Join Us For Season Six, Coming Spring 2025
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
For five seasons now, I've been delighted to explore the wonders of the brain with my guests as well as with you, my listeners. Podcasting is fun and enlightening, and I've heard from many of you that it's been helpful as well as informative. It's also time-consuming, especially given my busy practice and my administrative duties as department chair. That's why the podcast is going on hiatus before Season 6 begins to let me attend to some of my other work for a while. I hope you take this opportunity to catch up on episodes you may have missed over the past five seasons. There are more than...
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How Love Helps Kids Learn
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 simply learns better than a neglected one, and how our contracting social circles endanger our kids. Plus… the mystery of why average IQs rose for decades, until recently. Are technology and...
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Will Loneliness Be the Death of Us?
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 health threat as smoking, alcohol use, and diabetes. Discover the behavioral, psychological, and biological factors affected by loneliness, which groups are most at risk, and what we can all do to...
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Calm Yourself!
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please visit
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Demystifying Suicide
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 childhood trauma, current life stressors, and brain impairment may all play a role in suicide, and learn how to recognize warning signs in a loved one. Plus… the do’s and don’ts of talking to...
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Obesity Is Not Your Fault
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 drug that tackles obesity at two different hormonal sites and promises to become an actual "weight loss pill." Plus... the real reason to skip the bread basket (it's in your brain) For more...
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Immerse Yourself in Happiness
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 motivates us to engage with others. Not only that, but immersing ourselves in social circles, among people who are nice to us, increases oxytocin and improves our mood. (High stress, on the other hand,...
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Things Don’t Have To Fall Apart
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 the key to healthier aging. For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please visit
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Art Makes Us Human
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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 of design for the Hardware Product Area at Google and an artist and designer in her own right. Magsamen and Ross co-authored a book about the brain and the arts; the new field of neuroaesthetics...
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Transcendental Meditation
This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg
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. For more information, transcripts, and all episodes, please visit For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please visit For more about Dr. Nader visit - ...
info_outlineSynesthesia 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 https://thisisyourbrain.com
For more about Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery, please visit https://neurosurgery.weillcornell.org