David Eagleman

David Eagleman

Neuroscientist, Stanford University

A man with light skin, short curly hair, and blue eyes is wearing a black t-shirt. He is resting his head on his finger, with his arm on a table, and has a calm expression, photographed against a dark background.

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and an internationally bestselling author. He is co-founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and BrainCheck, and he also directs the Center for Science and Law, a national non-profit institute. He is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw.

He is the writer and presenter of the international PBS series, The Brain with David Eagleman, and the author of the companion book, The Brain: The Story of You. He is also the writer and presenter of The Creative Brain on Netflix.

Beyond his 120+ academic publications, he has published many popular books. His latest book Livewired tells the story of brain plasticity: how your forest of billions of neurons reconfigures every moment over your life. His bestselling book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, explores the neuroscience “under the hood” of the conscious mind: all the aspects of neural function to which we have no awareness or access. His work of fiction, SUM, is an international bestseller published in 33 languages and turned into two operas. The Safety Net examines what the advent of the internet means on the timescale of civilizations. The award-winning Wednesday is Indigo Blue explores the neurological condition of synesthesia, in which the senses are blended. The Runaway Species, co-authored with music composer Anthony Brandt, explores the neuroscience and behavior behind human creativity.

Eagleman is a TED speaker, a Guggenheim Fellow, and serves on several boards, including the American Brain Foundation and the The Long Now Foundation. He is the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Mind Science Foundation, and the winner of Claude Shannon Luminary Award from Bell Labs and the McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication.

He serves as the academic editor for the Journal of Science and Law, was named Science Educator of the Year by the Society for Neuroscience, and was featured as one of the Brightest Idea Guys by Italy’s Style magazine. He has served as the scientific advisor to several television shows (including Westworld and Perception), and has been profiled on the Colbert Report, NOVA Science Now, the New Yorker, CNN’s Next List, and many other venues. He appears regularly on radio and television to discuss literature and science.

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8 min
How to step out of your inner monologue and understand the world better
Expanding your worldview starts with understanding your brain. Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman explains.
Unlikely Collaborators
4 min
The genius behind creating things too impractical to buy
How do companies keep getting you to buy the "latest and greatest" iteration of the product you already own? By testing the boundaries.
7 min
How the mind makes new ideas: Bending, breaking, blending
How does humanity arrive at great ideas? Simple: we take already great ideas and just arrive at even greater ideas.
5 min
Hits and misses: How neuroscience can boost your creativity
Some say that great ideas come out of thin air. Neuroscientist David Eagleman posits that perhaps all great ideas are simply built upon old ideas, because thats what fuels the creative brain.
4 min
Understanding Creativity: Why Brain Hacks Don’t Help
Everyone thinks they know how to make their brain more creative and have better ideas.
5 min
How to increase your will power? Make a Ulysses pact with yourself
The only thing between you and your better self is your brain. Programmed to maximize short term reward, we often find ourselves struggling between what we want and what we want to want.
3 min
A Crucial Fact about the Brain Is Missing When We Address the Problem of Violence
Many people are quite sure of what's needed after a tragedy, yet there is a lot of disagreement. How can this be? It's all about how the brain can form widely different opinions inside different people.