My BrainWise Coach

My BrainWise Coach
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to My BrainWise Coach — a podcast exploring the intersection of neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology to help you live and lead better lives. Hosted by Cole Bastian and Phil Dixon, each episode connects brain science to everyday life, leadership, and relationships. You’ll gain practical insights into emotional intelligence, habits, trust, change, growth, and many other topics — all grounded in research and real human experience. 🧠 Stay curious. Stay compassionate. Stay BrainWise.

  1. 3d ago

    The RAPID Framework: Why Clear Decision Roles Still Fail (S3E8)

    Twelve people sit in a room. A real decision is on the table, the conversation is substantive, and then the meeting ends and nobody knows what was decided or whether anything was decided at all. That meeting is not dysfunctional. The problem is architectural, and your brain reads it as a threat. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile, and book 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. Cole and Phil cover: The RAPID decision framework from Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko's 2006 Harvard Business Review article "Who Has the D?"What Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, and Decide each actually mean, and why Agree is the role most often corruptedThe one decision maker rule, and why organizational culture resists itRole ambiguity as a prediction driver threat, and what it costs the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insulaHow a status threat turns an Input assignment into a protection driver violationThree failure modes: leaders who cannot tolerate named accountability, senior stakeholders who believe Input is beneath them, and Agree holders whose veto is culturally unusableHow the Personal Threat Profile predicts which failure mode you will hit before you run the exerciseWhy psychological safety is the load-bearing wall under any decision frameworkRate and review us five stars wherever you listen, and follow @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 The Meeting Where Nothing Gets Decided 02:01 Welcome And What This Covers 03:19 Why Decisions Stall Inside Organizations 04:10 The Five RAPID Roles Explained 05:18 Why The Agree Role Gets Corrupted 06:25 The One Decision Maker Rule 07:51 Role Ambiguity As Neurological Threat 09:16 Status Threat And The Protection Driver 10:31 Why RAPID Works When It Works 11:49 Three Predictable Failure Modes 12:19 Leaders Who Fear Named Accountability 14:09 Input Holders Who Expect More 15:35 Agree Holders Who Cannot Veto 17:40 Mapping Failures To Threat Profiles 21:18 What RAPID Actually Manages 22:57 Further Reading And Close Rogers, P., & Blenko, M. W. (2006). Who Has the D? How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance. Harvard Business Review, 84(1), 52–61. https://hbr.org/2006/01/who-has-the-d-how-clear-decision-roles-enhance-organizational-performance Rogers and Blenko use RAPID (recommend, agree, perform, input, decide) to unclog decision bottlenecks by explicitly defining roles. Semantic ScholarBlenko, M. W., Mankins, M. C., & Rogers, P. (2010). Decide & Deliver: Five Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization. Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN 978-1422147573. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=39337Sanfey, A. G., Rilling, J. K., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2003). The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game. Science, 300(5626), 1755–1758. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1082976 — Unfair offers activated the anterior insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Not named on tape; Phil refers to it only as "the fairness episode." Include it or drop it, your call.

  2. 6d ago ·  Bonus

    The Neuroscience of Fairness and Why Unfairness Feels Like Disgust (ND3E7)

