Could Mental Workouts Keep Your Brain Young? | NPR’s Short Wave

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, we’re featuring an episode from NPR’s science podcast Short Wave. In it, host Regina G. Barber talks to NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton about MENTAL EXERCISES.

Scientists have found the first compelling evidence that cognitive training can boost levels of a chemical that typically declines as people age. And previous studies of people have suggested that cognitive training can improve thinking and memory. So how does it all work? And by how much does it all work? Find out with this episode of Short Wave.

Follow NPR's Short Wave podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for more episodes like this, featuring new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Shoshana here. Today we're sharing an episode of a podcast we think that you'll love.
0:05.5	It's been handpicked by the TED staff, and we think that as a TED Health listener, you'll come away with a fresh idea and a totally new perspective.
0:13.2	Enjoy and head to the link in the description for more.
0:16.1	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:20.9	Hey, shortwavers.
0:22.5	Here's some advice for all you fitness fanatics.
0:25.8	Never skip brain day.
0:27.9	That's right.
0:28.6	It's time to talk about improving your cognitive fitness.
0:31.7	And here to lead today's masterclass is NPR's resident brain trainer, John Hamilton.
0:36.4	Hey, John.
0:36.8	Hey, Gina. Just finishing up my prefrontal
0:40.0	reps here. Got to keep the old cortex shredded. All right. Let me add that to the list of
0:45.7	images I can't unsee. Okay, John. So what's cognitive fitness exactly? Like, are we talking
0:51.1	Wordle? You know, because I'm pretty good at whortle.
0:54.4	Nope.
0:55.0	Fine.
0:57.9	What about quadratic equations?
0:58.8	Numbers.
0:59.3	Nope.
1:02.5	What about, like, a few races in Mario Kart?
1:04.3	Maybe those Zelda puzzles that I do?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.