Episode
Dr Nikolay Kukushkin on Memory
- Podcast
- The Human Risk Podcast
- Published
- Oct 25, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3994
- Processing state
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Summary
What if your body is learning things your mind doesn’t know? What if memory wasn't just something that our brain has? Episode Summary On this episode, I'm exploring a bold idea with neuroscientist Dr Nikolay Kukushkin : memory doesn’t just live in the brain. It might be a basic property of life itself. We unpack how scientists define memory (behavioural change over time) versus how the rest of us use the word, and why that distinction matters—from sea slugs to kidney cells. I ask the “muscle memory” question we all carry, and we separate the metaphor from the biology: your basal ganglia automate behaviours, but your muscle cells do literally adapt to patterned use. We go deep on “patterns.” Nikolay’s work shows that even non-neural cells can detect minute-scale timing differences—preferring spaced pulses over a single crammed dose. That has huge implications for learning, exercise, nutrition, and even medicine; it suggests timing might be as important as quantity. We also talk about sleep as essential “synaptic housekeeping,” why false memories are an adaptive feature (not a failure), and what it really means to “run out of memory” in our overstimulated world. Finally, we tilt at the big questions: how consciousness might have evolved, why Plato’s model of perception eerily echoes today’s top-down/bottom-up neuroscience, and what AI still lacks—learning patterns in time within an embodied world. If you’ve ever crammed for an exam, worried about forgetting your own name, or wondered what your cells are quietly learning from your daily routines, this one will rewire how you think about memory. Guest Biography — Dr Nikolay Kukushkin Dr Nikolay Kukushkin is a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU. His book One Hand Clapping: Unraveling the Mystery of the Human Mind traces ho…