Did you really choose to listen to this podcast? Or was the decision just the product of neurons firing in your brain, used by biochemical reactions, governed by the laws of physics?

Today, it’s become almost fashionable to chalk how we think and behave up to nothing more than the physical sum of our parts. But our guest in this episode is bucking that trend, arguing that we humans do have autonomy over our lives.

Kevin Mitchell is an associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin and author of Free Agents – How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. He argues that free will isn’t just an illusion, and that evolution proves that we’re more than mere machines simply responding to the world around us.

Will you choose to believe him?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices