All In The Mind

Is sadness important for happiness? How does compassion become a mental habit? From the Happiness and Its Causes Conference, His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins Natasha Mitchell with a panel of top scientific minds.

This is the century for visual communication: video conferencing, YouTube, smart phones -- and deaf people are at the forefront. We're getting geeky at the world's first and only deaf university, Gallaudet University in Washington DC. Scientific surprises too: could the genes that contribute to deafness have paradoxical benefits?

At the world's only deaf university, Gallaudet University in Washington DC, a radical rethink of what it means to occupy and design space is underway: it's called deaf architecture. From deaf space to sign language poetry, immerse yourself in a deaf sensory aesthetic, with surprising discoveries for us all.

Gallaudet University in Washington DC is the world's first and only university for deaf students. Abraham Lincoln signed it into existence and its impact on the global deaf community has been enormous. From the radicalisation of deaf culture to the redefining 'Deaf President Now' protests of 1988, from the design ethos of deaf architecture to the aesthetics of sign language poetry and new bilingual pedagogies—join Natasha Mitchell on campus.

ABC Radio National showcases a smorgasbord of brains, coming live from TEDxSydney this weekend. All in the Mind's Monday and podcast edition features the story of a H.M. Afflicted with amnesia after brain surgery, he became a man who lived in the perpetual present, and the most famous patient of 20th century neuroscience. Join Natasha Mitchell for a powerful posthumous encounter.

Join us for a super smorgasbord of books and brains! Natasha Mitchell hosts live from the Sydney Writers' Festival for Radio National's special weekend broadcast from the harbour's edge. On Monday's edition and the podcast, acclaimed sociobiologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy with a provocative take on the evolution of our big brains.

A rock musical about mental illness? The Pulitzer Prize winning, Broadway blockbuster Next to Normal is now being staged in Australia by the Melbourne Theatre Company. Living with bipolar disorder can be a dramatic experience, but how does it translate into a night at the theatre? Meet the director, lead, and two women living with Bipolar who don theatre critic hats for All in the Mind.

Alice is just 50 and at the peak of her Harvard career when Alzheimer's arrives. High-flyer mother Sarah is driving to work when an accident and brain damage erases the left side of her world. Bestselling neuroscientist-turned-novelist Lisa Genova has a knack of getting inside her characters' dislocated minds and lives.

Celebrated fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett has mined the terrain of his imagination more than most. What shaped this passionately adventurous mind, and now, how is it being reshaped by early-onset Alzheimer's? Next week, a neuroscientist novelist's poignant exploration of the disease.

The brain is the star of an exhibition at one of the world's great cultural institutions, the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Get off the subway at West 79th Street and take a tour with Natasha Mitchell of her very favourite organ!