TSBD TRAILER

Dr. Leah Whitlock works at the Witwo Institute for Medical Science and is passionate about prolonging human life and curing diseases. She reflects on how the brain can go to extreme lengths to protect us, even from non-threatening situations. She wonders about the blurred line between life and death and how our understanding of it can be influenced by our own brains. Dr. Whitlock joined the institute as an assistant scientist two years ago and aspires to become the lead scientist. Okay, okay, is this working? Please, please tell me this is working. Well, I just have to be super close up to my microphone. Maybe. God damn it. Okay. Ugh. I'm actually starting now. You probably know that feeling when you're almost asleep, but you suddenly feel like you're falling until you're awake. The part of it that you might not know is the reason behind it. When you fall asleep too quickly, your brain can mistake it for dying, so it sends one last surge of adrenaline through you to try to keep you awake. This could be helpful if you were actually dying and not just trying to get some sleep, but this has always intrigued me, the line between life and death. How far will your brain go to protect you from things that aren't threats? I mean, it's mostly what phobias are. Spiders could be poisonous. Falls from high up could be deadly. Clowns could be killers. But none of these are always the case. Many spiders are harmless. Most of the time, if you're high up enough to worry, you'll have equipment. And clowns are mostly just regular guys. By all of this, I mean that your brain will go to ridiculous lengths to keep you safe, even beyond what's reasonably dangerous. If your own brain can convince you that something completely safe could kill you, do you really have a good grasp on life and death? How far can that line be blurred? Okay. I'm getting very off track here. My name is Dr. Leah Whitlock, and I work at the Witwo Institute for Medical Science. I have always been obsessed with the idea of prolonging human life and, more specifically, curing diseases. When my roommate Jason, the amazing janitor here, said they had a job offering for assistant scientists two years ago, I jumped at the chance. I mean, I've heard of the company, of course, and where better to figure out how to get rid of illnesses than a place whose whole goal is just that? Over the past two years, I've been trying to work my way up to lead scientist.