Two Science Quickly episodes from Scientific American discuss why consciousness remains difficult to define and study, despite advances in brain science and emerging research methods. The first episode features journalist Michael Pollan and Scientific American’s Bri Kane, focusing on how consciousness might be understood through multiple angles, including neuroscience findings, artificial intelligence experiments, and how psychedelics may affect or reveal aspects of awareness. The discussion emphasizes that the core problem is not just measuring experiences, but agreeing on what consciousness is in scientific terms. The second episode, led by associate editor Allison Parshall, explains what current research says about how the brain may generate conscious experience and covers related topics such as dreams and anesthesia. It also surveys questions about consciousness in animals and in artificial intelligence, while noting that scientists have proposed many competing theories. Across both episodes, the central theme is that no single framework is universally accepted, and understanding when and how consciousness emerges—whether in humans, infants, or potentially AI—continues to be one of science’s hardest challenges.