MAKING SENSE IN TODAY'S WORLD
Interoception, Emotional Balance, & Collective Health
a free webinar with
contemplative scientist Norman Farb, Ph.D.
April 11, 2025
In this webinar, Norm and I talk about his groundbreaking work in the science of interoception, the built-in ability to receive, process, interpret, and regulate signals that come from our bodies. We discuss his recent book, Better in Every Sense, which highlights the benefits of “sense foraging” for emotional health.
We explore how we can draw from our sensory intelligence to meet the emerging demands of the times we live in and the geopolitical, socio-political, environmental, and economic stress that builds in this moment.
And Norm addresses audience questions about applying this information to our lives over time and in the real-life situations we face today.
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Norman Farb is a renowned neuroscientist at the University of Toronto. His work explores the social neuroscience of the self and human emotion, with a focus on how biases in self-representation shape emotional reactions that determine well-being.
Norm is also one of the world’s leading researchers on the neuroscience of mindfulness, and specifically on interoception. His work draws from multiple levels of analysis, including first and third-person qualitative reports, behavioral task performance, physiological responses, and patterns of neural activity and connectivity derived through functional MRI. He is particularly interested in how cognitive training practices such as mindfulness meditation foster resilience against stress, reducing vulnerability to disorders such as depression.
Norm complements his scientific acumen with longstanding contemplative practice. He is also a trainer in MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). More recently, his work has evolved to explore how online training can support wellbeing, as well as neuroimaging to understand how emotional reactions predict mental health over the lifespan.
Norm’s hobbies include yoga, frisbee, sci-fi novels, and reality TV shows about cooking.
