Giants Shoulder

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Anderson Todd is a cognitive scientist who studies consciousness from the inside. He teaches cognitive science at the University of Toronto, is Assistant Director of its Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Lab, works as a registered psychotherapist, and sits somewhere between Carl Jung and artificial intelligence. Salvia once destroyed his universe. An hour later, he went back in.

Expect to learn:
- The Salvia Trip: why the beings he met tore the universe apart to teach him respect
- Bad Trips Are Good Trips: how salvia's kappa opioid effect may reorganise the mind, and its surprising antidepressant effect
- The Dream Herb: the African plant that does nothing awake but supercharges your dreams
- The Spider God: the LSD trip at 17 that ended in a lifelong pact
- You Are Not One Person: why the entities people meet may be split-off parts of their own minds

SPONSORS
Check out Scispace (JNGIANT20: 20% off the monthly plan or JNGIANT40: 40% off the annual plan) - https://scispace.com/?via=jun1giantshoulder

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
David Luke - Meet the Professor of Paranormal Consciousness - DMT Entities, Telepathy Tapes & OBE's: https://youtu.be/qLKD1gt1X5o

David Spiegel - World's Greatest Hypnosis Scientist Makes My Arm Levitate Live On Camera!: https://youtu.be/eCtRBZHIsgQ

Michael Levin - Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM

John Vervaeke - No.1 Biopsychist: Michael Levin's Platonic Minds & Cognition All The Way Down: https://youtu.be/jcMtjjeUV98

GUEST LINKS
University of Toronto Profile: https://www.uc.utoronto.ca/staff-faculty-profile/anderson-todd
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndersonTodd

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/rvPqc7isZ0E
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:05 Somewhere Between Carl Jung and AI
0:04:15 Why Cognitive Science Is the Heir to Alchemy
0:13:36 The Salvia Trip That Destroyed the Universe
0:19:50 "We Destroyed the Universe to Teach You a Lesson"
0:22:10 An Hour Later, He Went Back In
0:23:26 "You Have Attended Your Own Funeral"
0:28:37 Why Bad Trips Can Be Good Trips
0:32:26 Salvia's Surprising Antidepressant Effect
0:45:48 Turning Into a Japanese Rose Garden
0:48:23 Silene Capensis, the Lucid Dream Herb
0:53:58 Why Dreams Aren't Random Noise
0:59:59 90% of DMT Users Meet Entities
1:07:33 "I Have an Arrangement With a Spider"
1:13:31 Split Brains and Multiple Selves
1:18:55 Hypnotised Into Forgetting How to Read
1:19:39 Evan's Arm Rises Under Hypnosis
1:24:53 One Session, 30 Years of Smoking Gone
1:31:48 Are the Entities Out There, or Inside You?
1:38:57 Why Do So Many People Meet Mantises?
1:42:35 Why Scientists Hide Their Weirdest Experiences
1:49:55 The Third Man: Explorers' Invisible Companion
1:52:54 The Giraffe Liver Dream Drug
2:00:03 How Michael Levin Broke His Materialism
2:02:40 Taking On Dennett: "The Most Primary Data I Have"

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com

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Thomas Hartung is the toxicologist who helped pioneer organoid intelligence: growing human brain tissue in a dish and wiring it up to see whether it can learn. He directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, and before that ran the European Commission's centre for validating alternatives to animal tests. His lab grows half-millimetre brain organoids by the tens of thousands. They can get better at a simple game. By the next day, they've forgotten all of it.

Expect to learn:
- The Pee Question: yes, you can grow a mini brain from the few cells in your urine
- The Missing Cell: why organoids lacked the brain's immune cells, and why memory depends on them
- The Overnight Wipe: they improve within a training session, then forget everything by the next day
- The Bored Brain: why neurons in a dish are "longing for input"
- The Ethics Line: could a cluster of brain tissue ever suffer, and who gets to decide?

