Review: Books about the human brain from Books news, reviews and author interviews | guardian.co.uk by Steven Rose

Against these reductionist claims, the Jesuit philosopher Andrew Gluck attempts a spirited, but to my mind ultimately unsuccessful, rebuttal. His title makes reference to the neurologist Antonio Damasio, whose major book Descartes' Error and its succeeding volumes laid two charges against Cartesian philosophy. The first, the one that concerns Gluck, is Descartes's dualism, in which an immaterial soul interacts with a material brain through the pineal gland. Not so, says Damasio, and neuroscientists overwhelmingly agree: we are, and have to be, materialists. The world is made of one stuff, not two. Gluck demurs, accepting materialism for the physical sciences, idealism for the mind. Damasio's second charge is perhaps more interesting - if not to Gluck, then to cognitive neuroscientists who see the brain as a problem-solving machine. On the contrary, brains are not primarily cognitive devices designed to solve chess problems, but evolved organs adapted to enhance the survival chances of the organisms they inhabit. Their primary role is to respond to the challenges the environment presents by providing the cellular apparatus enabling the brain's owner to assess current situations, compare them with past experience, and generate the appropriate emotions and hence actions. It is this evolutionary imperative within the particular line of descent leading to Homo sapiens that has resulted in our large and complex brains. As feminist sociologist Hilary Rose points out, Descartes's famous "cogito ergo sum" should be replaced by "amo, ergo sum."

Read the rest of the Guardian review, here.

Behind the public face of John Lennon (Soundcheck: Monday, 17 November 2008) from WNYC's Soundcheck by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Writing a book about the Beatles is to enter a crowded market. But Philip Norman’s new 851-page biography, “John Lennon: The Life” is getting much buzz this fall for the unprecedented access provided by Lennon’s friends and relatives, including Yoko Ono. We talk with Norman about why Lennon remains such a fascinating and troubled figure.

Download the podcast here. See also: John Lennon: Life is What Happens

Book review: Jamie's Ministry Of Food: Anyone Can Learn To...‎ Scotsman - Oct 6, 2008

LAST WEEK, the telly chefs began their annual assault on the Christmas best-seller charts. Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes and Nigella Lawson all launched their latest recipe books – but the one to watch remains Jamie Oliver, because he at least is doing something different to the rest. Naturally, it ties into a new TV show. In 2006, the Jamie's School Dinners campaign to improve the school meals system resulted in angry parents in Rawmarsh, near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, supplying their children with contraband burgers and chips over the school wall. "Children are locked up like caged animals inside there, starving all day," complained one mum, Julie Critchlow, furiously blaming Jamie Oliver. "It's him that started it."

Check the full story out here.

The New Asia from KQED's Forum Podcast

International policy expert Kishore Mahbubani discusses the growing influence of China and India, along with the implications for the rest of Asia and the United States. His new book is "The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East." Mahbubani is a dean and professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Listen to the full podcast here. Download the mp3 file here.

Ron Suskind Alleges War Fought On False Premises from NPR Podcast Fresh Air

Story: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind says that the war in Iraq was based not simply on blunders but on lies. His book, The Way of the World, accuses the Bush administration of burying critical information and forging a letter that linked Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Read the full Fresh Air transcript here, and listen to the podcast. See also: A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

The Black Hole War from KQED's Forum Podcast

Physicists Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking have disagreed vehemently on the fundamental nature of black holes. Susskind's new book "The Black Hole War" is his version of that dispute, and he joins us for a discussion in studio. Susskind's other books include "The Cosmic Landscape."

Download the podcast here. See also: Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program), An Introduction To Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

The Secret History of Dreaming from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

Writer Robert Moss considers dreams "secret engines" in the history of everything from literature to quantum physics, and from religion to psychology. We talk with Moss about his new book, "The Secret History of Dreaming."

Listen to the podcast here. Download the podcast here.

The Black Hole War from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

The Black Hole War -- Physicists Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking have disagreed vehemently on the fundamental nature of black holes. Susskind's new book "The Black Hole War" is his version of that dispute, and he joins us for a discussion in studio. Susskind is Felix Bloch professor of physics at Stanford University. His other books include "The Cosmic Landscape."

Listen to the podcast here, download the podcast file here. See also: The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

Richard Muller -- "Physics for Future Presidents" from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

Richard Muller -- "Physics for Future Presidents" -- Physics can help inform our understanding of such hot-button topics as climate change, energy consumption, space exploration, weapons and war. Professor Richard Muller's new book explains the basics of physics that all voters and politicians should know in order to make educated decisions on these and other issues. Muller is a professor in the physics department at UC Berkeley, and faculty senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Listen to the show here, or download the podcast here.

What Does China Think? from KERA's Think Podcast

China is big news this year. With a rapidly expanding economy, devastating environmental issues, and (oh yeah) the Olympics just around the corner everyone's talking about China. But how is the country changing politically and philosophically? We'll spend this hour with Mark Leonard, Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations and author of the new book "What Does China Think?" (Public Affairs, 2008).

Listen to the full KERA show here. Download the mp3 here.