When neuroscientists set out to study emotion, one logical question arose: Which human emotion would lend itself to a close, if hitherto untried, investigation?
American neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux began looking into the emotion of fear in the 1970s. LeDoux runs the LeDoux Lab at the Center for Neural Sciences at New York University.
We spoke to Joseph LeDoux about how fear manifests in us. What do we actually know about fear? What does the experience we call fear, tell us not only about the brain, but about the role of language in describing human emotion?
Then we interview the singular American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. He tells us about improving his own hearing of music, and continually trying to sharpen the aspirations that musical creativity archs toward. Pat Metheny reflects on both the unknowability of art's impact on people and the measurable returns of practice, practice, practice.
Producer and Host: Ellen Berkovitch
Co-Interviewer this episode: Iliyan Ivanov
Guests: Joseph LeDoux; Pat Metheny
Post-Production and Theme Music: Dennis Javier Jasso
Music Samples: All the Things You Are, Keith Jarrett on piano; Jack DeJohnette on drumsVibrophone player Gary Burton playing a Pat Metheny song, Falling Grace
STEAMPlant Team: Ellen Berkovitch, Mary Jo Vath, Iliyan Ivanov, Agnes Mocsy
(In)coherence podcast is funded by a STEAMPlant grant from Pratt Institute.