{"podcast":{"title":"On Humans","slug":"on-humans-5714769","podcast_index_feed_id":5714769,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/b6269808/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://onhumans.substack.com/about","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/30459826/30459826-1759510527619-3882a9600a0e7.jpg","author":"Ilari Mäkelä","episode_count":111,"summary":"Where do we come from? How did we get here? And what kinds of creatures are we? On Humans features conversations with leading scholars about the human story, making new research about humanity more accessible to everyone and more meaningful to the big questions about who we are. In addition to regular episodes, the show now includes longer series on some of the greatest arcs in the journey of our species, covering everything from the evolution of apes to the making of the modern economy. https://onhumans.substack.com/about","last_synced_at":"2026-07-26T20:17:23.337618+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769"},"episode":{"title":"Epilogue: Is the Brain Free to Choose? ~ Tim Coulson","slug":"epilogue-is-the-brain-free-to-choose-tim-coulson","published_at":"2025-11-05T19:09:34+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/epilogue-is-the-brain-free-to-choose-tim-coulson","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ilari-makela/episodes/Epilogue-Is-the-Brain-Free-to-Choose---Tim-Coulson-e3a5oko","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/b6269808/podcast/play/110338136/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-10-5%2F4f736e76-1409-6e7c-9f5c-bf8bff1cd602.m4a","summary":"You decided to start reading this. But could you have chosen otherwise? In this short epilogue to this fall's brain science -series , Oxford biologist Tim Coulson gives his defense of free will. (The episode is an unheard clip from the conversation with Tim Coulson, originally recorded as part of the Origins of Humankind -series in March 2025. ) LINKS For highlights, longer quotes, and references, see my essay at OnHumans.Substack.com . Tim Coulson's book is called The Universal History of Us (in the UK) and The Science of Why We Exist (in the US). For more episodes on the human brain, check ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com/Brain⁠⁠ Want to support the show? Join the club at ⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠ MENTIONS Names: Albert Einstein | Niels Bohr Terms and concepts: free will | many worlds -interpretation vs the Copenhaguen interpretation of quantum mechanics | Brownian motion | Quantum biology | stochasticity vs determinism | neural integration vs complexity | chance & necessity | philosophy | physics | biology | neuroscience","meta_description":"You decided to start reading this. But could you have chosen otherwise? In this short epilogue to this fall's brain science -series , Oxford biologist Tim…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":984,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-humans-5714769/episodes/epilogue-is-the-brain-free-to-choose-tim-coulson/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/epilogue-is-the-brain-free-to-choose-tim-coulson.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}