that is the specialism of my guest today, neurosurgeon owasejeelani, whose work has made headlines inhe uk and right around the world. how does he deal with the extreme stress of life and death decision—making? owase jeelani, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. i think it is fair to say that there's a little bit of a mystique around people like you, around brain surgeons. i'm delighted we've persuaded you out of the hospital, into the tv studio. do you think it is useful to talk about the work you do and maybe undo some of that mystique? absolutely. i don't quite understand why the mystique is there, but i think it's really useful to talk about it. maybe it's because we're a little bit frightened of the thought of surgeons delving deep inside our heads. i do understand that. let's talk it through. yeah. so when you decided to specialise in this particular form of surgery, what was it that attracted you to it? well, when i decided that i was going to be a brain surgeon, i knew nothing about brain surgery. i was quite young. it was one of those things that sounded interesting. erm... and i