    You use the word fair constantly, and your brain does not treat it as one thing. It treats it as four, and each one runs on different circuitry. Phil opens in a room in Prague where the standard human response to an unfair offer simply failed to show up, and that anomaly opens the whole episode. Head to brainwiseenterprises.com to get certified, take your Personal Threat Profile, and book personalized 1:1 coaching. Inside this episode: The ultimatum game, designed by Werner Güth in 1982, and why people reject real money rather than accept an insultAlan Sanfey's 2003 fMRI study, the anterior insula, and why unfairness registers as disgust rather than disappointmentJoseph Henrich's cross-cultural work across fifteen small-scale societies, from the Machiguenga to the Aché to the LamaleraBrosnan and de Waal's capuchin monkey experiment and the ancient origins of inequity aversionThe four dimensions of organizational justice: distributive, procedural, interactional, and informationalThe fair process effect, and why a fair process buffers an unfavourable outcomeDulebohn's neuroimaging evidence that procedural and distributive injustice activate separate brain networksHow each fairness dimension maps onto your protection, participation, and prediction drivers Fair outcomes are impossible to guarantee in any organization. Fair process, respectful treatment, and honest explanation are not. Rate, review, and follow at @mybrainwisecoach so more people find the show. 00:00 The Prague Ultimatum Game Surprise 02:02 Welcome to Neuroscience Digest 03:16 How the Ultimatum Game Works 04:19 Unfair Offers Inside the Scanner 05:25 Why Unfairness Registers As Disgust 06:08 Cross-Cultural Fairness Across Fifteen Societies 08:09 The Capuchin Monkey Cucumber Experiment 09:29 Inequity Aversion In Chimpanzees 10:26 Four Types Of Organizational Justice 11:01 Distributive Justice And The Outcome 11:55 Procedural Justice And Fair Process 12:51 Different Brain Networks For Process 14:02 Interactional Justice And Respect 15:04 Informational Justice And Silence 15:38 Why Fair Process Buffers Bad Outcomes 16:53 Applying Fairness Inside Organizations 18:04 Mapping Fairness To Threat Drivers 19:28 The Single Most Important Takeaway 20:56 Close And Show Notes

  3. Aug 9

    Emotional Contagion: Why You Catch Other People's Moods (S3E7)

    You caught something today without noticing it. Maybe a colleague's anxiety before the meeting even started, maybe a friend's laugh you could not hold back. Your brain runs a continuous transmission system that broadcasts your emotional state to everyone near you, and you cannot switch it off. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile, and book 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. What you get in this episode: Why the early afternoon is the contagion hour, and why the "post-lunch dip" name is wrongThe suprachiasmatic nucleus, the 12-hour alertness harmonic, and what happens to inhibitory control in the troughRobert Provine's finding that laughter runs about 30 times more frequently in company than aloneThe two separate brain systems behind spontaneous laughter and performed social laughterBilling and colleagues on empathy, auditory-motor mirroring, and how contagious a laugh feelsCaruana and Rizzolatti on the mirroring mechanism that maps hearing a laugh onto producing oneWhy contagious yawning tracks social bonding rather than tiredness, and why suppressing a yawn suppresses an empathy signalHatfield, Cacioppo and Rapson's 1993 definition of emotional contagion and the mimicry mechanism beneath itSigal Barsade's ripple effect research on how one person's mood reshapes a whole teamWhy a leader's state spreads further and faster than anyone else'sHow the participation and protection drivers determine who catches what Rate, review, and follow us at @mybrainwisecoach. It genuinely helps other people find the show. 00:00 The Two O'Clock Recording Experiment 02:29 Welcome And Episode Roadmap 03:31 Circadian Dip And Inhibitory Control 06:34 Laughter As A Social Signal 08:28 Contagious Laughter And Mirror Systems 10:37 Contagious Yawning And Empathy 13:57 Emotional Contagion Research Foundations 15:50 Emotional Contagion In Organizations 18:08 Who Catches What And Why 20:18 Practical Field Guide Three Actions 21:43 You Are Never Not Transmitting 23:04 Closing Thoughts And Sign Off Provine, R. R. (2000). Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. Viking Penguin. The 30-times-more-frequent-in-company figure checks out.Billing, A. D. N., Cooper, R. J., & Scott, S. K. (2021). Pre-SMA activation and the perception of contagiousness and authenticity in laughter sounds. Cortex, 143, 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2021.06.010Caruana, F., Avanzini, P., Pelliccia, V., Mariani, V., Zauli, F., Sartori, I., Del Vecchio, M., Lo Russo, G., & Rizzolatti, G. (2020). Mirroring other's laughter. Cingulate, opercular and temporal contributions to laughter expression and observation. Cortex, 128, 35–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.02.023Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953Barsade, S. G. (2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644–675. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094912Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. PNAS, 111(24), 8788–8790. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320040111

  4. Aug 6 ·  Bonus

    Why Smart People Don't Learn From Failure | Growth Mindset (ND3E6)

