World-leading neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and acclaimed philosopher Noga Arikha lead us on a profound, deeply humane investigation of the entwined roots of our bodies and our souls.

For centuries science, philosophy, and religion alike have celebrated the rationality of human beings – setting us apart from the rest of nature as a unique form of life.

Even now, almost four hundred years after Descartes famously proclaimed, I think therefore I am, neuroscientists are far more likely to study human thought than human feeling. But what if our emotions, and our bodies, were truly at the heart of what it means to be alive?

Pioneering neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has done more than anyone to debunk the myth of the entirely rational human animal, earning global renown for showing the essential role emotions play in our capacity for reason.

Now philosopher and historian of ideas Noga Arikha joins him to explore the ever-shifting boundaries between ourselves and each other. As her mother slipped into the fog of dementia, she came to seek meaning in the new science of selfhood, finding fresh answers to the questions human beings have asked themselves since the dawn of time: What does it mean to be alive? How do our physical experiences inform our identities? What is the relationship between our bodies and our minds?

Fusing cutting-edge research and insights from neuroscience, philosophy and psychology with storytelling in the tradition of Oliver Sacks, this livestream conversation between Noga and Antonio will change the way you think understand yourself forever.

Praise for Noga Arikha’s The Ceiling Outside:

“Noga Arikha is that rare author whose deep knowledge of philosophy, science, and the arts allows her to move deftly from the quandaries of medical diagnosis and the scientific ideas that inform them to the intimate narratives of people afflicted with illnesses that threaten the coherence of that mysterious thing we call ‘a self.’ Astute, compassionate, and brilliant, The Ceiling Outside is finally an adventure story in the bewildering drama of being.”―Siri Hustvedt, author of Memories of the Future

“With grace, rigour, and imagination, Arikha brings together the languages of mind, brain, and embodied human experience to give us a book that fascinates on every page.”―Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad

“A moving journey to the roots of the self, which uniquely combines the author’s deep knowledge of its neuropsychological foundations with a touching humanistic sensibility. A must read.” —Vittorio Gallese, author of The Birth of Intersubjectivity