Dharma Lab

Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl explore how stable differences in brain activity may shape personality and the ways we engage with the world. They discuss introversion, anxiety, approach and withdrawal styles, what meditation can change without erasing our natural dispositions, and how meta-awareness can help us find the strengths in our own brain style. This is the third part in a seri...

We now live in a world where boredom is almost optional. The moment there is a gap in the day, we can reach for a device and instantly distract ourselves. In this episode of Dharma Lab , Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl explore boredom and restlessness from both a scientific and contemplative perspective. Richie explains why boredom often brings us face to face with the “default mode” of...

In this episode, Richie and Cort continue their conversation on brain asymmetry by revisiting one of the most popular neuroscience ideas of the 1990s: the divide between the “left brain” and the “right brain.” Was the right hemisphere really the creative side of the brain, and the left hemisphere the logical one? Richie explains where that idea came from, what it got right, and why it was taken to...

In this episode, Richie Davidson and Cortland Dahl unpack a very misunderstood molecule in popular culture: dopamine . Often blamed for craving, scrolling, distraction, and the endless loop of wanting more, dopamine is not something we can “detox” from or simply turn off . It is essential to motivation, aspiration, learning, and even the desire to practice meditation . Together, Richie and Cort ex...

In this episode, Richie Davidson and Cortland Dahl deeply explore the science of the emotional brain: why the mind is a storyteller, what split-brain research reveals about consciousness, how brain asymmetry shapes emotion, why some people approach opportunity with optimism while others withdraw, and what meditation may do to the brain and immune system. Enjoy! See below for FLASHCARDS , Full Tran...

Relationships can be one of the most powerful parts of the spiritual path because they reveal the parts of ourselves we cannot easily see alone. In this episode of Dharma Lab , Cortland Dahl and Richie Davidson are joined by meditation teachers and authors Devin and Nico Hase to explore how Buddhist practice can help us navigate love, conflict, vulnerability, appreciation, and repair. Drawing on t...

Dr. Richie Richard Davidson, Cortland Dahl, Dan Goleman Discussion Chapter Summary: 00:05:51 — Dan Goleman returns from India and meets Richie Davidson at Harvard00:06:38 — Studying meditation in academia when the field dismissed it00:07:11 — Their careers diverge: journalism at the New York Times and neuroscience research00:08:08 — The Mind & Life Institute and first meetings with the Dalai Lama0...

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We are so honored to welcome Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche to another episode of Dharma Lab. In today’s conversation with Cort and Richie, Rinpoche shares practical ways to stay present in a busy life: a powerful metaphor (“time is like a rubber band”), an “inner sky” teaching for working with anxiety and emotional storms, and a simple micro-practice you can try in under a minute. They also explore why...

Jon Kabat-Zinn joins Richie and Cort for a wide-ranging conversation on mindfulness, science, and what it means to fully inhabit your life. From the launch of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in a hospital basement in 1979 to more than 1,000 scientific papers a year on mindfulness today, this episode traces how a simple practice entered mainstream medicine and reshaped the way we understa...

Flourishing is multi-dimensional. In today’s episode of Dharma Lab, we apply the four dimensions of flourishing (awareness, connection, insight, and purpose), to something we all experience: anxiety . When these skills are at our fingertips, we can deploy different ones in different contexts, or bring several to bear at once. Together, they form a rich set of practices to enhance well-being in eve...

In this episode of Dharma Lab, Cort and Richie explore one of the core ideas behind Born to Flourish : that our inner state doesn’t stay inside. It ripples outward…shaping classrooms, workplaces, families, and even measurable outcomes like student achievement. Through personal stories and groundbreaking research from public schools, they unpack how awareness, connection, insight, and purpose don’t...