    Smart, accomplished people become the worst learners in the room the moment something is their fault. That isn't arrogance and it isn't a character flaw. It's a threat response your brain runs automatically, built by decades of being rewarded for being right. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. Phil and Cole cover: Chris Argyris and his 1991 Harvard Business Review article "Teaching Smart People How to Learn"The doom loop, and why intelligence gets spent avoiding a problem instead of solving itSingle loop versus double loop learning, and the thermostat that questions its own settingThe protection driver, the amygdala, and why your prefrontal cortex goes offline exactly when you need it mostSelf-serving attribution bias and its neural signatureHow twenty years of education and two decades of professional reinforcement install competence as identityJason Moser's EEG research on the ERN and the Pe, and what a growth mindset brain does differently after a mistakeStriatal connectivity, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and mindset becoming physiologyCarol Dweck on why fixed mindsets avoid challengeAmy Edmondson, psychological safety, and why the best medical teams reported more errorsWhy culture design changes behavior and exhortation doesn't Rate, review, and follow at @mybrainwisecoach. Your reviews put this show in front of people who need it. 00:00 Argyris And The Doom Loop 01:51 Welcome To Neuroscience Digest 03:13 What Argyris Actually Observed 04:30 Single Loop Versus Double Loop Learning 05:51 The Protection Driver And Amygdala 07:04 Self Serving Attribution Bias 09:23 How Education Installs The Pattern 11:09 Why High Achievers Are Vulnerable 12:19 Moser EEG Study On Mistakes 14:41 Growth Mindset And Brain Connectivity 15:31 Dweck On Fixed Mindset Avoidance 16:34 Edmondson On Psychological Safety 17:38 The Neuroscience Of Speaking Up 19:23 Culture Design Beats Exhortation 20:04 The Single Most Important Takeaway 21:38 The Question Worth Asking Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching Smart People How to Learn. Harvard Business Review, 69(3), 99–109. https://hbr.org/1991/05/teaching-smart-people-how-to-learnBlackwood, N. J., Bentall, R. P., ffytche, D. H., Simmons, A., Murray, R. M., & Howard, R. J. (2003). Self-responsibility and the self-serving bias: an fMRI investigation of causal attributions. NeuroImage, 20(2), 1076–1085. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00331-8Wang, X., Zheng, L., Li, L., Sun, P., & Guo, X. (2021). Actor or recipient role matters: Neural correlates of self-serving bias. Brain and Behavior, 11(3), e02013. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2013Moser, J. S., Schroder, H. S., Heeter, C., Moran, T. P., & Lee, Y.-H. (2011). Mind Your Errors: Evidence for a Neural Mechanism Linking Growth Mind-Set to Adaptive Posterror Adjustments. Psychological Science, 22(12), 1484–1489. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611419520Myers, C. A., Wang, C., Black, J. M., Bugescu, N., & Hoeft, F. (2016). The matter of motivation: Striatal resting-state connectivity is dissociable between grit and growth mindset. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(10), 1521–1527. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw065Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.Edmondson, A. C. (1996). Learning from mistakes is easier said than done: Group and organizational influences on the detection and correction of human error. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 32(1), 5–32.Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W., & Hewlin, P. F. (2003). An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don't Communicate Upward and Why. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1453–1476. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00387

  5. Aug 2

    Do Cold Plunges Actually Work? The Neuroscience of Cold Water (S3E6)

