The Mercurial Genius of Candace Pert
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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. She was also a rebel, a workaholic... and a bit mad. In this episode, Pamela Ryckman, the author of a new biography of Pert, reveals some of the wilder tales about her and explains why she remains...
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Whispers & Tingles – ASMR with Craig Richard
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 that can resolve insomnia, relaxation, and stress. Plus: Who are the top “artists” of ASMR? For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about...
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AI: Reverse Engineering the Brain
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 AI teaches us is just how remarkable the human brain is - it is much better at continued learning than AI is, and it requires less input to come to conclusions. But... Can we trust it? For more...
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Decoding Brainwaves Into Language
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 20 years of aphasia, essentially live streaming signals from his brain and transforming them into language. Plus - Why are A.I. voices always female? For more information, transcripts, and all...
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Outsmarting Anxiety
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 perceive it), and how your cortex jumps in to process the information. Turns out your amygdala has been watching too much Cortex TV, and you can train your brain to change the channel. Plus... the rare...
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Exploring The Magic Mushroom
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 on psilocybin's therapeutic value for everything from persistent Lyme disease to a range of mental health conditions. Find out what this psychedelic drug can do, and why it got such a bad reputation....
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A Memory Workout
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 palace" and mnemonic devices to recall lengthy lists with perfect accuracy. In an era when cell phones are making memory superfluous, you can regain some of those lost skills by using his techniques....
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Do You Hear What I See?
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 of synesthesia mingled all five of his senses! For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please...
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What Are Your Hands Saying?
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 use the thumbs-up sign in Iran! For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please visit...
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“The Change Is Gonna Come” - Menopause and the Brain
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 like... a man's! Plus: Hear from real women describing the wide range of effects they experienced. For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell...
info_outlineSpeech therapists have long used music to help patients regain their voices after stroke or brain injury. Today's music therapists are going even further, developing strategies that use music on patients with Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, cognitive issues, and more. Hear from Neurologic Music Therapist Caitlin Hebb about how the rhythm and rhyme of music work on memory, gait, and language.
https://www.medrhythmstherapy.com/teamcaitlin
Plus... what's that earworm?