Author: This Is Your Brain producer

Can’t remember the fourth item on your grocery list? Nelson Dellis, a professional “memory athlete,” can remember 100 things or more (though he still may forget the butter). Hear how Dellis learned to memorize lists so long that he became a five-time USA Memory Champion, and how you can use some of his strategies to improve your own memory. Dellis explains how he uses tricks like the “memory palace” and mnemonic devices to recall lengthy lists with perfect accuracy. In an era when cell phones are making memory superfluous, you can regain some of those lost skills by using his…

Synesthesia is the mysterious mingling of the senses that creates the experience of “seeing” sounds or “hearing” colors. Neurologist Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. has spent his career exploring this remarkable phenomenon, and has some fascinating insight into how these sensations are formed in the brain, and how we might use it to reunite our fractured society. Plus… meet the man whose extreme form of synesthesia mingled all five of his senses! Dr. Phil Stieg: Hello and welcome to Dr. Richard Cytowic, the man who revolutionized our understanding of synesthesia. What is synesthesia? How common is it? How may it affect…

Many of us speak with our hands, but what is this signaling really communicating? Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow, an expert on gestures and professor of psychology and comparative human development at the University of Chicago, shares the significance of gesturing when speaking, and ways our hands can reveal more than we realize. Plus… learn what NOT to do with your hands to avoid unintended insults while traveling to do different countries! Dr. Phil Stieg: Most of us know someone who uses their hands when they talk, but we rarely think about what they are trying to say with them or why…

Menopause can wreak havoc on mood and body temperature as it signals the end of fertility, but some of the biggest changes it causes are in the brain.  Emily Jacobs, assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at UC Santa Barbara, explains how the precipitous decline in estrogen during the “change of life” disrupts the endocrine system and makes a woman’s brain more like…a man’s!  Plus, hear from real women describing the wide range of effects they have experienced Phil Stieg: Hello, today, I have with me Dr. Emily Jacobs. Emily is a neuroscientist at the University of…

Is the deluge of digital media killing our ability to focus? Psychologist Gloria Mark explains how we are shaped by what we pay attention to – and why today’s short snippets of everything are reinforcing short attention spans. Phil Stieg: Today, we’re honored to welcome Dr. Gloria Mark to the podcast. She is Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and a leading expert in the impact of digital media on our lives. Her recent book, Attention Span, is a comprehensive exploration of how digital media influences our ability to maintain focus. Her work has reshaped our…

Near-death experiences may seem like the stuff of supermarket tabloids, but there are real patterns to what people report after coming close to departing this life. Dr. Bruce Greyson has been studying near-death experiences  for decades and has stories to tell about out-of-body phenomena, that light at the end of the tunnel, and a near-universal finding of new meaning in life after coming close to death. Plus… a glimpse of what happens to your brain after death.Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to welcome Dr. Bruce Greyson, professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Today he is going to…