All In The Mind

The 1929 discovery of amphetamine heralded the dawn of the age of Speed -- a drug with an extraordinary and triumphant career. The first modern antidepressant, a powerful prop in warfare, a diet pill, a devastating illicit drug -- now reincarnated as a treatment for ADHD. Historian of science Nicolas Rasmussen unearths the making of modern medicine, Big Pharma, and a humble stimulant.

Nobody likes being told their most cherished beliefs are based on myth and misconception. But the global skeptics movement does just that. In the classroom and beyond, All in the Mind excavates the nature of the skeptical enquiry with magician The Amazing Randi, Mythbusters' Adam Savage and other enquiring minds.

The brain is more plastic than scientists once believed. But what does this mental malleability mean for humanity? More compelling stories from psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge as he enters the labs and lives of the new 'neuroplasticians'. And, neuroplasticity on the couch - does psychotherapy physically change your brain?

The dogma used to be that the adult brain was a rigid, unchangeable organ, but that pessimistic perspective is now being radically revised. Psychiatrist Dr Norman Doidge journeyed into the labs and lives of the 'neuroplasticians' -- once scientific mavericks, they're challenging the old neurological nihilism. Professor Jeffrey Schwartz is one. They both join Natasha Mitchell in discussion to reveal how the human brain has underestimated itself! Next week, plasticity on the couch...

Alcohol and pregnancy don't mix. In extreme cases children are born with low birth weight, cranio-facial abnormalities, and restricted brain development. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a term now used to describe the range of devastating impacts. Some believe the lid needs to be lifted on this 'invisible disability', but others argue the label has the potential to discriminate too.

A woman thought to be in a persistent vegetative state, unresponsive and unconscious to herself and the world, is asked to play a game of 'mental' tennis. Extraordinarily, brain scans reveal she can. In Australia, new ethical guidelines govern the care of people in this devastating situation. Besides new technologies and terminologies -- what prospects for those living frozen lives?

Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more -- with outspoken founder of the US Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.

Why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function? What do linguistic taboos do to your brain? How are new words born? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self-confessed verbivore. To him language offers a window into the human mind and how it works. He joins Natasha Mitchell in a feature interview to argue there's nothing mere about semantics.

Venerable Robina Courtin, acclaimed Australian Tibetan Buddhist nun, has excavated the suffering mind at its greatest depths of despair. Founder of the Liberation Prison Project, she's helped thousands of inmates release themselves from the prison within—their mind—using Buddhist techniques. Venerable Tenzin Palmo was one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun, spending years undergoing intense meditative practice in an isolated cave in the Himalayan mountains. We can all be our own therapist is their powerful claim.

What makes someone gay? The quest for the biological roots of sexual orientation remains rife with controversy. Is it in your genes, handedness, or the hormonal soup of the early foetus? Or, is the answer hidden deep inside the brain? Homo or hetero—the science of sexual attraction captures everyone's attention.