy mental band The Amygdaloids.
Monday
April 19, 7:00 p.m.
