Chris Nowinski (on CTE)

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Nowinski (Stop Hitting Kids in the Head, Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis, Concussion Legacy Foundation) is an author, retired pro-wrestler, and neuroscientist. Chris joins the Armchair Expert to discuss never forgetting the culture shock of wealth while studying at Harvard, his stint wrestling on Monday Night Raw, and not having ever really been in a real fight. Chris and Dax talk about why the violence in football is actually worse than WWE, his first instance of REM behavior disorder, and learning the preciousness of brain cells. Chris explains the supposed causes and physiology of CTE, why we have selective framing for how to think about the mental health of athletes transitioning out of sports, and how wrestlers now really appreciate how much safer the industry is.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now.
0:06.5	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.0	Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
0:14.0	Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert experts on expert.
0:17.4	I'm Dan Rather and I'm joined by Leslie Stahl.
0:20.1	And today our guest is Chris Nowinski.
0:23.4	He is a neuroscientist, an author, and a retired professional wrestler.
0:29.4	We've been just accumulating bizarre origin stories.
0:33.1	But bizarre might not be the right word.
0:34.6	Super fascinating origin stories.
0:36.5	Unusual.
0:40.6	Unusual, which is probably the definition of bizarre if you look at it up.
0:41.5	Probably says unusual.
0:42.1	Yeah.
0:44.5	I've been thrilled.
0:46.9	Thrilled to have Chris Nowinski on.
0:50.2	I've been wanting to have someone on to talk about CTE for a long time. You love CTE.
0:51.7	It's your favorite topic.
0:53.5	The dream scenario would be a CTE episode of the pit.
0:57.8	Oh, my God. I'm surprised they didn't do that. They will. Season two. I hope so. It got a season two. It's like
1:04.8	rushing a season two. Of course. John Wells is a legend. Okay, he has a book called Head Games, Football's Concussion Crisis.
1:13.7	And if you want to get involved with the Concussion Legacy Foundation,
	...

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