Can you reset your brain’s reward system by unplugging for a day? One clinical psychologist argued in a rebroadcast this week that you can’t, while an addiction psychiatrist made the case for a month-long abstinence “experiment.” The two positions are not identical, but they pull in different directions on a question many listeners are asking about their phones and habits. Across 19 episodes from 13 shows, that conversation about dopamine sat alongside two other recurring threads: whether consciousness can be explained by the brain at all, and how childhood “scripts” carry into adult life.
The week’s other notable discussions include Scott Galloway putting his claim that therapy has been oversold to a psychologist, a neuroscientist explaining a theory that treats experience itself as the starting point, and a live panel making the case that fun deserves to be taken seriously.
Desire, Dopamine and Addiction
All In The Mind rebroadcast “Dopamine, detoxes and donuts”, in which clinical psychologist Dr Anastasia Hronis, author of The Dopamine Brain, explains what dopamine does for motivation, movement and behaviour. She discusses how technology platforms keep users engaged. She also argues that trendy 24-hour detoxes and “raw dogging” flights cannot reset a chemical the brain depends on.
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On Huberman Lab, Stanford addiction psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke appears in “Overcome Addictions & Obsessions of All Kinds”. The long conversation covers her pleasure-pain balance model, digital media addiction among adolescents, and her argument for a 30-day abstinence period. A large part of the conversation turns to the subject of her new book, Radical Surrender: letting go of the need for control. Listeners interested in the detox debate may want to hear both episodes back to back.
What Consciousness Is
On Human Potential Lab, neuroscientist Christof Koch tells Scott Barry Kaufman that “Consciousness Isn’t in the Brain”. He explains Integrated Information Theory and argues that today’s AI systems could be intelligent without feeling anything. The conversation covers efforts to detect consciousness in unresponsive patients, and Koch describes how mystical experiences, including his own near-death experience, led him to take seriously the idea that consciousness is fundamental to reality. He admits that view is hard to reconcile with IIT.
A related but more philosophical angle comes from Modern Wisdom‘s “Why Atheists Keep Finding God (in everything)”. In this episode, mostly about religion and prayer, writer Alex O’Connor argues that consciousness is the biggest gap in materialism and “basically every worldview.”
In a Huberman Lab Essentials episode, “How Emotions & Social Factors Impact Learning”, USC’s Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang discusses how emotions, stories and culture shape learning and the self. She illustrates emotional development with her young daughter’s changing descriptions of love.
The Scripts We Inherit
A short Diary Of A CEO clip, “Most Replayed Moment: The Childhood Scripts Still Running Your Life! Chase Hughes”, features a former Navy behavior expert. He claims that what people call authenticity is a “costume” of childhood beliefs, and he offers exercises for loosening them.
The same show’s “How Did A Homeless 13-Year-Old Become Comedy’s Most Fearless Voice?” is mostly about Katt Williams’s life and career. Part of it turns to how early family dynamics shape relationships, with Steven Bartlett reflecting on his own avoidant tendencies.
Rapper Bugzy Malone’s Modern Wisdom episode, “How To Turn Your Pain Into Greatness”, centers on his music career. It also explores how children absorb family dysfunction and why people discredit successful peers.
On Where Should We Begin?, Esther Perel works with a couple separating after nearly 40 years while remaining legally married. In “I’ll Still Be Your Financial Partner, But I’m Done Being Your Wife”, she explores the enmeshment beneath their apparent differences.
Connection, Fun and Feeling
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant joins The Rich Roll Podcast for “Adam Grant On The Secrets Of Strong Relationships In A Lonely World”. The conversation covers his new book on human connection, including how screens offer a facsimile of it.
The Happiness Lab‘s live Aspen session, “Are You Taking Fun Seriously Enough?”, pairs journalist Catherine Price and psychologist Elizabeth Dunn. They discuss research on what makes days feel good, and Price distinguishes true flow from the “junk flow” of binge-watching.
On Speaking of Psychology, social psychologist Tim Wildschut explains in “Why nostalgia is good for you” how research has recast nostalgia as a largely beneficial emotion. He also notes the conditions under which it isn’t.
Sex and Psychology Podcast host Justin Lehmiller and coach Shelby Devlin address “What People Get Wrong About Dominance and Submission”. They contrast media portrayals of kink with the consent and communication real power exchange requires, and they discuss how abusers can misuse its language.
Therapy, Belief and Society
The Prof G Pod‘s “Is Therapy Overrated?” has Scott Galloway testing his essay “The Cult of Therapy” with Dr. Jonathan Shedler, a UCSF clinical psychologist known for research on the effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy, who agrees with much of the critique. The same show’s “Your Parents’ Wealth Matters More Than Your Salary”, with historian Eliza Filby, author of Inheritocracy, is mainly about inheritance and inequality. One segment examines the “financial nihilism” of anxious young adults.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, actor Gary Sinise’s episode (#2579) covers his career and USO tours. Several segments address veterans’ mental health, with Rogan skeptical of counseling and medication.
Comedian Jordan Klepper joins StarTalk for “Cosmic Queries – Curiosity, Conspiracies & the God Particle”. This fan-question episode includes segments on curiosity, certainty and cognitive biases, with Neil deGrasse Tyson describing how he nudges flat-Earth believers back toward curiosity.
Brain Health
In Diary Of A CEO‘s “What Are The Five Lifestyle Habits Destroying Your Brain Right Now?”, neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter argues that dementias are largely preventable metabolic conditions. A StarTalk episode with biomedical scientist Rhonda Patrick, “The Longevity Playbook”, released early to subscribers this week, focuses on healthspan, diets and exercise and includes a shorter brain-related segment.
Childhood came up repeatedly this week, from Hughes’s scripts to Bartlett’s attachment reflections to Malone’s account of absorbing family dysfunction. These were mostly framed through personal story and self-help rather than research. The skepticism about therapy voiced on both Prof G and Rogan, arriving from very different directions, is also worth listening for.