SPONSORS
Download the most scientifically rigorous nutrition app MacroFactor! Use code GIANTS for a 2 week FREE trial - https://app.macrofactor.com/mfgiants

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Brett Kagan - Meet The Neuroscientist Creating New Forms of Sentient Biological Intelligence: https://youtu.be/TXlJc4tu1F8

Karl Friston - Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://youtu.be/R-IZOFs4qmY

Michael Levin - Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM

GUEST LINKS
Johns Hopkins Faculty Profile: https://hub.jhu.edu/experts/profiles/thomas-hartung/
Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT): https://caat.jhsph.edu/
Organoid Intelligence (OI): The New Frontier in Biocomputing (Frontiers in Science, 2023): https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/science/articles/10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235/full
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (Field Chief Editor): https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/4xNxOXNCG-E
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:11 Why Animal Testing Is Outdated Technology
0:04:13 What A Brain Organoid Actually Is
0:06:51 Can You Grow A Brain From Your Urine?
0:10:48 Tens Of Thousands Of Snowflake-Sized Mini Brains
0:11:54 The Brain's Missing Immune Cells
0:16:23 How Organoid Intelligence Began
0:18:21 The Neurons That Learned To Play Pong
0:21:50 Punished With White Noise
0:24:38 They Learn, Then Forget Everything Overnight
0:26:05 The Holy Grail: Long-Term Memory
0:29:22 Why Trained Behaviour Isn't Intelligence (Yet)
0:32:23 "Yeah, They're Thinking"
0:35:08 Testing Drugs On Mini Brains
0:37:00 A $15 Million Bet On Alzheimer's
0:40:56 A House Fly's Worth Of Human Neurons
0:43:43 The Frankenstein Problem
0:46:20 "We Could Probably Make A Dragon"
0:51:07 "Can I Talk To Them?" No.
0:54:24 Animal Testing Is Losing The Public
0:57:37 Could A Mini Brain Ever Suffer?
0:58:53 "These Organoids Will Never Be Cuddled"
1:02:20 Your Brain vs A $600M Supercomputer
1:03:58 Ask ChatGPT, Get Eaten By The Tiger
1:10:00 What Comes Next For Organoid Intelligence

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com

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František Baluška is the cell biologist who helped turn plant intelligence from a fringe idea into a field. At the University of Bonn he co-organised the first Symposium on Plant Neurobiology, and his lab showed that the same anaesthetics that knock humans out stop a Venus flytrap from snapping shut. With Arthur Reber and William Miller he co-wrote The Sentient Cell, which argues that cognition didn't begin with brains, but with the very first cell.

Expect to learn:
- The Anaesthetised Flytrap: why plants go under with the same drugs that knock us out
- The Addicted Ants: how acacia trees hook their bodyguards so they refuse any other food
- The Root Brain: Darwin's idea that every root tip acts like a mini brain
- The Self-Assembling Animal: separate every cell of a hydra and it rebuilds itself
- The Lost Cancer Cell: why tumours may be cells that have lost their map of the body

SPONSORS
Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool) - https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Michael Levin - Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM

William B. Miller Jr. - Meet The Scientist Proving Your Cells Are Conscious and Intelligent: https://youtu.be/xrV5oGyyKSI

Denis Noble - Denis Noble: Evolution Has Purpose, Cell Consciousness & Why The Last 70 Years of Genetics Is Wrong: https://youtu.be/xqw-DaWVK24

Philip Ball - Philip Ball: "Biology Is Infinitely Weirder Than We Thought": https://youtu.be/9SseGx0R0fY

GUEST LINKS
University of Bonn (IZMB) Group Page: https://www.izmb.uni-bonn.de/en/plant-cell-biology-1/ag-baluska
The Sentient Cell (2023): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-sentient-cell-9780198873211
Anaesthetics Stop Plant Organ Movements (Annals of Botany, 2018): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6215046/
Senomic View of the Cell: Senome versus Genome (2018): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132427/
The Third Way of Evolution: https://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/frantisek-baluska

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/QbBnYnm4OTg
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
https://x.com/evan_mcgl

TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:26 From Plant Roots To The Very First Cell
0:05:37 Plants vs Humans: Different In Scale, Not Kind
0:08:59 How Plants Turn Caterpillars Into Cannibals
0:10:08 The Tree That Gets Ants Addicted
0:13:26 Blind Biochemistry Or Real Cognition?
0:15:22 Do Cells Choose Their Own Mutations?
0:19:37 The Senome: The Cell's Missing Layer
0:23:55 "What Is Living Can Be Anaesthetised. The Rest Is Dead."
0:27:39 Wounded Plants Anaesthetise Themselves
0:29:02 How Do You Know A Daffodil Is Knocked Out?
0:36:03 The Field Science Tried To Shut Down
0:37:25 Darwin's Root-Brain Hypothesis
0:38:55 Roots That Swarm Like Birds
0:40:51 Underground Plant Wars
0:41:31 The Fungal Internet
0:47:10 Could AI Let Us Talk To Plants?
0:50:00 Cell Sentience vs Human Consciousness
0:53:10 Why Your Sense Of Self Is An Illusion
0:57:03 The Animal That Rebuilds Itself From Loose Cells
1:01:46 Your Membrane Traces Back To The First Cell
1:05:52 Heart Transplants And Personality Changes
1:10:31 Cancer Cells Have Lost The Map
1:15:15 "The Gene Outside The Cell Is Nothing"
1:16:47 Will Michael Levin Win A Nobel?

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com

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Johanne Nedergaard is the cognitive scientist who, with Gary Lupyan, named anendophasia: the absence of an inner voice. An assistant professor at Aarhus University and a 2024 Aarhus University PhD prize winner, she ran the first experiments testing what changes when the voice in your head goes quiet. The answer was far less than anyone expected.

Expect to learn:
- The Missing Voice: why some people report no inner speech at all, and why nobody noticed
- The Rhyme Test: they struggled with word lists and rhymes, until they said the words out loud
- Mind Over Muscle: jam someone's inner voice and they push less hard on the bike
- Heart Talk: raising your heart rate while lying perfectly still, using only words
- The Control Question: why mental health tracks whether you can switch your inner voice off, not whether it's kind

SPONSORS
Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool) - https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Russell Hurlburt - No. 1 Inner Experience Expert: Inner Monologue, Aphantasia and How Your Mind Lies to You: https://youtu.be/j0gKl-g3DNg

Adam Zeman - The Blind Mind’s Eye: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting Consciousness ! Dr Adam Zeman: https://youtu.be/SgA2up6-Bok

Alex Hutchinson - Alex Hutchinson: The Lie That Unlocked Human Limits, Tricking Perception & Aphantasia!: https://youtu.be/YqqU4ckq8s8

GUEST LINKS
Aarhus University Profile: https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/au651723@cc.au.dk
Personal Site: https://johannenedergaard.github.io
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johanneskned.bsky.social
Nedergaard & Lupyan (2024), Not Everybody Has an Inner Voice: https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241243004
Nedergaard et al. (2023), Mind Over Body: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102472
Wallentin et al. (2025), Heart Talk: https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70138

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/a81yY0k4x78
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
https://x.com/evan_mcgl

TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:02 What Is Anendophasia?
0:04:19 The Viral Threads That Started It All
0:05:57 Four Experiments on People With No Inner Voice
0:07:12 Saying the Words Out Loud Closed the Gap
0:14:10 Can You Trust Your Own Introspection?
0:17:27 Detecting Inner Speech From the Outside
0:19:56 How Many People Have No Inner Voice?
0:20:54 Where Your Inner Voice Comes From
0:23:24 Is It Genetic?
0:26:06 Unconscious Inner Speech and the Aphantasia Parallel
0:30:58 Deaf People Sign to Themselves Silently
0:33:25 What Your Self-Talk Reveals About Your Sport
0:35:46 Jam Your Inner Voice and You Push Less Hard
0:43:45 Raising Your Heart Rate With Words Alone
0:47:12 Positive vs Negative Self-Talk in Sport
0:52:55 What Silent Minds Reveal About Thinking
0:56:13 Mental Health Is About Control, Not Content
1:02:23 Psychedelics and the Inner Voice
1:03:51 Can You Train an Inner Voice?
1:07:25 They Never Rehearse Conversations

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com

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Donald Hoffman is the cognitive scientist whose own maths told him reality isn't what it seems. Around 1986, after seven years modelling perception, the equations said we render the world on the fly, and he has been recovering ever since. Now Professor Emeritus at UC Irvine, he has founded the Trace Institute to rebuild physics from conscious observers, starting outside spacetime. Its first collaboration, with Andrew Gallimore, asks whether DMT entities are glimpses beyond the headset.

Expect to learn:
- The Trace: the 121-year-old maths behind every observer window
- Zero For Trillions: why no theory of consciousness explains a single experience
- The Nose Test: why seeing your own nose shows how restricted your headset is
- The DMT Experiment: passing information through an entity under controlled conditions
- Mach 40: what UFOs might look like to someone with the headset's source code

SPONSORS
Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool) - https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe

Join the Outskill AI Mastery Sprint (Free This Weekend) - https://links.outskill.com/GIASHOULAUG2

GS EPISODES MENTIONED
Andrew Gallimore - No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://youtu.be/USgWrxEFWDA

Michael Graziano - Is This Greatest Consciousness Theory You’ve Never Heard Of: https://youtu.be/ZnasmLpY5_8

David Luke - Meet the Professor of Paranormal Consciousness - DMT Entities, Telepathy Tapes & OBE's: https://youtu.be/qLKD1gt1X5o

Karl Friston - Meet The Neuroscientist Who Created The Best Universal Theory Of Brain Function: https://youtu.be/R-IZOFs4qmY

GUEST LINKS
Trace Institute Profile: https://traceinstitute.org/people/donald-hoffman/
Trace Institute Website: https://www.traceinstitute.org/
Trace Institute YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TraceInstitute
X: https://x.com/donalddhoffman
UC Irvine: https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/
The Case Against Reality (2019): https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393254693
Trace × Andrew Gallimore (DMT research): https://traceinstitute.org/collaborations/gallimore/

LISTEN ON
YouTube - https://youtu.be/dOAo04b6jCQ
Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249

SKOOL
Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about

FOLLOW EVAN
https://x.com/evan_mcgl

TIMESTAMPS
0:00:00 Trailer
0:02:45 The Biggest Unsolved Problem In Science
0:05:38 Physicists Say Spacetime Is Doomed
0:11:03 Dennett, Graziano And The Illusion Of Consciousness
0:14:35 What Is A Trace? Markov Chains Made Simple
0:22:23 The Discovery That Founded The Trace Institute
0:26:10 Recursive Trace Logic: How Observers Become Agents
0:31:27 The CCTV Metaphor For Reality
0:37:01 Why There's Always A Nose In Your Vision
0:41:08 How Big Is Reality Beyond The Interface?
0:43:10 What "Consciousness Is Fundamental" Actually Means
0:52:43 Consciousness Science Has Explained Zero Experiences
0:58:03 Does Your Consciousness Belong To You?
1:01:57 If Consciousness Is One, Why Isn't Telepathy Common?
1:08:16 "I Have No Neurons"
1:11:13 The Maths That Slapped Him In 1986
1:20:04 Andrew Gallimore And The DMT Entity Experiment
1:26:34 The Swami Who Showed Zero Powers
1:32:08 The DMT Mantis And Why Reports Are So Consistent
1:37:28 Are DMT Entities Real, Or Just Icons?
1:46:35 Nine Conjectures To Rebuild All Of Physics
1:49:29 UFOs At Mach 40
1:50:19 Neuroscience As Headset Engineering
1:57:13 Hacking The Source Code Of Reality
2:04:28 AI Is "Dumber Than Cucumbers"

.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com