This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg

What happens when your hands refuse to listen to your brain? For Alexandra Lebenthal, essential tremor was more than a neurological disorder, it was a lifelong challenge that affected everything from drinking water in meetings to giving public speeches. In this deeply personal episode, Alexandra shares her journey from a childhood marked by frustration and embarrassment to becoming one of the firs...

Everyone loves a good story.  And so do our brains.  Whether its books, movies, fairy tales, or even office gossip, stories are much more than just entertainment.  According to Dr. Fritz Breithaupt, narratives in our lives are way more powerful than we realize. We don't just enjoy stories, we actually need them.  But why are they so important?  Does the brain gain anything from a good plot on your...

We all do it - put things off, tell ourselves we'll start tomorrow, and somehow still miss the deadline. But chronic procrastination isn't just a bad habit; it's self-sabotaging behavior that can derail our goals, relationships, and even our health. Psychologist Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a leading expert on procrastination, breaks down the emotional roots of procrastination, debunks the myth that we "wo...

Humans are born with billions of neurons that need connecting – and how those synapses develop helps determine how our brains will work. There is ample evidence that a loving, nurturing environment in infancy and early childhood provides the most fertile ground for brain development. Isabelle Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, explains why a well-loved baby or child...

It's no surprise that feeling lonely is associated with depression, but did you know that loneliness may also lead to chronic inflammation, changes in the brain, and even premature death? Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology at Brigham Young University and an expert on the physiological effects of social connections, explains how our current crisis of loneliness is as much a public h...

Pain and fear are inevitable, especially these days, but we can retrain our brains to reduce suffering. Dr. Sara Lazar, Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, reveals how just eight weeks of mindful meditation can visibly change parts of the brain to be less reactive to pain. Plus... how meditation apps put the power of mindfulness right in your hand. For more information, tr...

Humans are so powerfully wired for survival that it can be hard to understand suicide - especially in adolescents. What happens in the brain that can override such a profound instinct for self-preservation? Dr. Sakina Rizvi, a researcher and psychotherapist in Toronto, Canada specializing in suicide prevention, reveals the social, biological, and psychological facets of suicidal ideation. Hear how...

The past 30 years have produced an epidemic of obesity -- mostly because evolution did not prepare us for so many calories and so little physical activity. Dr. Louis Aronne, a leading authority on obesity, explains how a period of caloric excess can damage the neural connections that manage your metabolism, throwing  your weight regulation out of whack. More importantly, he talks about the new dru...

What makes us happy? The warm feelings of closeness that we have with family and friends are rooted in the neurochemical oxytocin – the love hormone, if you will. Oxytocin facilitates social engagement, encourages bonding, and just makes us feel happier. My guest today, neuroscientist Paul Zak, has done decades of research into the role of oxytocin and discovered that this feel-good chemical motiv...

Daniel Levitin says we can all age successfully if we take our choices more seriously now. The neuroscientist and author reveals the keys to reaching our senior years in the best possible shape, explains what happens to dopamine levels when we stop trying new things, and tells us the three things older adults are better at than younger ones. Plus... what primatologist Jane Goodall told him about t...

We are the only species that creates and experiences art – not just visual art but music, poetry, dance, theater, and even architecture. The impact that art has on us cannot be overstated, as it affects cognition, mental health, and physical wellbeing. My guests today are Susan Magsamen of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Ivy Ross, vice president...

Dr. Tony Nader, an academic, author, and the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement, knows how you can find inner peace. TM is like a deep dive to the stillness at the bottom of the ocean, leaving the turbulent waves far above. Learn how the body and mind are inextricably bound, and how meditation can improve mental and physical health. Plus… what the Beatles taught us about meditation....

Why are some people capable of creating music, art, books, or new technologies, seemingly out of thin air? Where do imagination and creativity live in the brain - and how can we tap them? Neuroscientist and author Anna Abraham reveals the three elements of creativity and explores the myths surrounding it, from its links to mental illness to the effects of psychiatric drugs on it. The good news? Cr...

