Tame the Dopamine Drive — How to Stop Chasing and Start Living

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present. Except for one: dopamine. Dopamine is the one neurochemical that looks to the future. It anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it. That can be a good thing — dopamine is one powerful motivator — but it also has its downsides. Here to help us understand how the most important chemical in the brain works and how to deal with its pitfalls is Michael Long. Michael is a trained physicist turned writer whose latest book is Taming the Molecule of More. Mike and I discuss how dopamine, for better and worse, makes you want what you don't have. He shares what causes low dopamine activity, how to know if you're experiencing it, and what increases dopamine. We then talk about how to deal with the consequences of dopamine in some of the scenarios in which it plays a role — like losing the spark in a relationship and getting stuck in a smartphone scroll habit — and why so much of taming dopamine comes down to living in the here and now. We end our conversation with why The Great Gatsby is really a novel about dopamine and the fundamental answer to not letting the dopamine chase lead you around.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
0:11.5	All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present, except for one, dopamine.
0:17.1	Dopamine is the one neurochemical that looks to the future, and anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it.
0:23.3	That can be a good thing. Dopamine is one powerful motivator, but it also has its downsides.
0:28.6	Here to help us understand how the most important chemical in the brain works and how to deal with its pitfalls is Michael Long.
0:34.1	Michael's a trained physicist turned writer whose latest book is, Taming the Molecule of More.
0:38.8	Mike and I discuss how dopamine, for better and worse, makes you want what you don't have.
0:43.3	He shares what causes low dopamine activity, how to know if you're experiencing it, and what increases dopamine.
0:48.4	We then talk about how to deal with the consequences of dopamine in some of the scenarios in which it plays a role,
0:52.7	like losing the spark in a relationship, getting stuck in a smartphone scroll habit, and why so much of taming dopamine
0:57.6	comes down to living in the here and now. We enter a conversation with why the Great Gatsby is
1:02.1	really a novel about dopamine, the fundamental answer to not letting the dopamine chase lead you
1:06.6	around. After the show's over, check out our show notes at AWIM.com. I.S. Slas molecule.
1:27.9	All right, Michael Long, welcome back to the show. Hey, it's good to be here, Brett. How are you?
1:28.9	Doing great.
1:34.3	So we had you on the podcast several years ago, I think it was back in 2018, to discuss a book you co-authored called The Molecule of More.
1:37.8	It's all about dopamine.
1:39.4	You've written a sequel to that book called Taming the Molecule of More.
1:43.9	What prompted the sequel? What did you
1:46.0	flesh out in this book that you and your co-author didn't flesh out in the first one?
1:50.6	Well, you know, the first book is about the science of dopamine and its effects on modern life,
1:55.5	or I should say, its effects on us and struggling in modern life. And we explained as much as we could,
	...

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