Sizing Up the Notion of Tailoring Your Brain with Emily Willingham

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Emily Willingham joins Indre to talk about tailoring the brain, a subject on which she’s an expert and about which she writes extensively in her book The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine, to Keto, to Companionship, A User's Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking Smarter. Emily is a journalist, a science writer, the author of previous books, including Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis, a coauthor of The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years, and is a regular contributor to Scientific American and other publications. She is the joint recipient with David Robert Grimes of the 2014 John Maddox Prize which is awarded by the science charity Sense About Science to those who stand up for science in the face of personal attacks. If you want to learn how to to feel better and think smarter – and, really, who doesn’t? – then today’s episode of Inquiring Minds is definitely a ‘must listen’. Show Links: Inquiring Minds Podcast Homepage Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds See https://omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine, to Keto, to Companionship, A User's Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking SmarterSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science
0:06.4	a richer, more rewarding life.
0:10.7	Welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gontas.
0:14.2	This is a podcast that explores the space where science and society collide.
0:18.2	We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it matters.
0:26.6	I'm always interested when a book comes across my desk that is about the brain, and especially so when it's written by a science writer that I
0:38.7	trust. So I have to say, I was really excited when Emily Willingham's new book, The Tailored Brain,
0:45.2	was sent to me. Emily is a journalist and science writer. She's the author of previous books,
0:50.7	including fallacy, life lessons from the animal penis. And she also co-authored the
0:56.0	informed parent, a science-based resource for your child's first four years. But she's a regular
1:01.6	contributor to Scientific American and other publications. We've all come across the latest
1:06.8	gimmicky interventions that are supposed to make us smarter, make us feel better, just improve our lives.
1:14.4	People talk about microdosing hallucinogens or taking stimulant drugs, even using stimulation
1:21.6	to boost brain performance. But so often, the promise of these interventions falls flat. But what if we're actually thinking
1:30.2	about the problem the wrong way? What if instead of seeking out the perfect true brain,
1:35.6	we should just be thinking about what are the kinds of minor tweaks that our own brains might
1:40.6	benefit from? That's exactly the approach that Emily takes. Emily Willingham,
1:48.8	welcome to inquiring minds. Hi, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. So I loved on your book
1:55.6	jacket how you sort of approach the brain like a tailor, that we should take the measure of our minds contours
2:02.5	and personalize alterations to suit it. That's just such a beautiful metaphor. Can you tell us a
2:09.5	little bit about what you mean by that? I came to this with a sensibility that I've had for a long
2:14.5	time that, I don't know, like sociocultural expectations are always,
	...

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