In this first of a two-part series of interviews with neuroscientist Dean Burnett, we primarily discussed topics covered in his impressively informative and delightfully entertaining freshman effort, The Idiot Brain (2016). It is the sort of popular science book that I would happily recommend even to those who don’t usually read non-fiction. As I again found upon re-reading the book for this interview, The Idiot Brain is in parts laugh-out loud hilarious. The book is also an excellent primer on many major findings in psychology and neuroscience. Even for those who might consider themselves well-versed in this area will almost certainly learn something new. If not, then at the very least the tour through our brain’s many quirks that Burnett offers is more entertaining than anything you are likely to have read previously. My guest began our conversation by explaining how his background growing up in a Welsh village, which was literally located in a dead end, influenced his career choice. Burnett then told me more about his side gig as a comedian and teased out the connections between neuroscience and comedy, two areas that rarely go together. After being prompted to do so, he gave his take on the scientific method, interestingly stressing the null hypothesis as a key element. I asked him how he had the temerity to write a book on the idiocy of the supposedly magnificent organ that is the human brain. I then inquired about whether the brain should be seen as devoted primarily to monitoring the body’s many physiological systems, as renowned neuroscientist Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett argues. We also discussed whether the metaphor of a reptile brain makes sense, the differences between the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, which includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, and clarified a few neuroanatomical issues pertaining to the number of neurons and glial cells in the brain, as well as the labels for the four lobes, or cortices. The two of us spent quite some time delving into the senses, in particular various facets of vision, but also made note of how smell is probably the oldest evolved sense, its relationship to taste, and the connection between hearing and touch. Lastly, we spoke about memory, an area rife with foibles and misunderstandings, particularly around amnesia. The last important point to note is that I seem to have an unfortunate tendency to say “fantastic” far too often, so apologies for the adjectival repetitiveness. Dean Burnett’s personal website: https://www.deanburnett.com/ Brain Yapping blog: https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/deanburnett Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/DeanBurnettAuthor/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/garwboy The Idiot Brain (2016): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/the-idiot-brain/ Psycho-Logical (2021): https://www.deanburnett.com/book/psycho-logical-audiobook/