    Cold plunges promise depression relief, anxiety elimination, and a full nervous system reset. Something real does happen in your brain when you hit freezing water. The distance between that neurochemistry and the transformation stories filling your feed is where this conversation lives. Visit brainwiseenterprises.com to learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching. Here's what you get: The norepinephrine surge behind that post-plunge high, and why the same mechanism drives an entire class of antidepressantsŠrámek and colleagues on dopamine rising roughly 250% during cold water immersionYankouskaya's 2023 fMRI study showing measurable brain connectivity changes in 33 first-time cold water bathersWhat the January 2025 PLOS One systematic review and meta-analysis actually concludes about cold water immersion and mental healthWhy small samples and confounded lifestyles make cold plunge research so hard to trustThe placebo problem you can't design around: nobody gets a fake ice bathWhich ingredient does the work, voluntary discomfort, breathing, community, or masteryHow cold plunging feeds all three Personal Threat Profile drivers: protection, participation, and predictionCold shock response safety, habituation, and who should talk to a doctor first If this changes how you think about your brain, rate, review, and follow us at @mybrainwisecoach. It helps more than you know. 00:00 The Question That Started This 00:55 Welcome To My BrainWise Coach 02:11 Ice Bath Sales Explode Overnight 03:16 What Cold Does Neurochemically 03:45 Norepinephrine Surge And Antidepressant Mechanism 05:45 Dopamine Rises Two Hundred Fifty Percent 06:38 fMRI Evidence For Brain Connectivity 08:46 What The Systematic Review Found 10:47 The Confounding And Placebo Problem 12:52 Which Part Actually Does Work 14:54 Personal Threat Profile Driver Analysis 17:00 Cold Shock Response Safety Warning 18:36 The Honest Bottom Line 21:06 Closing Thoughts And References 1. Šrámek, P., Šimečková, M., Janský, L., Šavlíková, J., & Vybíral, S. (2000). Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 81(5), 436–442. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004210050065Immersion at 14°C increased plasma noradrenaline by 530% and dopamine by 250%. The 250% figure Phil quotes is correct. Springer 2. Yankouskaya, A., Williamson, R., Stacey, C., Totman, J. J., & Massey, H. (2023). Short-Term Head-Out Whole-Body Cold-Water Immersion Facilitates Positive Affect and Increases Interaction between Large-Scale Brain Networks. Biology, 12(2), 211. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12020211Thirty-three healthy adults naive to cold-water swimming (ages 20 to 45, 16 female) took a 20°C five-minute whole-body bath, with brain connectivity and self-reported emotional state measured before and after. Every number Phil gives checks out. 3. Cain, T., Brinsley, J., Bennett, H., Nelson, M., Maher, C., & Singh, B. (2025). Effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 20(1), e0317615. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317615Published January 29, 2025, pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024500591). This is also the source of the Amazon figure: ice bath sales rose from under 1,000 units in November 2022 to over 90,000 units twelve months later.

  6. Jul 30 ·  Bonus

    The Neuroscience of Self-Perception: Why You Misjudge Your Looks (ND3E5)

    You look in the mirror and see something the rest of the room does not. That gap is rarely modesty and rarely simple low self-esteem. It is your brain building a self-model from the worst data it has access to, then calibrating that model against a reference group that may not be real. Head to brainwiseenterprises.com to get certified, take your Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching. Phil and Cole walk you through: Tobias Greitemeyer's six-study research showing that attractive people underestimate their own attractivenessThe reference group problem, and how the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex quietly reset your baseline for "ordinary"Thornton and Moore's physical attractiveness contrast effectZell and Balcetis's face-morphing studies, where upward social comparison changes what you visually perceive as your own faceThe structural information problem: why mirrors, photographs, and memory all hand you worse data than a stranger gets across two hours of dinnerWhy you prefer your mirror image while your friends prefer your photographBody dysmorphic disorder, holistic versus detail visual processing, and Jamie Feusner's neuroimaging programThe frontostriatal and orbitofrontal-caudate loops that BDD shares with OCDWhy the Protection driver in your PTP fires on appearance threat, and what that costs youWhy telling someone they are beautiful does not work, and what actually shifts the calibrationContent note: this episode covers body image and appearance-related distress. Rate, review, and follow @mybrainwisecoach wherever you listen. Your review helps another BrainWise friend find the show. 00:00 The Ex-Miss Hawaii Dinner Story 01:45 Welcome And Episode Roadmap 02:38 Setting The Register Up Front 02:59 Attractive People Underestimate Their Attractiveness 04:11 Why This Reverses Above-Average Effect 05:00 The Reference Group Problem 06:29 Contrast Effects And Face Morphing 08:08 The Structural Information Problem 09:44 Mirror Images Versus Photographs 10:26 Body Dysmorphic Disorder Explained 12:07 Feusner Holistic Versus Detail Processing 14:26 Object Processing And OCD Overlap 15:53 Confidence Costs Of Inaccurate Self-Models 17:54 What Actually Helps Instead 19:01 Closing Synthesis And Takeaways

