Dr. Stuart Hameroff, anesthesiologist and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, spoke about consciousness and the brain. Hameroff said he became fascinated with the study of consciousness during his anesthesiology internship, when he began to wonder how anesthetic gases were able to stop consciousness while leaving virtually all other brain functions alone. Under anesthesia, he said, "the brain is still quite active," with EEG readings present. Hameroff stated his belief that consciousness is produced by quantum processes, claiming that the connectedness that is predicted by quantum theory is caused by particles that "can be at multiple places at the same time."

Anesthesia interrupts these quantum processes at an atomic level, he explained, effectively turning off consciousness. Hameroff admitted that anesthesiologists still do not fully understand how this works. He also shared a brief history of anesthesiology, as well as discussed Princeton's Global Consciousness Project (which used detectors to sense changes and emotions in minds all over the world), the nature of time, and free will. The first hour featured news and Open Lines.