Stanford Neuroscientist: Can’t Remember Your Dreams? Your Brain May Be Warning You!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Education, Society & Culture, Business

4.5 • 17.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people think they’re a single individual making rational decisions, but Stanford Neuroscientist, Dr. David Eagleman, explains that you are actually multiple people in one brain. A brain that tricks each version of you in different ways! Dr. David Eagleman is a Stanford neuroscientist, technologist, and author who examines how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us. He is known for his work on brain plasticity, perception, and how the brain adapts to external inputs. He is the cofounder of Neosensory and BrainCheck, as well as director of the Center for Science and Law. He is also an international bestselling author of books such as 'Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain. He explains: ◼️How your brain tricks you to keep you safe ◼️How to outsmart your own brain when it's working against you ◼️Why doing hard things physically rewires the brain ◼️Why we dream, and what dreams may actually be doing for the brain ◼️How to use AI to make you smarter instead of letting it make you lazy 00:00 Intro 02:12 Why The Brain Became My Obsession 03:09 How To Actually Break Bad Habits (And Why Most People Fail) 07:16 What You’ve Been Getting Wrong About The Brain 11:12 Fluid Vs. Crystallized Intelligence 12:08 What Really Happens When You Try To Change Yourself 15:09 The Surprising Link Between Early Retirement And Death Risk 17:49 Your Brain’s Hidden Willpower Engine 21:59 How To Train Your Brain To Crave Difficult Challenges 23:40 Which Exercises Rewire Your Brain The Fastest 24:38 What Social Media Is Quietly Doing To Your Brain 29:59 AI And Your Mind Upgrade Or Hidden Cost? 33:47 The Effort Paradox—Why Struggle Might Be The Point 38:01 How To Use AI Without Making Your Brain Lazy 41:20 Is AI Honest—Or Just Telling You What You Want To Hear? 43:24 Can AI Truly Be Creative—Or Is It Just Mimicking You? 51:59 Why Your Brain Craves The Sweet Spot Between New And Familiar 55:25 Ads 01:03:10 Why Real-World Experiences Are Making A Comeback 01:07:52 What Makes Every Brain Subtly Different 01:13:01 Ads 01:15:11 Why We Dream And What Your Brain Is Really Doing At Night 01:20:46 Why Human Connection Is More Critical Than Ever 01:25:03 What The Next 10 Years Could Mean For Humanity ghts—What Stays With You After All This Enjoyed the episode? Share this link and earn points for every referral - redeem them for exclusive prizes: https://doac-perks.com Independent Research Document: https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DOAC-David-Eagleman-Independent-Research-Further-Reading.pdf Follow Dr David: Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/6EnuY7m X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/1rjD8V8 Podcast - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/ALL5A7d You can purchase Dr David’s book, ‘Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain’, here: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/7d74l5d The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Bon Charge: https://boncharge.com/DOAC for 20% off Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO Wispr - Get 14 days of Wispr Flow for free at https://wisprflow.ai/steven

Transcript

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0:00.0	One thing I've learned from interviewing a lot of founders and building companies myself is that
0:03.5	trust is the real currency of business. It's the thing that gets customers to buy, partners to say yes,
0:08.5	and investors to back you. But as you grow, trust stops being just a feeling and becomes something
0:13.1	you have to prove. Because the bigger you get, the more exposed you are, customer data,
0:17.4	security expectations, regulations, all of it. And the risk of one small mistake
0:21.1	becomes incredibly significant. And if you've ever tried to scale while keeping on top of all of that,
0:26.6	you'll know it can become a full-time job. But our sponsor Vanta automates your compliance
0:31.3	processes and brings compliance, risk and customer trust together through their AI-powered platform.
0:36.8	And the company's already using Vanta, say they spend 82% less time on audits because of Vantas platform.
0:43.1	So if your organization wants to inject time back into building and growing, make sure you head over to vanta.com slash diary.
0:49.7	That's vanta.com slash diary.
0:53.0	After many, many decades of people debating this,
0:55.5	you might have figured out the reason why we dream.
0:57.9	Yes, and it's a simple answer.
0:59.8	So if you go blind,
1:01.4	the visual cortex at the back of the brain
1:03.1	gets taken over by hearing and by touch and by other things.
1:06.4	In fact, our colleagues at Harvard did an experiment
1:08.3	where they blindfolded, normally sighted people,
1:10.6	and you could start seeing that takeover happening after 60 minutes.
1:13.6	And that's when we realized, wow, the purpose of dreaming is to defend the visual territory
1:19.3	from takeover from the other senses.
	...

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