Science journalist Caroline Williams joins Joseph Dweck to explore the powerful connection between body and mind.

They delve into how movement can reshape our mental health through neuroplasticity, why we’ve become so sedentary, and how even simple physical habits can rewire our brains and reduce anxiety. Drawing from her books Override and Move, Caroline shares insights from her personal experiments with brain training and neuroscience labs around the world.

Whether it’s building strength, dancing with others, or walking in the fresh air, she explains how physical activity can be a form of self-knowledge and mental resilience.

Caroline Williams is a journalist and author focused on human biology, the brain, and the mind-body connection. Her books include Override: My Plastic Brain and Move: The New Science of Body Over Mind. She writes for New Scientist, BBC Future, and The Guardian.

Supported by: The Sephardi Centre

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Joseph Dweck speaks with robotics and AI pioneer Professor Hod Lipson about machine creativity and what it reveals about being human.

From robot artists to self-aware machines, they explore the philosophical and practical boundaries of artificial intelligence. Can machines ever truly feel? What does it mean to be conscious? And how should we prepare for a future shared with AI that is exponentially more capable than us?

Hod unpacks how AI works by ‘filling in blanks,’ how imagination might be the root of consciousness, and why he believes we’re on an inevitable path to meeting a new intelligent species - one we’re building ourselves.

Hod Lipson is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and a world-renowned expert in AI and robotics. His work on evolutionary robotics, machine learning, and autonomous systems has shaped the future of human-machine interaction.

Supported by: The Sephardi Centre and Mr Louis Ades

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Social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett joins Rabbi Dweck to discuss the role of environment in intelligence, the importance of stories, and some of the differences in thought and perception between East and West.

Richard E. Nisbett is co-director of the Culture and Cognition programme at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished Professor of social psychology. His published works include Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count, Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South, and The Geography of Thought.

Credits

Hosted by Rabbi Joseph Dweck

Produced by Ben Weaver-Hincks

Edited, mixed and mastered by Audio Culture

Music by James Cook

Design by Ellen Jane London

Media consultancy by Giselle Green

Executive produced by James Pont

Humans

Being is grateful for the support of The Sephardi Centre

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.