All In The Mind

80% of the world consumes it, coffee bean aficionados relish it, but is caffeine the pick me up we think it is? Surprising evidence says it's all an illusion. And, the rise of caffeinated energy drinks is causing concern. The dark side to caffeine we rarely hear about. And we want your coffee stories too -- speak to us! We've just launched the new All in the Mind Audioboo channel for your feedback and conversations. Think of it as social media meets radio talkback! Find out how here. Natasha Mitchell joined Richard Aedy on Life Matters for a live coffee culture talkback too.

Acclaimed actress Glenn Close, her sister Jessie and nephew Calen are star guests at this week's huge Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. Hear their candid account of a family history of mental illness, and why they're speaking out. Next week, in our Cultural Chemistry series...Our caffeinated culture, with YOUR stories!

Boy or girl? Blue brain or pink brain? Dr Cordelia Fine's new book, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences, and Professor Rebecca Jordan-Young's latest, Brainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Difference, have raked over research data and mined the controversies on how male and female brains differ -- no holds barred.

Why do we so often deceive ourselves, believe one thing and yet do another, and fail to exercise self control when we know better? Acclaimed evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban argues we need to be more forgiving of ourselves. Our strange ways are explained by our 'modular minds', one of the most hotly debated ideas about how your mind works.

Professor Peter Tyrer, editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, argues his profession practises 'mental colonialism' on people with long-term, chronic mental illness that's resistant to treatment. His approach is called Nidotherapy -- Nido meaning 'nest' -- focused on changing a person's environment not their personality. And, Jenny relates her poignant identity struggles and triumphs of being a long term 'service user'.

A peaceful view through a hospital window promotes healing after surgery, while other environments can make us sicker. Why? What is it about place and space that shapes your body and brain chemistry? Dr Esther Sternberg is a world leader in understanding the powerful interactions between your brain, emotions and immune system.

Half the living things on the planet are parasites, and they've developed uncanny ways of making us do what they want. A spooky encounter with suicidal crickets, mad rats and Zombie ants -- the parasites are here to take over our brain. One ecologist argues they could even be changing our personality at the civilisational scale.

'The sex of my body is female but the gender I feel is male.' A year in the making, this intimate portrait of a person on the cusp of transitioning to a man is not to be missed. Miles was born Megan, but after years of depression and confusion he made the enormous decision to reconcile body and mind... with an audio recorder at hand.

Two world renowned psychiatrists, Perminder Sachdev and Norman Doidge, join Natasha Mitchell on the All in the Mind couch, prepared to be asked anything. Are you normal? What is alien hand syndrome? The tics of Tourette syndrome -- what causes them? Do stories of broken brains generate little more than a cabinet of neurological curiosities?

Philosopher, poet and writer Dr Paul Fearne had his first psychotic episode as a young university student, and continues to take medication. 'To live is to take a leap into a sea of daggers, each one stabbing the fabric of your being', he wrote in his diary at the time, now published as a rare glimpse inside psychosis. From Freud to Wittgenstein, his experience inspired a unique PhD investigation into the philosophical questions posed by schizophrenia.