This Easter on The Lisa Burke Show, neuroscientist and newly baptised Christian Baroness Susan Greenfield reflects on a life of scientific discovery, spiritual awakening, and the enduring quest to understand consciousness.

In this exclusive for The Lisa Burke Show, we welcome one of the most visionary minds of our time—a scientist, entrepreneur, author, and House of Lords peer who has dedicated her life to researching the brain and consciousness, and now journeys inward toward faith.

This Easter Sunday, as the season of renewal and rebirth arrives, it is a profound privilege to share with you a conversation that speaks to the mind and the soul, with a science icon of mine.

For the first time, newly baptised Baroness Susan Greenfield will mark this Easter as a Christian.

Classics to Pharmacology

Baroness Susan Greenfield began her intellectual life immersed in Ancient Greek and Latin thanks to an inspirational teacher, and it was there that the seeds of her fierce curiosity took root. For Susan, the Classics developed a rigorously disciplined way of thinking: a mental gymnasium that trained her to ask the deepest questions of what it means to be human.

“The Romans and Greeks dealt with love, fate, identity - questions we still grapple with. We’ve advanced technologically, but philosophically? Not much.”

This foundation in classics led her, perhaps surprisingly, into science. Encouraged by a bold Oxford pharmacologist who told her she could “tell us about Homer during the coffee break,” despite not knowing the basics of chemistry, Susan entered neuroscience. Since then, she has gone on to lead research groups at Oxford and founded the biotech company Neuro-Bio Ltd, devoted to early-stage diagnostics and interventions for Alzheimer’s disease. Susan is also affiliated with the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, where she confronts one of our century’s greatest challenges: how to extend our health span, alongside lifespan.

Alzheimer’s, Cognitive Capital & Consciousness

The Alzheimer’s research Susan leads is revolutionary. She and her team have devoted over 40 years to identifying molecules that could stop neuronal death potentially before symptoms even begin. With a latency window of 10 to 20 years between brain degeneration and visible symptoms, Susan envisions a three-step screening model, starting at home, to catch the disease early enough for real prevention.

Yet she is just as passionate about prevention through lifestyle. Cognitive capital may well be the new GDP. A daily life filled with rich conversation, curiosity and mental stimulation is just as vital to our brains as sleep or diet.

“The brain should be part of the school curriculum,” Susan insists. “Ten-year-olds can grasp it. It’s their brain, their identity. Why should they wait until university?”

Susan’s take on consciousness brings us to a realm we haven’t quite been able to grasp yet in words or measurement. “It’s subjective, immeasurable… and that makes it terrifying for many scientists.” She distinguishes between the brain, the mind and consciousness. And then there is the soul.

Faith and the Soul

“I think the riddle of consciousness is somehow tied up with what we call the soul,” she muses, a space she now embraces more openly.

Raised in a home divided between Jewish and Christian grandparents, married to a self-proclaimed atheist, Susan has now found faith in her own way. “I feel a deeper sensitivity to faith now,” she confides. “I believe in God more than I used to.”

Her faith journey culminated in a quiet baptism last year. “This Easter,” she says, “feels like my first.” For a neuroscientist whose every instinct is to explore and analyse, this act of surrender is to someone bigger than oneself. It doesn’t conflict with her science; it deepens it. “Consciousness may vary in degrees,” she says, “like sleep or anaesthesia. So why not faith?”

Female leadership

A scientist style icon, Susan has always been unapologetically herself. “I cultivated my look as a kind of armour,” she explains, “but it also reflects who I am—curious, expressive, unwilling to conform.”

Now as a CEO, Susan calls on all of us, especially women, to invest, support, and mentor. Indeed, only 2% of venture capital still goes to women.

“Leadership,” she says, “is about vision, not control. It’s about showing what’s possible.” She embodies this truth in every aspect of her life—from the lab to the Lords.

Legacy is in addressing the big questions

In reflecting on her legacy, Susan doesn’t cite awards. She returns, instead, to the passion of discovery. “Just doing the science is the reward,” she says, echoing physicist Richard Feynman. And to young people unsure of their path, she offers the same wisdom that has shaped her own life: don’t be afraid to ask the big questions. “It’s better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.”

Happy Easter in whatever way you plan to spend the weekend.

To follow more from Susan Greenfield: