The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs: A Look at the Neuroscience of Innovation Creativity in Art, Science Life

by Ransom Stephens

In The Left Brain Speaks, but the Right Brain Laughs , physicist Ransom Stephens explains the interesting and often amusing tale of how the human brain works. Using understandable metaphors and easy to follow language, Stephens gives readers of any scientific level an introduction to neuroscience and shows them how things like creativity, skill, and even perception of self can grow and change by utilizing the body's most important muscle. Fans of Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson will love Stephens' down to earth attitude and those interested in science will appreciate his thoughtful explanations of scientific terms. The Left Brain Speaks, but the Right Brain Laughs is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to know what's going on inside their head and how they can use that knowledge to make themselves the best humans they can be.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Self Help, Neuroscience, Brain, Health

260 pages, Paperback

Published September 13, 2016

About the author

Author, speaker, and physicist, Ransom Stephens writes fantasy, science fiction, and popular science. His high concept fiction puts characters that make you laugh and cry at the center of conflict.

His latest, The Book of Bastards, is a rollicking, bawdy fantasy of chivalry and revenge. It comes out on January 14, 2020 and the e-book is being sold for $0.99 only as pre-order, on the launch date it goes to full retail!

In Too Rich to Die and The 99% Solution, three keyboard-wielding musketeers take you around the world on thrill rides that will leave you questioning centuries of world history; The Sensory Deception is a story of environmentalism and idealism gone wrong; and his first novel, The God Patent, is a perspective-altering story of science and religion.

His popular science book, The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs: a look at the neuroscience of innovation & creativity, is an irreverent take on how our brains work and how we can work them better.

If you've read one of Ransom's books, please post a review at your favorite book site, like this one. Whether a sentence or an essay, he'll appreciate the boost as much as the advice.

You can follow Ransom’s Rants on writing, science, politics, and beer at all the usually places, plus if you'd liked to receive the famous*, life-changing* Ransom’s Notes--in which he provides amusement* and insights* into how* and why* we live, in addition to updates on his latest books (and get a free e-copy of one of his novels!)--hie thee to
https://subscribe.ransomstephens.com (cut and paste the link).

Ransom is represented by Laurie McLean, Founding Partner of the Fuse Literary agency.

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Reviews

[Lori]

In an attempt to be down to earth, the author was too scattered & worried about being funny & cool. Should have stuck with a little more actual information.

[Archived Account - Not Active]

For a book about neuroscience, it definitely has a bubbly, almost funny tone... but there really was very little about the mechanics about neuroscience which is what I think many of us as readers were hoping for. The author was kind of all over the place with his topics of choice and his analogies, I think, made him forget to actually move onto the real mechanisms and anatomical structures of the nervous system. I was very ready to move on from the frog, the dog, and the Feynman after a chapter or two.

[Todd Glaeser]

A conversational tone by the author kept this audiobook from being too technical and kept me listening. I found it interesting to think about how we think. And his use of Elvis Costello's "Veronica"
to explain how music processes was touching.

[Meandmybooks]

Honestly, I haven’t quite finished this book, but I just could not continue. I felt like I was constantly receiving informations about the author’s life that were irrelevant rather than gaining informations about the subject this book is said to be. I don’t think I’ll ever give it a second chance.

[JoAnn Ainsworth]

A well written, humorous, and upbeat study of the neuroscience of innovation and creativity.

[Dana Grozdanich]

A cool mix of evidence-backed science and the author’s own anecdotes. Read this as a warm up before diving into The Master and his Emissary by Iain McGilchrist to get some base knowledge on the topic.

[Osiris]

I'm not a science book reader, but this has been an enlightening, refreshing look at the science of the brain. My takeaway is: "We are a picture, within a picture, studying a picture that's out of focus"

[Barış Kaplan]

DERİN BİR ŞEY
"Beyninizdeki nöronlar arasında devam eden sinyal akışı varoluş deneyiminizi sağlar.

Biz on beş bin nesil boyunca bile değil sadece 250.000 yıldır dedikodu yapan, şikayet eden ve gülen insanlar olduk. Ay'a ve yıldızlara bakmaya başladık. Ay ve güneş tutulmaları bizi korkuttu. Sevgi ve huşu, mutluluk ve hoşnutluk, kesinlik ve şüphe, korku ve sürpriz, öfke ve keder, can sıkıntısı, angajman ve dikkat dağıtıcılık hissediyoruz - gerçek şu ki, duygularla doluyuz. Biz duyarlı mıyız? Evet, insanların hassas olduklarını güvenle söyleyebiliriz. Bu yüzden şiir yazıyoruz, sanat yapıyoruz, müzik yapıyoruz ve dans ediyoruz. Yaptığımız her şey, başka bir danstır. Ailemiz, arkadaşlarımız, meslektaşlarımız ve iş arkadaşlarımız var - kabile içinde seyahat ediyoruz.
Ama bazı sorularım var.
.......................
Ay ve güneş tutulmalarından korkarken çoklu
evreni ispatsiz bir şekilde kabul etmeye nasıl geldik? Kamp ateşin etrafında hikayeler anlatmaktan, gişe rekorları kıran filmleri izlemeye ve sanal gerçeklikte video oyunları oynamaya nasıl geçtik?
Kabilelerin çok iyi olduğuna ve siyaset, ekonomi ve orduları icat etmemiz gerektiğine
nasıl karar verdik?
Sanırım iş bir soruya kalıyor: Şeyleri neden bu kadar karmaşık hale getiriyoruz? Bir fikrim var.Rahatlayalım ve müzik dinleyelim.Bir bira alın ve hazır alırken bir tane de bana alın.

[Mistress of the Bleeding Sorrow]

I give up, sorry. 😓
The topics are really interesting, in theory, BUT this is a badly written book.
The writing style is incredibly annoying. The writer tries to keep it conversational and casual, but all these constant digressions, analogies and useless information don't offer anything substantial and sadly, do not expand your knowledge. His attempts at humor are just awkward and cringy, and NOT in the least funny!!!
Luckily, there are far better books on neuroscience out there!!!
Also, I believe we no longer use the term ''idiot savants''. 😓

[Rhonda Jackson]

I'm a terrible skimmer, did he ever explain the whole sentence of messed up words? Did I learn anything? Well Liz Taylor had double eyelashes or something. I should have known when I saw 'if you like Neil DeGrasse Tyson'... actually I don't. 'Science explaining' is the worst, trying to simplify 'science' for the labcoatless idiots, straying completely from their own area of expertise, talking about prejudice and bias while blithely regurgitating some absolute whoppers. I wanted to know something about the left/right brain thing but all I got was aggravated.

[Ali Mae]

Meh. I’d probably like it a lot more if this was my first delve into this type of book. Does a great job covering some neuroscience in layman terms. Light and playful, sometimes irreverent. I liked how he broke the reptile and mammal brain into “puppy” and “frog.” That was a nice point.

[Tamler]

Good read on neuroscience.

[Sheryl Wolford]

An easy to understand and sometimes funny way to look at your brain and its workings.

[Kimberly]

I stopped reading in the second chapter and gave up on this way too technical (and thus boring) book.

[Arthur Cassidy]

Very fun read. Much more casual tone than most books of this type. A little scattered at times but still learned a lot and enjoyed reading it.

[Kami]

Not well written, not very usable information.