Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive

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Ben Ryan is the author of Why Brains Need Friends, the Neuroscience of Social Connection.

Ben Ryan, Ph.D. is an award-winning neuroscientist, adjunct professor at Stanford University,

clinical assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo, chief science officer of the Mind Science Foundation,

and a renowned science educator. Dr. Ryan's research focuses on the neuroscience of social interactions,

and outside of the lab, he also teaches an audience of more than one million

social media followers. Dr. Ryan and his research have been featured on major media outlets,

including Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America. And he has received awards from the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Society for Neuroscience,

and elsewhere. Welcome, Ben. Thank you so much for coming on

totally booked. I'm so excited to talk about why brains need friends, the neuroscience, social

connection. I am obsessed and have been talking to everyone who will listen about various parts of

the book since I read it. So, congrats and welcome. Well, well, thank you. That means so much. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you for having me. Thank you for all you said about the book. And maybe you hear this often from those you have on the show or authors in general, but I'm in this sort of strange purgatory space where my book's not in the real world yet. And so only a few people have read it. and you're one of the people. So to hear positive feedback really means a lot because I'm in this fearful state. So thank you.

And I can't wait to dive into these questions you have. No, it's a period of time very well.

And it is great. And I was talking it up to even my colleagues at work. And I was like, so he starts it off by saying he doesn't believe in jargon.

So even though neuroscience is on the cover, don't be intimidated by that.

It is totally consumable for the masses and takes very complex concepts, explains them, and makes them relevant to everybody.

So, yeah. So why don't you start off by

...