<p>💬 For thousands of years, humans believed the heart controlled the body - your thoughts, your emotions…everything. The brain was just a radiator - something to discard when preparing the dead. </p><p>But why did our ancestors think this for so long? Were there no tell-tale signs? It’s only in the last few hundred years that the brain has received the attention it deserves. And even once it did, we believed a lot of strange things about how it works.</p><p>⚡In this episode Matthew Cobb, author of <em>The Idea of the Brain, </em>explains why throughout history we believed the heart was the seat of thought and emotion.<em> </em>And he explores the many bizarre and surprising ways we’ve tried to grapple with how our brain actually works.</p><p>Don&#39;t miss an episode - subscribe now:</p><p><a href="https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before"><u>https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before</u></a> </p><p><strong>🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:</strong></p><p>➡ Why Ancient Egyptians literally threw away the brain during mummification</p><p>➡ The clues present in the heart that led ancient people to believe it was in control</p><p>➡ How skull size and the nonsense practise of “phrenology” became mainstream</p><p>➡ The gruesome story of Phineas Gage - and what he taught us about the brain</p><p>➡ Why ancient brain experiments gave us one of the most famous novels ever written</p><p>➡ How our modern understanding of the brain as “like a computer” is just as strange</p><p><strong>Grab Matthew’s book here:</strong></p><p><a href="https://amzn.eu/d/049Th1r2"><u>https://amzn.eu/d/049Th1r2</u></a> </p><p><strong>About the podcast:</strong></p><p>What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.</p><p><strong>About your host:</strong></p><p>Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He&#39;s co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.</p><p><strong>Connect with Ollie</strong>:</p><p>Website: <a href="http://www.ogpodcasts.co.uk"><u>www.ogpodcasts.co.uk</u></a> </p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou"><u>https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou</u></a> </p><p>Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]"><u>[email protected]</u></a></p><p>Image Credit: SimplisticReps, CC BY-SA 4.0 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0"><u>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0</u></a>, via Wikimedia Commons<br>Raffaele pagani, CC BY-SA 4.0 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0"><u>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0</u></a>  via Wikimedia Commons</p>