Mind Field poster

TV series

Mind Field

2017TV-143 seasons8.2 / 10

It's all in your head.

Explore the surprising things we know (and don’t know) about why people are the way they are through expert interviews, rare footage from historical experiments, and brand-new, ground-breaking demonstrations of human nature at work.

Streaming, rental and purchase options

Where to watch in United States

Checked Jul 22, 2026

Mind Field is available to stream on Youtube Premium in United States. Use the direct links below to open the provider.

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Synopsis

Explore the surprising things we know (and don’t know) about why people are the way they are through expert interviews, rare footage from historical experiments, and brand-new, ground-breaking demonstrations of human nature at work.

Season 2 episodes

Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.

← Season 1

Episode 1

The Greater Good

30m

Would you reroute a train to run over one person to prevent it from running over five others? In the classic “Trolley Problem” survey, most people say they would. But I wanted to test what people would actually do in a real-life situation. In the world’s first realistic simulation of this controversial moral dilemma, unsuspecting subjects will be forced to make what they believe is a life-or-death decision.

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Episode 2

The Psychedelic Experience

30m8.0 / 10

Do psychedelic drugs really bring about self-healing and personal enlightenment? New research says they may. In this episode, I travel to the Amazonian jungle of Peru to experience the mind-expanding effects of the psychedelic brew Ayahuasca. I’m joined by Imperial College London’s Head of Psychedelic Research, Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, who measures the impact of Ayahuasca on my brain.

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Episode 3

Interrogation

30m

Psychology. Neuroscience. Drugs. All can be tools of interrogation. In this episode, an expert shows me how to coerce unsuspecting subjects into signing false confessions; a police psychologist questions me about my personal life after I am injected with a truth serum; and I match wits against a new brainwave-reading lie-detection method developed at Northwestern University.

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Episode 4

Your Brain on Tech

30m

Technology isn’t just changing our lives. It’s literally changing our brains -- and maybe for the better. In this episode, I’m a human lab rat in a groundbreaking study at UC Irvine, where scientists test how playing 3D video games affects my spatial memory. Will 10 days of gaming improve my ability to physically navigate a giant, 60-foot maze? And will an fMRI machine detect any physical changes to my brain?

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Episode 5

How to Make a Hero

30m

What makes a hero? Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, now runs seminars to teach everyday people how to be heroes. But can heroism be learned? I put his unsuspecting students into a fake crisis situation to see if they would act heroically. Also, I asked employees to help me run a seemingly dangerous experiment, to see if they would blow the whistle to stop me.

Episode credits

Guest stars Philip Zimbardo

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Episode 6

The Power of Suggestion

30m

Exactly how do placebos work? Researchers believe that, through the power of suggestion, placebos may unleash the power of our own subconscious minds to cure ourselves. I was honored to participate in McGill University’s groundbreaking study of an accessory-assisted placebo. Could a fake, non-functioning “Sham Brain Scanner” enable children with ADHD and other neurological conditions to alleviate their own symptoms?

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Episode 7

Divergent Minds

30m

Scientists can’t dissect living people’s brains to study their function. But by examining the behavior of people whose brains are atypical (due to stroke, injury, or being born that way), we can learn a lot about all our brains. In this episode, I travel to London to meet a blind, autistic savant with astonishing musical abilities, and I volunteer to have my own brain’s function temporarily disrupted at UCLA’s Neuromodulation Lab.

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Episode 8

The Electric Brain

30mfinale

Our nervous system is fundamentally electric. We move our arm by sending a signal to the muscles that control it. That means we can bypass our brains and use electricity to control our bodies, or use our minds to control other bodies. In this episode, I explore how we can use electricity and our brains to control cockroaches, move other people’s limbs, restore motion to people who are paralyzed, and even read people’s minds.

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Episode information updated Jul 24, 2026

More about Mind Field

Cast

Michael StevensSelf - Host
Jake RoperSelf
Marnie StevensSelf
William BrownSelf
Keller WorthamSelf
Cathy StevensSelf
Glozell GreenSelf
Ron MosslerSelf

Credits

Created by
Michael Stevens

Production details

Status
Canceled
Series type
Documentary
Episodes
24
Original language
English

Networks & production

  • YouTube Premium
  • YouTube Red
  • The Intellectual Property CorporationUnited States
  • VsauceUnited States