In Part 2 we try to dig deeper into Dr Shaikh’s work. We learn about her neurological models, how she detects potential extremists in society? What goes into the mind of an extremist? How successful are her models? What if it gets into the wrong hands etc. We talk about radicalization in genral, the stages of ISIS’s brainwashing mechanism, the deradicalization camp around the world. We also talk about other interesting societal topics like the genesis of our political ideology, our tribal mentality, the science behind victim blaming, and some questions from listeners across the world.

Dr Sumaiya Shaikh is an Australian Neuroscientist with a PhD in Medicine (Neurophysiology) from Sydney and currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship in Sweden. She has also conducted teaching for year 1-2 MBBS at Western Sydney University for over 5 years.

She has developed a laboratory paradigm to access and differentiate between the propensity to engage in retaliatory vs. appetitive aggression (a quantifiable violent behaviour), the latter closely mimicking violent extremism.

She has conducted several interviews with people who have engaged in ideological (e.g. violent extremism) and non-ideological acts of violence to study the ‘bio-psycho-social’ basis of appetitive violence- a rewarding-motivational violent behaviour, most commonly observed in terrorists.