The Problem With Dopamine: TJ Power

The Problem With...

James Smith

Society & Culture

4.9 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 111 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to "The Problem With" where each week we look into a problem to get a better understanding of it. This podcast has no sponsors, only my businesses and investments. Please check out the links below. 📍I'm on a mission to help men check their levels of Testosterone, more info here: https://www.manual.co/smith 👁Please check out and try Neutonic here: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith 💪For a free trial of my online personal training app, go here: https://www.affordableonlinecoaching.com 💰I help small businesses make money online: https://www.jamessmith.business Neuroscientist TJ Power joins James Smith to expose what social media, smartphones, and endless screen time are doing to our brains. From dopamine burnout to digital addiction, he explains how technology hijacks motivation, focus, and happiness - and what we can actually do to fix it. TJ, who left academia after seeing the mental health crisis up close, breaks down how constant stimulation from phones, porn and social media rewires the brain’s reward system. He reveals the science behind low mood, lost confidence, and why so many people feel “flat” despite having more comfort and convenience than ever before. He explains: ◼️ How dopamine addiction quietly kills motivation ◼️ Why boredom is the key to rebuilding focus ◼️ The neuroscience of porn, pleasure, and productivity ◼️ Why young people are more anxious, distracted, and disconnected ◼️ Practical steps to reset your brain and regain control Timestamps: 00:00 – The Problem With Spending Time on Screens 01:28 – What is Dopamine and Why Do We Crave It? 03:48 – The Four Brain Chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, Endorphins 07:09 – Gaming vs Scrolling: Active vs Passive Dopamine 10:08 – Video Games as Life Training 12:23 – Hunter Brain vs Farmer Brain 13:24 – The Trap of Productive Addiction 15:12 – The Man at the Train Station Doing Nothing 18:10 – Four Weeks Without TV or Content 21:23 – Evening Scrolling: Sacred Time or Mental Drain? 24:21 – The UK Safety Act and Porn Age Verification 28:09 – The Million Dollar Scrolling Hypothetical 32:56 – Dating Apps, Height Requirements & Modern Standards 36:33 – Seven Days Without Porn Challenge 40:18 – The Utility of Not Wanking Before a Date 43:46 – Should There Be Hard Blocks on Porn Access? 48:52 – Porn's Impact on First-Time Sexual Expectations 53:05 – Alcohol, Socialising & Why Young People Aren't Drinking 58:43 – The Two-Day Phone Detox in Melbourne 1:02:44 – Small Daily Detoxes vs Big Detoxes 1:06:34 – Why Jiu-Jitsu Hits All Four Brain Chemicals 1:10:12 – Four Plants That Need Watering: Practical Advice 1:15:46 – Escaping Reality Through Screens 1:19:28 – Relationships: When Your Partner Won't Change 1:24:30 – Falling in Love With AI 1:28:03 – Producer vs Consumer Dopamine Addiction 1:34:00 – The Purpose of Having Kids 1:35:31 – The Creator's Confession: Dopamine Hypocrisy 1:39:04 – Mental Health Crash After Bad Post Performance 1:43:48 – Living Without Knowing Your Bank Balance 1:48:50 – Closing Challenge: One Screen-Free Evening Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's becoming progressively more nerve-wracking to talk to the opposite sex because of how
0:05.0	self-conscious young people are becoming in a world where cameras are on them all the time.
0:09.0	Young people are really hardly drinking now.
0:11.0	But there's an element of my brain that would almost prefer a young person to go to a party and have some fun,
0:16.0	then like scroll TikTok every Friday night for like five hours.
0:19.0	Like whilst alcohol is still incredibly disruptive, like at least they'd be social and requirement of you to gain confidence and have fun and laugh.
0:24.5	T.J. Power is a neuroscientist, international speaker and author. He gives easy to adopt,
0:29.9	scientifically backed advice to empower people to live healthier lifestyles. What is the problem
0:34.6	spending huge amounts of time on screens? We as humans desperately crave a chemical called dopamine.
0:40.3	Spending our entire experience on the screens is draining that key chemical that gives us that positive feeling.
0:46.3	Too much time on the screens leads you into just like a depressed, demotivated, unenthusiastic state.
0:51.3	We've got to consider what our life currently looks like.
0:53.3	And it's
0:54.2	basically wake up and grab small screen. Spent 10 hours glued to a medium-sized
0:58.5	screen, constantly procrastinate with the small screen, eventually unwind and
1:03.3	detox out of your work with a big screen and that's our whole life right now. And in
1:06.8	order to break that trap and discover that there's still a world out there that
1:10.0	doesn't involve the screens you have to start spending time in... Just before we get started on the podcast, I wanted to let you know that we're doing a new tonic Black Friday discount of 21% of all of our products. Head to the website and stock up, this is probably going to be the most aggressive discount we're going to do in a very long time. Enjoy this episode. It's a good one. What is the problem with spending huge amounts of time each day on
1:32.2	screens? We as humans desperately crave a chemical called dopamine and it's the thing that makes
1:39.1	us feel so satisfied and fulfilled and excited by our life. Spending our entire experience on the screens is draining that key chemical that gives us that positive feeling.
1:50.0	And too much time on the screens leads you into just like a depressed, demotivated, unenthusiastic state.
1:56.0	I would say I'm going to feel personally attacked a lot in this episode.
	...

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