  7. Jul 26

    Why Reading Is the Most Underrated Cognitive Enhancer (S3E5)

    You hear about every cognitive enhancer on the market. Sleep protocols, cold plunges, nootropics, red light therapy. Psycholinguist Falk Huettig argues the most powerful one is free, ancient, and already sitting on your shelf. Reading changes what your brain can do, including in domains that have nothing to do with language. Learn more at brainwiseenterprises.com, where you can get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching. You will hear: Why the postulated cortical invasion hypothesis predicts reading should damage your face recognition, and why the data shows the oppositeHow Huettig's team runs a natural experiment in India, comparing literate and illiterate adults from the same communitiesThe neuronal recycling theory, and what fine-grained visual discrimination training does to the rest of your visual systemWhy reading proficiency sits on a lifelong continuum instead of a switch you flip in childhoodWhat PISA assessments show about how few readers reach the highest levels of critical readingThe real reason paper beats screens, and why self-regulation matters more than backlit displaysWhere audiobooks help you, and where they stop shortWhy simplifying text with AI readability tools strips out the friction that builds your brainHuettig's vinyl record warning about deep reading fading from everyday life Pick up the harder sentence today. If this episode changes how you think about your own reading, rate, review, and follow the show. Find us everywhere @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 Reading As A Cognitive Enhancer 02:15 Welcome And Episode Roadmap 03:15 Neuronal Recycling And Cortical Invasion 05:20 The India Literacy Natural Experiment 06:45 Reading Sharpens Visual Discrimination 08:10 Reading Proficiency As Lifelong Continuum 09:10 PISA And Critical Reading Levels 10:00 Print Versus Screen Comprehension Gap 12:00 Audiobooks Versus Reading Actual Text 13:20 Why Simplifying Text Backfires 15:35 Will Deep Reading Go Vinyl 17:20 The Single Most Important Takeaway 18:50 Close And Reading Challenge

  8. Jul 23 ·  Bonus

    6 Discoveries That Changed How We See the Brain (ND3E4)

    Your brain kept a secret from science for a century. This week closes the anniversary series with six discoveries that did not exist on the map in 2015, from new neurons in the adult brain to a hippocampus that keeps learning while you are fully unconscious. Each one reshapes how you think about focus, recovery, connection, and the way real change actually happens. You hear how the research now stands, and what it means for the way you work and develop: Adult neurogenesis and the lifestyle factors that grow or suppress new neuronsHow chronic cortisol reshapes the prefrontal cortex, plus Eleanor Maguire's London taxi driver studyThe gut-brain axis, the enteric nervous system, and the microbiome as your second brainNaomi Eisenberger and John Cacioppo on social isolation as physical painKatlowitz, Sheth, and the Baylor team on a hippocampus that learns under anesthesiaInteroception and intuition through the work of Anil Seth, Sarah Garfinkel, and Hugo CritchleyWhy psilocybin research stays a watching brief rather than a confirmed finding If this show helps you think differently about how your brain actually works, take a moment to rate, review, and follow the series wherever you listen, then come find us and join the conversation at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 Six Neuroscience Discoveries Since 2015 02:15 New Neurons Throughout Adult Life 05:30 How Stress Reshapes Brain Structure 07:55 Gut-Brain Axis And The Second Brain 10:20 Social Isolation And Physical Pain Circuits 13:00 Hippocampus Learns Under General Anesthesia 16:10 Interoception And The Science Of Intuition 19:40 Psilocybin And Treatment-Resistant Depression 22:20 What A Decade Of Neuroscience Revealed 24:20 Closing Reflections And Listener Thanks

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About

Welcome to My BrainWise Coach — a podcast exploring the intersection of neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology to help you live and lead better lives. Hosted by Cole Bastian and Phil Dixon, each episode connects brain science to everyday life, leadership, and relationships. You’ll gain practical insights into emotional intelligence, habits, trust, change, growth, and many other topics — all grounded in research and real human experience. 🧠 Stay curious. Stay compassionate. Stay BrainWise.

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  • Creator
    My BrainWise Coach
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    103
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © My BrainWise Coach
  • Show Website
    My BrainWise Coach