{"podcast":{"title":"The Dissenter","slug":"the-dissenter-1161217","podcast_index_feed_id":1161217,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/822ba20/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.thedissenter.net/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/1264936/1264936-1545566388129-6694711205af.jpg","author":"Ricardo Lopes","episode_count":1272,"summary":"My name is Ricardo Lopes, and I’m from Portugal. Thank you for visiting my podcast. Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 900 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here. New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-14T08:18:50.276160+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dissenter-1161217"},"episode":{"title":"#1236 Paul Thagard - Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness","slug":"1236-paul-thagard-dreams-jokes-and-songs-how-brains-build-consciousness","published_at":"2026-04-03T18:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dissenter-1161217/1236-paul-thagard-dreams-jokes-and-songs-how-brains-build-consciousness","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dissenter-1161217","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thedissenter/episodes/1236-Paul-Thagard---Dreams--Jokes--and-Songs-How-Brains-Build-Consciousness-e3gtmc1","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/822ba20/podcast/play/117413697/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-18%2Fca177805-ec72-c6ec-dbe8-441055b5685a.m4a","summary":"******Support the channel****** Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ******Follow me on****** Website: https://www.thedissenter.net/ The Dissenter Goodreads list: https://shorturl.at/7BMoB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheDissenterYT This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning & Development done differently. Check the website here: http://enlites.com/ Dr. Paul Thagard is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science. The Canada Council awarded him a Molson Prize (2007) and a Killam Prize (2013). He is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and author of many interdisciplinary books, the latest one being Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness. In this episode, we focus on Dreams, Jokes, and Songs. We start by talking about how to approach consciousness philosophically and scientifically. We discuss several theories of consciousness, and why we need a new one. We explore Dr. Thagard’s NBC (Neural representation, Binding, Coherence, and Competition) theory of consciousness. We talk about how social factors influence consciousness. We discuss explanations for dreams and jokes. We talk about consciousness in non-human animals. We discuss whether machines or AI systems can become conscious. Finally, we talk about the mind-body p…","meta_description":"******Support the channel****** Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4756,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-dissenter-1161217/episodes/1236-paul-thagard-dreams-jokes-and-songs-how-brains-build-consciousness/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-dissenter-1161217/1236-paul-thagard-dreams-jokes-and-songs-how-brains-build-consciousness.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}