Reminder: Join Richie & Cort tonight at 8pm ET for our monthly AMA HERE In today’s episode of Dharma Lab, Cort and Richie explore a radical and hopeful idea from their upcoming book Born to Flourish : that we all come into the world with an innate capacity for kindness, compassion, and human flourishing. Through personal stories, recent science, and ancient Buddhist wisdom, they reveal how reconne...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dharmalab.co Reminder: Our Next Live Ask Me Anything (#6) with Richie and Cort will be on Feb 9th at 8pm ET. Please send questions in advance! (in comments, chat, or reply to this email) Why Listen to This Session? In our latest wide-ranging AMA, Richie and Cort explore: * Your brain can change at any age — but plasticity isn’t alwa...

Parenting teens is hard. We often fall into styles that feel protective but end up making things worse. In our latest Dharma Lab episode, Dr. David Yeager , a leading researcher on adolescent motivation and author of 10 to 25 , talks with Richie and Cort about why this happens and how to change it. We also explore the neuroscience of adolescent brains, and how the parenting strategies discussed ca...

We’ve all had moments when something suddenly clicks. A realization that doesn’t arrive gradually, but all at once. Cort remembers walking out of a movie theater on a humid summer night after seeing Schindler’s List, suddenly knowing what his life should be about. Richie recalls preparing for a talk that sparked an entirely new way of thinking about neuroplasticity and the social brain. In this ep...

On today’s episode of Dharma Lab , we take a closer look at the mechanics of healthy habit formation. Building on a framework we’ve outlined in previous posts—inspiration, intention, action, and repetition—we explore why each step matters from a scientific perspective, and how the process tends to break down in real life. Discussion Highlights: * How monks we encountered in Nepal had trained habit...

REMINDER: Live Q&A with Richie and Cort TODAY at 8pm ET on Substack. Over the next two weeks on Dharma Lab, we’ll be exploring the science and practice of meaningful change—why it so often breaks down, and how small, intentional habits can gradually reshape how we live. In today’s episode, we explore a key insight from neuroscience and psychology: our behavior is shaped less by willpower than by t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dharmalab.co Thank you to those who tuned into our 4th live video with Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl ! Join us for our next live AMA on Tuesday, Jan 6 at 8pm ET / 7pm CT. The discussion covered a lot of ground not limited to: Brain activity during meditation, Expectations / Non-attachment, Neuroscience of desire, Journa...

At certain moments in life — the end of a day, the completion of a project, or the turn of a year — we naturally begin to reflect. But without intention, self-reflection can quietly slide into rumination, self-judgment, and stress. In this episode of Dharma Lab, we explore the science of self-reflection : why it’s such a uniquely human capacity, how it supports learning, empathy, and wellbeing — a...

In this episode of Dharma Lab , we explore the neuroscience and contemplative practice of what it means to truly give. Recorded in the middle of the holiday season, our conversation begins with a familiar arc many of us recognize: the childhood excitement of receiving, and the gradual (and sometimes surprising) shift toward the deeper satisfaction of giving. Together, we explore what’s really happ...

REMINDER: Live Q&A with Richie and Cort TODAY at 7pm ET on Substack. Why do certain memories feel like they still live in our bodies years after they happened? And why do some difficult experiences become turning points for growth while others leave us feeling stuck? In this episode, we explore the neuroscience of trauma and the contemplative tools that help us reshape old emotional patterns. A ce...

Mingyur Rinpoche has spent his life immersed in meditation practice — beginning a three-year retreat at 13, and eventually logging more than 50,000 hours of formal training . He was also a central participant in some of the earliest research Richie conducted on advanced meditators, work that helped open the door to much of the scientific exploration of meditation that followed. Yet despite this ex...

We spend so much of life chasing the next moment… and missing the one we’re in. This week on Dharma Lab, we dig into the neuroscience of wanting vs. liking, explore how to shift from chasing the next thing to savoring what’s here, and discuss how awe can show up in the smallest, most ordinary moments. Episode Highlights: A big part of the conversation centers on two quiet assumptions that shape so...

In this week’s Dharma Lab conversation, we’ll dive into the science and contemplative wisdom behind generosity, purpose, and everyday altruism. How Serving Others Nourishes Us There are moments in life that quietly change everything. For both of us, one of those moments was realizing that meditation was never just about us . At first, practice was personal, a way to calm the mind, relieve stress,...