Iain McGilchrist: re-enchanting the brain

Can we re-enchant our view of the world by re-engaging a ‘right hemispheric’ view of life, love and faith?

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

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Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and philosopher, and author of the books The Master And His Emissary and The Matter With Things.

Iain’s thesis on the left and right hemispheres of the brain has been highly influential. He believes ‘left hemispheric’ thinking has come to dominate much of modern culture in negative ways.

He speaks with Belle and Justin about whether we can we re-enchant our view of the world by re-engaging a ‘right hemispheric’ view of life, love and faith.

Visit Iain McGilchrist's web site.

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

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Seen & Unseen Aloud

21 November 2025

1 min read

Alan Bennett, rationality and the Budget

New episode. Listen to articles by Roget Standing, Alister McGrath, and Annika Greco-Thompson.

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

In the style of a Raeburn portrait, a set of young people lounge around on their phones looking diffident

Enlightened disagreement (with apologies to Henry Raeburn).

Nick Jones/Midjourney.ai.

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About the episode

This week we start with Roger Standing's review of Alan Bennett's latest film, The Choral; then Alister McGrath unpacks the terrain between the "Age of Reason" and the era of "post-truth" and finally Annika Greco Thompson discusses the possible Christian response to financial (in)security, in the lead up to the UK's Chancellor announcing the Autumn Budget.

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