Mind Hacks: Joel Pearson
All In The Mind
ABC Australia
4.5 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to All in the Mind's little sister: Mind Hacks. In this episode, cognitive neuroscientist Joel Pearson tells us how he manages his own stress (clue: it involves saunas!)
Each week on Mind Hacks, we're bringing you bonus content with special guests, featuring rapid fire questions about their mental health tips and pet peeves. It's like a psychology version of eff, marry kill!We're going to test this format out over the next few weeks, so let us know what you think, or if there's a guest you'd like us to invite back on the program for Mind Hacks. As always, you can reach us on allinthemind@abc.net.auAnd don't worry, regular All in the Mind episodes will keep dropping every Sunday.
Guest:
Professor Joel PearsonPsychologist, neuroscientistFounder and Director, Future Minds LabUniversity of New South Wales
Credits:
- Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
- Senior producer: James Bullen
- Producer: Rose Kerr
- Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan
Relevant All in the Mind episodes:
Is AI making our brains lazier?
"Scarier than killer robots": why your mind isn't ready for AI
When to trust your gut instinct, and when to ignore it
You can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Sana Khadar from All In The Mind. This is Mind Hacks, our brand new midweek minipod, where we try and get some tips and tricks and hacks from the experts we speak to about what they do to look after their own mental health. |
| 0:22.3 | So we ask a few specific questions, kind of in the vibe of the game, F. Mary Kill, but we're |
| 0:27.6 | way politer, we're asking love, hate, avoid. And this week we have Professor Joel Pearson from |
| 0:33.3 | the University of New South Wales. He's a cognitive neuroscientist and the director of the |
| 0:38.1 | future minds lab at UNSW. We had him on our main show this week talking about AI and how that's |
| 0:44.4 | changing our brains and whether it might be causing cognitive atrophy. So if you want to listen to |
| 0:49.9 | that, scroll back in your podcast feed. But for now, mind hacks. Here we go. |
| 0:57.8 | So I'm going to ask you four questions. |
| 0:59.9 | First one is love. |
| 1:01.5 | And the question is, what is one mental health tool, strategy or practice or piece of advice that has made a real difference to you in your life? |
| 1:10.1 | I'm going to say two. So I'm going to break the rules. Exercise and sauna. |
| 1:13.4 | Exercise and sauna? Yes. |
| 1:15.1 | Okay. I feel like everyone is probably going to say exercise, but tell me about the sauna. |
| 1:19.9 | Oh, I get a tremendous mood boost from the sauna. It's almost like a version of exercise |
| 1:26.4 | you can do while you sit still, I find. |
| 1:28.8 | So the perfect kind of exercise. |
| 1:30.0 | Yeah, for me. |
| 1:30.9 | But it does other things as well. |
| 1:32.2 | It produces heat shock proteins, and it does get your heart rate up. |
| 1:37.6 | So last year, we purchased got a sauna at home, and so I'll try and use that when I can. |
| 1:41.6 | If I'm not up for exercise or in the evenings, after the kids have gone to bed, I'll go and hit the sauna. |
| 1:46.5 | And that is, for whatever reason, if you can't do exercise, hit the sauna and you'll get a similar mood boost. |
... |
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