Brain Games: The Survivor Brain

Whether you’re exposed to the elements or lost in a crowd, survival, in any situation, comes down to your brain’s instinct for self-preservation. In this episode, host Jason Silva runs an experiment with four people in Colorado to explore how humans have evolved from simply avoiding extinction to making the most of our brain’s drive to survive. And we ask the question: What goes on inside your brain when it’s forced to overcome all odds? We learn common characteristics of survivors and discover what can be done to tap into the brain’s built-in survival instinct.