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Science Write Now
The Science Write Now (SWN) Podcast is a podcast for people who love science and the arts. If you’re interested in learning more about great books, plays, and films; writing, research or editing; the lives of scientists; and creative insights into contemporary science; then you’ve come to the right place! The SWN Podcast is hosted and produced by the SWN editorial team with funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. www.sciencewritenow.com
Science Write Now
Cognitive Conversations #7 On Brain Preservation and Existential Optimism with Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston
Brain preservation. It sounds like science fiction, right? Neuroscientist and author Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston is determined to prove otherwise in his recent, game-changing book, The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death.
This week on the SWN podcast, we chat to neuroscientist, author and passionate advocate for brain preservation, Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston. Over at Monash University’s Neuroscience of Consciousness Lab (MoNoC), Ariel is investigating the ways in which we characterise the nature of consciousness, or what it is like “to be”— from the decline, preservation and rescue of cognitive function at different stages of the lifespan, through to comparing our conscious embodied experience. This line of enquiry, of course, passes through the chasm of life and death. But should we accept the natural, inevitable way of things? Or is there another path our future could take?
The Future Loves You makes the medical, scientific, philosophical and ethical case for how we can preserve the dying to enable their future revival. Contributing to cutting edge research in the field, Ariel clarifies the neurobiological, cognitive, and emotional basis of what it is to be alive, and he hopes to accelerate the development of the medical infrastructure that will help prevent him and everyone else from dying.
Join Ariel and SWN host, Bianca Millroy for a fascinating tour of the brain: our source of self, memory and consciousness, and how our understanding of it is radically redefining death.
Show notes: visit scienceritenow.com/listen/cognitive-conversations-7-on-brain-preservation-and-existential-optimism-with-dr-ariel-zeleznikow-johnston for the full show notes, including further resources and recommended reading.
Ariel's book, The Future Loves You is available now in hardback, ebook and audiobook.
Connect with Ariel and find out more about his research on his website (including supplementary material), and follow him on Bluesky @arielzj.
Ariel's Substack blog is Preserving Hope.
Listen to Ariel speak on ABC's Conversations with Richard Fidler, and on All In The Mind with Sana Qadar live at World Science Festival Brisbane!
Content note: This episode discusses topics such as death and t
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We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.
