Brain Games (National Geographic)
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
| Brain Games | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Jason Silva |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 33 minutes (approx.) |
| Release | |
| Original network | National Geographic Channel |
| Original release | October 9, 2011 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Brain Games is a reality television series that discusses and explores the components of the human brain. Hosted by Jason Silva, the show is scripted.The show is interactive, encouraging viewers to participate in experiments, or "brain games", that emphasize the main points presented in each episode. The series debuted on the National Geographic Channel in 2011 as a special.[1] Neil Patrick Harris was the narrator in the first season. It returned in 2013 as a regular series. Its return as an original series in 2013 set a record for the highest premiere rating for any National Geographic Channel original series with 1.5 million viewers.[2]
Contents
Cast
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Main
- Jason Silva – host (season 2 – present)
- Apollo Robbins – sleight-of-hand artist, "deception specialist"
- Eric LeClerc – illusionist
- Max Darwin – illusionist
- Ben Baily – comedian
- Jay Painter – comedian (season 2 episode 5, "Power of Persuasion")
- Andrei Jikh - cardist (season 4 episode 9, "Patterns")
- Shara Ashley Zeiger – improviser
- Bill Hobbs – author
- Jordan Hirsch – improviser
- Amanda Hirsch – improviser
Featured
- Steve Schirripa (season 2 episode 12, "Liar, Liar")
- Art Shapiro – American University
- Amy Bastian
- Alex Todorov - Princeton University
- Brady Barr
- Brian Scholl – Yale University
- Coren Apicella – psychologist, University of Pennsylvania
- Chess Stetson – Caltech
- Dan Simons
- Frans De Waal – Emory University
- Forrest Griffin - UFC fighter (season 3 episode 8, "Mind Your Body")
- Helen Fisher - anthropologist , Rutgers University
- Jim Coan – psychologist, University of Virginia
- Jonah Berger – University of Pennsylvania
- Joshua Ackerman – MIT
- Kamran Fallahpour – Brain Resource Center
- Karen Wynn
- Laurie Santos - Yale University
- Mark Changizi – theoretical neurobiologist
- Michael Bisping - UFC fighter (season 3 episode 8, "Mind Your Body)
- Rhoda Boone - Food artist (season 4 episode 7, "Food")
- Shankar Vedantam – NPR science correspondent
- Susan Carnell - Johns Hopkins University
- Suzanne Dikker - New York University
- Sri Sarma – Asst. Professor, Johns Hopkins University
- Scott Barry Kaufman
- Sara Mednick - University of California
Episode list
Season 1 (2011)
Season 1 consists of three one-hour pilot episodes.
| No. | Title [3] |
Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Watch This!" | October 9, 2011 |
| Explore optical illusions and how our brain can mislead us. | ||
| 2 | "Pay Attention!" | October 9, 2011 |
| David Copperfield explores how we use attention throughout our everyday life | ||
| 3 | "Remember This!" | October 9, 2011 |
| Former detective Greg Walsh exposes memory weakness. | ||
Season 2 (2013)
| No. | Title [4] |
Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Focus Pocus" | April 22, 2013 |
| Highlights our misconception that your brain is able to focus on everything important at any given time. | ||
| 2 | "It's About Time" | April 22, 2013 |
| Why does time fly when you're having fun and slow down when you're in danger? | ||
| 3 | "Motion Commotion" | April 29, 2013 |
| Explore how your brain use and reacts to motion in order to make decisions. | ||
| 4 | "Don't Be Afraid" | April 29, 2013 |
| Explore how fear may actually be good for you. | ||
| 5 | "Power of Persuasion" | May 6, 2013 |
| See how marketers, advertisers and even political candidates manipulate your brain to persuade you. | ||
| 6 | "What You Don't Know" | May 13, 2013 |
| Learn what you may not know about what's happening around you. | ||
| 7 | "Battle of the Sexes" | May 20, 2013 |
| Explores gender differences. | ||
| 8 | "Seeing is Believing" | May 27, 2013 |
| Illusions highlight how your visual perceptions can be surprisingly off. | ||
| 9 | "You Decide" | June 3, 2013 |
| A team of experts show how you may not be in charge of your own destiny. | ||
| 10 | "Use it or Lose it" | June 10, 2013 |
| The brain is similar to muscles - the more you use it, the stronger it gets. | ||
| 11 | "Illusion Confusion" | June 17, 2013 |
| Optical illusions highlight how powerful our minds can really be. | ||
| 12 | "Liar, Liar" | June 24, 2013 |
| Learn how to determine if someone is lying. | ||
Season 3 (2014)
| No. | Title [5] | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "In Living Color" | January 13, 2014 |
| How can things as simple as color fool you? | ||
| 2 | "Laws of Attraction" | January 13, 2014 |
| It shows how attractions come down to basic math. | ||
| 3 | "Trust Me" | January 20, 2014 |
| It shows how can you find out who to trust. | ||
| 4 | "Battle of the Ages" | January 20, 2014 |
| The mental differences between kids, teens, and adults. | ||
| 5 | "Stress Test" | January 27, 2014 |
| Explains how much stress you can handle before you "collapse" under pressure. | ||
| 6 | "What's Going On?" | February 3, 2014 |
| How things aren't like you think they are. | ||
| 7 | "Retrain your Brain" | February 24, 2014 |
| Explains how to make your brain healthier. | ||
| 8 | "Mind your Body" | March 3, 2014 |
| Who wins in your life, your body or your brain? | ||
| 9 | "In It To Win It" | March 10, 2014 |
| How does competition affect your brain? | ||
| 10 | "Follow The Leader" | March 17, 2014 |
| Explains that you follow people instead of on your own. | ||
Season 4 (2014)
| No. | Title [6] | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Compassion" | July 14, 2014 |
| Discover if you're compassionate or psychopathic in a series of games and experiments. | ||
| 2 | "Addiction" | July 14, 2014 |
| Discover how addiction affects your brain, and whether addictions are necessary. | ||
| 3 | "Language" | July 21, 2014 |
| Discover how your brain handles language, and why words mean what they do. | ||
| 4 | "Risk" | July 21, 2014 |
| Are you risk-taking or cautious? Put your betting skills to the test. | ||
| 5 | "Battle of the Sexes 2" | July 28, 2014 |
| It's "male vs. female" again with more games and experiments. | ||
| 6 | "Superstitions" | July 28, 2014 |
| Discover how your brain is designed to believe in various superstitions. | ||
| 7 | "Food" | August 4, 2014 |
| Find out that restaurants trick you, and how the looks of food can turn you away. | ||
| 8 | "Anger" | August 11, 2014 |
| Find out what happens in your brain that causes you to get angry. | ||
| 9 | "Patterns" | August 18, 2014 |
| Find out how many patterns are in the world, and the pros and cons of patterns. | ||
| 10 | "Intuitions" | August 25, 2014 |
| What happens when you make "on-the-fly" decisions in life? That's the key of intuition. | ||
Season 5 (2015)
| No. | Title [7] | Original air date | U.S. viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Common Sense" | January 19, 2015 | 686,000[8] |
| 2 | "Left vs. Right" | January 19, 2015 | 714,000[9] |
| 3 | "Morality" | January 26, 2015 | 773,000[10] |
| 4 | "Money" | February 2, 2015 | 743,000[11] |
| 5 | "Paranormal" | February 9, 2015 | 711,000[12] |
| 6 | "Memory" | February 16, 2015 | 699,000[13] |
| 7 | "Misconceptions" | February 23, 2015 | 702,000[14] |
| 8 | "Peer Pressure" | March 2, 2015 | 575,000[15] |
| 9 | "Logic" | March 9, 2015 | 680,000[16] |
| 10 | "Faces" | March 16, 2015 | 685,000[17] |
Season 6 (2015)
| No. | Title [18] | Original air date | U.S. viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Positive Thinking" | June 28, 2015[19] | 524,000[20] |
| Do you think half-full or half-empty? Watch to learn how to avoid negative thoughts. | |||
| 2 | "Scams" | June 28, 2015[19] | 489,000[20] |
| Watch how easily your brain falls for various scams. | |||
| 3 | "Sleep" | June 28, 2015[19] | 476,000[20] |
| How does 36 hours without sleep affect your brain? Learn the dangers of sleep deprivation. | |||
| 4 | "Perspective" | June 28, 2015[19] | 481,000[20] |
| Learn how a simple shift in perspective can change your entire view of the world. | |||
| 5 | "Animal vs Human" | June 29, 2015[19] | 400,000[21] |
| Can a parakeet beat a competitive eater? Watch how humans fare against animals. | |||
| 6 | "Imagination" | June 29, 2015[19] | 475,000[21] |
| Learn how important your imagination is to your everyday life. | |||
Season 7 (2016)
| No. | Title [22] | Original air date | U.S. viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Meet The Brain" | February 14, 2016 | N/A |
| Take a tour and see how the city of London is just like your brain in a series of games. | |||
| 2 | "The God Brain" | February 21, 2016 | N/A |
| Jason travels the world to see how the belief in god may be implanted into our brains. | |||
| 3 | "Brains Behaving Badly" | February 28, 2016 | N/A |
| Jason heads to New Orleans to see how the seven deadly sins affect your brain. | |||
| 4 | "Life Of The Brain" | March 6, 2016 | N/A |
| 5 | "Super Senses" | March 13, 2016 | N/A |
| 6 | "The Survivor Brain" | March 20, 2016 | N/A |
Special episodes
| No. | Title [23] | Original air date | U.S. viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | "Mind vs. Body" | September 5, 2014 | N/A |
| Compilation | |||
| – | "Brain Trust" | September 5, 2014 | N/A |
| Compilation | |||
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 1 Episodes",TVGuide. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 2 Episodes",TVGuide. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 3 Episodes",TVGuide. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 4 Episodes",National Geographic. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 5 Episodes",TVGuide. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Brain Games Season 6 Episodes",National Geographic. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ "Brain Games Season 7 Episodes",National Geographic. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ↑ "Brain Games Special Episodes",National Geographic. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
