Multitasking is a myth. Flow states don’t equate to enlightenment. An emotionally engaged boss is best for business. In this podcast, Harvard psychologist, global bestselling author and former New York Times writer debunks the myths we’ve been told about the workplace, with practical examples of how to train your mind to focus.

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Ray Nayler's novel The Mountain in the Sea announced him a major new voice in speculative fiction, able to seamlessly fuse the novel of ideas and the novel of adventure. In his new novella The Tusks of Extinction, Ray continues his exploration of the science of the mind and animal communication and extends his passionate plea for deeper respect for the natural world with the story of  Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behaviour given the task of raising a new breed of mammoths resurrected by to occupy the Siberian steppe. Tusks confirms his place as one of the most relevant and thrilling authors of our time -- in any genre.

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Family doctor Dr Gemma Newman has come to understand that body, mind and soul are not separate, and that only through a ‘whole body’ treatment plan can we truly heal. From gratitude to love, from mindfulness to healthy eating, Dr Newman joins us to share free healing practices that we can adopt into our daily lives.

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One small plant has played an outsized role in shaping the world we live in today. Engineered by the British Empire with profound consequences for India, China, and the world at large, the opium trade was a critical part of colonial history. But its influence extends far beyond the 18th and 19th centuries. In this episode of the podcast, novelist Amitav Ghosh traces the links between the trade and the origins of the world's biggest corporations and most powerful American families, and considers its relevance to the unfolding tragedy of America's contemporary opioid crisis.

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The pop star James Blunt has written a memoir about his life as one of the biggest acts of the noughties: a memoir that is filthy, funny, and quite possibly a fantasy. It's called Loosely Based on a Made Up Story. He joined us for an In Conversation event with BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt last year: a conversation that quickly became very, very, not safe for work...

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Ruby Wax joins us to share an honest and stirring portrait of the depths of her psyche. Recounting her mental health journey including through a monastery, a mental institution, and therapy, she shares her candid understanding of depression and her meaningful search for inner peace.

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Carlo Rovelli is no ordinary scientist. With a genius for revealing the mysteries the universe to those of us without his gifts, he is the heir to Hawking, Sagan, and Feynman; and alone among the leaders of theoretical physics, he draws as much upon art, philosophy, and myth as equations and experiments to illuminate the splendour and strangeness of reality.

Now he joins one of the UK’s preeminent theatre practitioners, the wildly innovative actor, director, and founder of Complicite, Simon McBurney, to explore the most exhilarating questions in science and art.

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Both a renowned psychotherapist and the 'best living essayist writing in English' (John Gray), Adam Phillips joins us to reflect upon what we must give up in order to feel more alive.

To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive, something to admire and aspire to, while the other is profoundly unsettling, if not actively undesirable. There are always, it turns out, both good and bad sacrifices, but it is not always clear beforehand which is which.

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We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting... We've all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.

Dr Anna Lembke is here to help. Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and an internationally renowned expert in addiction medicine treatment and education, she joins MindHealth360 Founder and Editor Kirkland Newman to share the secret of finding balance in our age of indulgence.

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Do human beings have free will?

For Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, science clearly demonstrates that free will is a powerful and dangerous illusion. Without free will, it makes no more sense to punish people for antisocial behaviour than it does to scold a car for breaking down.

But for philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, free will is not only compatible with our current scientific knowledge but justified by it. Free will underwrites our moral and artistic responsibility – and reason and self-control are both real and desirable.

Coming together to debate this question for the first time, these two intellectual giants delve deep into the science and philosophy of the mind and get to the heart of this ancient and vitally important question.

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