Dolphins have large, complex brains that are a lot like the human model -- what if we could get inside their heads and communicate with them? Meet cognitive psychologist and marine mammal scientist Diana Reiss, PhD, who has been doing just that. Turns out our underwater friends have a lot going on in their brains, if only we could learn to decode it. Plus... Hear from one of the musician/scientist...

Candace Pert discovered the opioid receptor, created a drug to stop AIDS in the brain, and identified stress as a cause of disease. She also inadvertently unleashed the overdose epidemic, got herself kicked out of the NIH, and was denied credit for much of her work. Pert was a trailblazing yet mercurial neuroscientist, a woman who made her male boss famous but has been largely forgotten herself. S...

ASMR, or the autonomous sensory meridian response, is a state of deep calm accompanied by a sense of "brain tingles." Not everyone experiences it, but if you do, you know what triggers it: a whisper or other soft sounds, a gentle touch or movement, even watching a Bob Ross video. Physiologist Craig Richard explains the science behind ASMR, and why in some people induces a deeply relaxing response...

We will never create true artificial intelligence (if we really want that) until we know more about how the human brain works. Tech entrepreneur and author Max Bennett explains how AI learns, where it falls short, and how it stacks up against our own intelligence. As it turns out, what's easy for humans is hard for AI, but AI is better at doing some things that are quite hard for us. Mostly, what...

Language originates as brain signals -- mysterious lines of squiggles -- that somehow turn into speech. Meet the neuroscientist who is turning those squiggles into conversations, using artificial intelligence to translate brain activity into words and sentences. Dr. Edward Chang of UCSF talks with Dr. Stieg about the painstaking "magic" of decoding that has allowed a paralyzed man to speak after 2...

We are programmed by evolution to be anxious - fear was a lifesaver for early humans! So are why are some 21st-century humans crippled by it? Catherine Pittman, PhD, chair of psychology at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, is an expert on how different parts of the brain create and manage anxiety, and how to overcome it. Learn just how fast your amygdala responds to a threat (before we even perc...

It's effective against depression, can help you stop smoking, even ease end-of-life distress. It's non-addictive, naturally occurring, and has been used for thousands of years -- but you can't have it. It's psilocybin, the compound that creates the "magic" in dozens of species of mushrooms. Johns Hopkins researcher Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph. D. knows just how magical it is. He's conducting research...

Can't remember the fourth item on your grocery list? Nelson Dellis, a professional "memory athlete," can remember 100 things or more (though he still may forget the butter). Hear how Dellis learned to memorize lists so long that he became a five-time USA Memory Champion, and how you can use some of his strategies to improve your own memory. Dellis explains how he uses tricks like the "memory palac...

Synesthesia is the mysterious mingling of the senses that creates the experience of "seeing" sounds or "hearing" colors. Neurologist Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. has spent his career exploring this remarkable phenomenon, and has some fascinating insight into how these sensations are formed in the brain -- and how we might use it to reunite our fractured society. Plus... meet the man whose extreme form...

Most of us talk with our hands, some more than others, but what are we really saying? Susan Goldin-Meadow, PhD, professor of psychology and comparative human development at the University of Chicago, is an expert on gestures – what they mean, why they don't always agree with what words we are using, and even how they develop in blind children who have never seen them. Plus... why you should never...

Menopause can wreak havoc on mood and body temperature as it signals the end of fertility, but some of the biggest changes it causes are in the brain. Emily Jacobs, assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara, explains how the precipitous decline in estrogen during the "change of life" disrupts the endocrine system and makes a woman's brain more li...

Is the deluge of digital media killing our ability to focus? Psychologist Gloria Mark, a professor in the Department of Informatics at University of California, Irvine, explains how we are shaped by what we pay attention to – and why today's short snippets of everything are reinforcing short attention spans. Learn how playing a few minutes of Solitaire on your phone can help relieve stress, and wh...