Michael Stevens both presents and directs Mind Field, a documentary series that treats human behaviour as an open question and goes looking for evidence. Listed in the catalogue under 2019, the American programme runs in half-hour episodes and is offered on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles.
What is Mind Field about?
Why do people act the way they do, and how much of the answer is actually known? Each instalment of Mind Field approaches that puzzle from a different angle, and it relies on three kinds of material to do so. Specialists are interviewed about what their fields have established and where the gaps remain. Rarely seen footage from historical experiments shows how earlier researchers tried to probe the same questions. And the programme stages fresh demonstrations of its own, placing volunteers, and at times its host, in situations designed to reveal human nature in action.
About the cast
Michael Stevens is the only name credited on screen and the only one credited behind the camera, which tells you how the series is built. He is guide, interviewer and frequently participant, so the tone of every episode rests on his curiosity and his readiness to be a subject as well as an observer. The experts and volunteers who appear change from episode to episode.
Context & significance
Popular science on screen has two long-standing habits: explaining settled findings to a general audience, and re-enacting famous studies as cautionary tales. Mind Field does some of both but adds a third element, new demonstrations run for the camera, which gives it the feel of an investigation rather than a lecture. Because its subject is the mind, it touches on perception, decision-making and social behaviour, areas where everyday intuition is often unreliable; that gap between what we assume about ourselves and what observation shows is the engine of the format. Episodes of around thirty minutes each stand on their own, so they can be watched in any order. Curious teenagers, students and anyone who enjoys psychology explained without jargon will get the most from it.
Watching Mind Field on Ktime
Mind Field is part of the K-Time library, a Persian-language streaming home for Iranians living abroad. Anyone can read this page; to play an episode, log in with your K-Time account. Pick the Persian dub or follow along with Persian subtitles, with menus and navigation available in Farsi.