Mind Field

Join me on a journey into the mysterious depths of the human psyche as I investigate the strange and surprising terrain of the Mind Field.

Genre: Documentary

Cast:Michael Stevens , Trin Miller , Philip Zimbardo , Alie Ward , Robin Carhart-Harris , Mary Mouser , Dominic Monaghan , Adam Savage , Rosanna Pansino , Keller Wortham , Vanessa Merrell , Judy Ho , Timothy DeLaGhetto , Veronica Merrell-Burriss , Cory Kirk , Derek Muller , David Levy , Jake Roper

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Isolation

Wed, Jan 18, 2017

Michael explores the effects of isolation on the human mind by subjecting himself to a very interesting experiment.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ Conformity

Wed, Jan 18, 2017

Michael takes a look into the human urge to conform and just how strong it is against our own beliefs and sense of selves.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ Destruction

Wed, Jan 25, 2017

Can violently breaking things calm us down? Or does it simply anger us more? Find out as Michael takes a look into our urge to destroy.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ Artificial Intelligence

Wed, Feb 1, 2017

Can robots love? What are the limits on AI systems? Michael attempts to find out as he explores artificial intelligence.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Freedom of Choice

Wed, Feb 8, 2017

Everyone always wants to be able to choose - but who really makes these choices? And do we really want to have more choices? Michael finds out as he explores decision-making.

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ Touch

Wed, Feb 15, 2017

What is touch? Is it real, or is it just in our heads? Michael decides to find out.

7Season 1

S1.E7 ∙ In Your Face

Thu, Feb 23, 2017

How do facial expressions affect emotion, and how does emotion affect facial expressions? Michael finds out when he explores the face.

8Season 1

S1.E8 ∙ Do You Know Yourself?

Wed, Mar 1, 2017

Are you you? Or are you someone else, but manipulated to be you? Michael finds out as he explores what makes you you.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ The Greater Good

Wed, Dec 6, 2017

Michael tests the famous "trolley problem".

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ The Psychedelic Experience

Wed, Dec 6, 2017

Michael Stevens steps out of his comfort zone to research and personally experience Ayahuasca, a brew of plants which contains Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris will measure Michael's brain activity along the way.

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Interrogation

Wed, Dec 6, 2017

Michael Stevens investigates how and why different interrogation techniques work, and the ethics behind them. He delves into truth serums, the good cop-bad cop power dynamic, and lie detectors.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ Your Brain on Tech

Wed, Dec 6, 2017

In a world with an ever-growing tech industry, Michael Stevens tries to find out what effect technology has on our brains. In this experiment he tests what just 10 days of gaming does to things like our spatial memory.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ How to Make a Hero

Wed, Dec 13, 2017

Michael asks employees to help him run a seemingly dangerous experiment, to see if they would blow the whistle to stop him.

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ The Power of Suggestion

Wed, Dec 20, 2017

The power of suggestion is something we've been curious about for a while and in this release of the series 'Mind Field' it is time to shine the light on this subject.

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ Divergent Minds

Wed, Dec 27, 2017

Michael travels to London to meet a blind, autistic savant with astonishing musical abilities, and volunteers to have his brain's function temporarily disrupted at UCLA's Neuromodulation Lab.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ The Electric Brain

Wed, Jan 3, 2018

Michael explores how electricity can be used to move cockroaches, control other peoples' limbs, restore motion to people who are paralyzed and even read peoples' minds.

1Season 3

S3.E1 ∙ The Cognitive Tradeoff Hypothesis

Wed, Dec 5, 2018

Chimps and Humans can be traced biologically back to a common ancestor. The Cognitive Tradeoff Hypothesis theorizes about the two different paths of development - particularly cognitive development - that occurred in these two species after the split. Chimps stayed in the trees and developed some extraordinary cognitive capabilities which are shown by the research work of Japanese scientists at the Primate Research Center connected with Kyoto University - capabilities far surpassing that of normal humans - while humans, who came down into the savanna, developed social and language capabilities. The theory is that humans "traded" some aspects of cognitive development by re-purposing areas of the brain that had evolved in the context of other uses. A fascinating research project.

2Season 3

S3.E2 ∙ Moral Licensing

Wed, Dec 5, 2018

How are our moral decisions influenced by factors we're not aware of? A phenomenon known as Moral Licensing claims that when we do something good, we often subconsciously allow ourselves to then do something bad. In this episode, I take a look at whether those who donate money to charity become more likely to let a kid take the blame for a crime they know they committed.

3Season 3

S3.E3 ∙ The Stilwell Brain

Wed, Dec 12, 2018

There are 100 billion individual neurons in the human brain. Working together, they allow us to make sense of, and move through, the world around us. Scientists have built replicas of the human brain with computers, but no one has ever successfully made a brain out of humans. On this episode, I'll travel back to my hometown of Stilwell, Kansas, and turn it into a working brain.

4Season 3

S3.E4 ∙ The Stanford Prison Experiment

Wed, Dec 19, 2018

Normal people can become monsters, given the right situation. That's the standard narrative of the Stanford Prison Experiment, one of the most famous psychological experiments of all time. But what if the cause of its participants' cruel behavior wasn't what we've always been told?

5Season 3

S3.E5 ∙ Should I Die?

Wed, Dec 26, 2018

Michael speaks with mortician and death positivist activist Caitlin Doughty and visit a cryonics facility trying to extend human life indefinitely. Will he take them up on their offer, or will he choose to die?

6Season 3

S3.E6 ∙ How to Talk to Aliens

Wed, Jan 2, 2019

Are we alone in the universe? Even if we could contact aliens, what would we say? How would we say it? And, most importantly, should we even be trying to make contact at all? This episode takes me on a journey to compose and send my own personal message into outer space.

7Season 3

S3.E7 ∙ Behaviour and Belief

Wed, Jan 9, 2019

How can a lie become true? Dr. Aaron Blaisdell and I create a game show that is actually a giant human Skinner Box to observe the formation of superstitious beliefs. And Dr. Samuel Veissiere helps me design and perform a placebo reverse exorcism, harnessing the power of belief in both science and religion to convince normal people that a spirit has possessed their bodies.

8Season 3

S3.E8 ∙ Mind Reading

Wed, Jan 16, 2019

In this episode I visit a researcher who is studying memory by using machine learning and neuroimaging to detect and predict people's brain states. I also travel to Japan to meet with a team working on ways to record the content of peoples' dreams.