Ep 50: Neuralink & God with Noland Arbaugh

Noland Arbaugh — the world's first Neuralink implant recipient — walks us through moving a cursor by imagination alone, explains why the next space race is the brain, and tells us how drowning in a summer-camp lake brought him back to God.

Noland Arbaugh is the first human to receive a Neuralink brain-computer implant. A 2016 swimming accident at the summer camp where he worked dislocated his C4–C5 vertebrae and left him quadriplegic; in January 2024 he became Participant 1 in Neuralink's first-in-human trial, controlling a computer — and the occasional Mario Kart race — by thought alone. Now a youth leader at his church, he sees the whole story, from the accident to the operating room, as God's doing.

• Noland Arbaugh on X — he invites anyone with fears about the study to reach out directly
• Neuralink's clinical trials & patient registry — Noland urges people with disabilities to apply
• Neuralink
• Watch on YouTube