Essentials: Science of Building Strong Social Bonds with Family, Friends & Romantic Partners
Andrew Huberman explains the biology and psychology of social bonding, covering neural circuits, neurochemicals, and hormones that govern how we form and maintain relationships. He describes social homeostasis circuits involving structures like the ACC, amygdala, hypothalamus, and dorsal raphe nucleus, and discusses how introversion and extroversion may relate to dopamine responses to social interaction. He also explores physiological synchrony, early caregiver-infant attachment, emotional versus cognitive empathy, the role of oxytocin, and what happens in the nervous system during breakups.
Most Replayed Moment: Why You're Never Satisfied! The 4 Pillars of Lasting Happiness
The conversation explores the components of happiness, distinguishing between pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction, and explaining how social connection and struggle contribute to deeper fulfillment. It examines the hedonic treadmill, the arrival fallacy, and an equation for satisfaction that emphasizes managing desires rather than accumulating more. The discussion then shifts to setting better goals around faith, family, friendship, and work that serves others, using fitness and habits as examples, and concludes with a framework for life meaning based on coherence, purpose, and significance, illustrated through two probing questions about why one is alive and what one is willing to die for.
Feeling Lazy or Unmotivated? (Do THIS 5-Minute Rule to Build Discipline & Take Action NOW!)
The host shares a structured approach to overcoming feelings of laziness and lack of motivation by focusing on small, easy actions that build momentum and self-belief over time. He explains how to lower the activation barrier, build rituals instead of relying on willpower, reset dopamine sensitivity, and design your environment to support focus. The episode culminates in practical tools like the 5-minute rule, accountability that "hurts," and a nightly 3-minute review to reinforce progress and consistency.
Essentials: Erasing Fears & Traumas Using Modern Neuroscience
Andrew Huberman explains the neuroscience of fear, trauma, and post-traumatic stress, detailing the brain and body circuits that generate and maintain these states. He describes how the autonomic nervous system, HPA axis, and amygdala-based threat circuitry interact with memory and prefrontal narrative systems to create adaptive and maladaptive fear responses. The episode reviews behavioral therapies, drug-assisted psychotherapies, physiological breathing protocols, lifestyle factors, and certain supplements that can help extinguish and replace fearful and traumatic memories.
Neuroscientist Emily McDonald: #1 Science-Based Hack to Rewire Your Brain to ACTUALLY Manifest the Life You Want
Neuroscientist Emily McDonald explains how understanding and rewiring the brain can help people break out of feeling stuck, overcome procrastination, and consciously create a life that aligns with their values. She connects neuroscience concepts like the default mode network, dopamine, vagus nerve tone, and neuroplasticity to practical tools for identity shifting, managing fear, structuring rewards, and manifestation. The conversation also explores self-worth, jealousy, money beliefs, relationships, and Emily's own journey from heavy labeling and health issues to designing a life and career that feel authentic and joyful.
What Loneliness Does To Your Brain with Ben Rein
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gary O'Reilly, and Chuck interview neuroscientist Ben Rein about what loneliness and social isolation do to the brain and body. They distinguish between objective isolation and the subjective feeling of loneliness, explain the stress and inflammatory pathways involved, and discuss how personality, aging, technology, and drugs like alcohol, painkillers, and MDMA affect social behavior and health. Rein also shares research on empathy, dogs and oxytocin, and practical ideas for rebuilding social connection in an increasingly automated world.
How to Overcome Inner Resistance | Steven Pressfield
Andrew Huberman interviews author Stephen Pressfield about his concept of resistance, the difference between amateurs and professionals, and the daily habits and mindsets that support sustained creative work. They discuss Pressfield's military and physical training background, his writing process and use of the "muse," his experiences with failure and delayed success, and broader topics such as calling, addiction, social media, mortality, competition, and life trade-offs in pursuing one's craft.
How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? (Update)
Stephen Dubner interviews Arthur Brooks about his argument that American politics has fallen into an addictive cycle of contempt, driven by media incentives, populism, and habits of communication, and that the most effective antidote is deliberately practiced love and warmheartedness. Brooks, drawing on economics, neuroscience, psychology, and his own varied career, explains how contempt differs from anger, how financial crises fuel polarization, and why media and political structures amplify division. He offers concrete techniques for individuals and leaders to reduce contempt, cultivate love as a verb, and reorient politics toward a competition over opportunity rather than mutual hatred.
Essentials: Time Perception, Memory & Focus
Andrew Huberman explains how different biological timing systems-from yearly and daily rhythms to 90-minute ultradian cycles-shape our perception of time, mood, energy, and performance. He describes how neuromodulators like dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin alter how fast or slow time feels in the moment and how we remember events later. He then connects these mechanisms to trauma, novelty, and habits, showing how deliberate routines and environmental variation can structure our days, influence memory, and support better focus.
Can AI make us more human? A social psychologist and a business leader answer | Heidi Grant and Barry Cooper
Host Elise Hu introduces a conversation from the TED Intersections series in which social psychologist Heidi Grant and business leader Barry Cooper discuss how AI can support human learning, decision-making, and connection. They explore the importance of a growth mindset in a rapidly changing AI-driven workplace, how AI can transform feedback and training, and the emerging skill of prompt engineering. They also reflect on AI's role in personal habits, social media, and creative content, and where human empathy and shared experience will remain essential.
No. 1 Sugar Expert: 17 Seconds Of Pleasure Can Rewire Your Brain!
Dr. Robert Lustig explains how dopamine-driven behaviors and ultra-processed food, especially sugar, can create a "hostage brain" by rewiring reward pathways and degrading metabolic and brain health. He details mechanisms linking sugar, artificial sweeteners, mitochondrial dysfunction, and reactive oxygen species to Alzheimer's, cancer, depression, and other chronic diseases, while contrasting environmental versus genetic risk. The conversation also covers GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, vaccines and public health communication, loneliness, serotonin and oxytocin, practical strategies to reduce sugar and ultra-processed food, and emerging research on psychedelics and brain rewiring.