It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, gang, one of the recurring themes on this show and something I think about a lot personally

is that we have these ancient brains that are often ill-suited to our modern high-tech environment.

And this evolutionary mismatch can create anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia, and many other vexations.

And one of the principal ways in which modern life can overtacks our brains is distraction.

You might be the type of person who likes to brag about how good you are at multitasking, but nobody is good at multitasking. Write that down, put it up on the

wall. Multitasking is a computer term. Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. So multitasking is

a neurological impossibility. In fact, one way to translate the word multitasking is doing several

things at the same time poorly. And even if you're not the type to

deliberately try to multitask, it's really easy to have your attention pulled away,

even if you're monotasking by the constant ringing and pinging of your phone. Which brings me to

today's episode where you're going to hear from one of the world's leading experts on the subject of distraction. His name is Adam Gazali. He's the David

Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at UCSF. He's also the co-author

of a book called The Distracted Mind, Ancient Brains in a High Tech world.

In this conversation, we talk about the impact of multitasking on your attention, your

relationships, emotions, anxiety, and memory, the difference between top-down and bottom-up attention,

what it means to have cognitive control and some practical tools for restoring your own cognitive

control. We talk about some controversial technologies that could eventually help us have a stronger

brain such as neurofeedback and neurostimulation, the impact of music and rhythm on the mind,

and how to use technology to benefit your brain.

Before we get into all of that, though, I just want to give you a heads up about a big project.

We're launching right here in June.

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