btrmt. lectures

Dorian Minors
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A brain scientist talking about (better) patterns of thought, of feeling, and of action. One pattern, one podcast—you see if it works for you. The btrmt. lectures, with Dr Dorian Minors. (btrmt.—said "betterment.")

  1. 3d ago

    The Value of Ritual

    “Ritual” is the word we keep for other people’s habits—the crystals, the pagans, the woo. Strip it back and your own life is wall-to-wall with them. The only difference is which ones you’ve decided to approve of. Show notes Further reading The value of ritual (the article this grew from) Mundane Cults Sages and Wisdom The Scientific Ritual Everything is ideology Meaning and its patterns in the brain (the predictive-processing piece) The Forer effect Meditation Isn’t For Everyone The false promise of a return to nature (the Dunbar’s-number piece) Abstractions as gods Mob mentality is fine (good and evil from the same group dynamics) Why your unconscious isn’t the bad guy References Xygalatas, D. et al. (2011). “Quantifying collective effervescence: heart-rate dynamics at a fire-walking ritual.” Communicative & Integrative Biology. https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.17609 Xygalatas, D. (2022). Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. Profile Books. Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E., & Dunbar, R. (2015). “Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding.” Biology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0767 Watson-Jones, R. E., & Legare, C. H. (2016). “The social functions of group rituals.” Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415618486 Hong, Z. (2025). “When Rituals Fail: Rationalization, Bayesianism, and Predictive Processing.” Evolutionary Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70020 Hobson, N. M., & Inzlicht, M. (2016). Commentary on the dark side of ritual and self-control. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x15000448 The retracted “rituals improve performance” study referenced in the episode: Brooks, A. W. et al. (2016, retracted). “Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety.” OBHDP. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.07.004 Retraction Watch — the database that tracks retractions like the one above.

  2. Jul 11

    The Neuroscience Con

    The most-listened-to neuroscience on the planet is a magic trick. Attach a brain part to any bit of ordinary advice and it starts to feel like science. Here’s how the trick works—and how to run it in reverse, so you never fall for it again. Further reading The Neuroscience Con — the article behind this lectureNeurotransmitters and behaviour — the purest form of the trickAddictive work — where neurotransmitter talk actually earns its keepNot brain regions, brain networks — why single-region reasoning (the RAS, the cortex) misleadsBrain structures and behaviour — a third of your brain is always onThe value of brain waves — the same pop-neuro fluff in miniatureThe origin of insight — insight comes when you’re not immersedProblems with p-values — the replication crisis, in his own wordsStress is good (lecture) — flow as optimum stressHow to be lucky — manifestation as manufactured luckThe trouble with Positive Intelligence — the con with a spine, infiltrating consultingObscuring Banalities — why we dress simple ideas up as clever onesThe amygdala is not the fear centre (lecture)The scientific ritual (lecture)Sages and wisdom (lecture)Education is entertainment (Malcolm Gladwell shit)References Dr Tara Swart — the Instagram source slides: a neuroscientist’s guide to manifestation (the prefrontal-cortex, neuroplasticity and flow slides) and resistance to change (the RAS slide), both @drtaraswartDr Tara Swart, guest on The Diary of a CEOM. Csikszentmihalyi (1975), Beyond Boredom and Anxiety — the “sense of control” quote on flowA. Dietrich (2003), transient hypofrontality hypothesis of flowHabituation — the filtering the RAS slide gestures atThe replication crisis“The Rise of Decorative Neuroscience” — Skeptic (independent corroboration of the “cosmetic filler” thesis)Sherman, Lokhande, Müller & Cohen (2021), “Self-Affirmation Interventions,” in Handbook of Wise Interventions — affirmations are “powerful yet conditional”: they work when well-timed and specificWood, Perunovic & Lee (2009), “Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others,” Psychological Science — affirmations can backfire for people with low self-esteem

  3. Jun 27

    Successful Prophets

    Go and watch a tape of a so-called charismatic cult leader and the charisma everyone swears is there simply isn’t on it—just an odd bloke with a staring problem. So where does it come from? Not the leader. The followers confer it, and the leader is only ever an emblem they gather around. Which is why the cult runs itself when he’s a continent away, and why Musk stayed an icon no matter how many promises he broke. Show notes Further reading Successful prophets — the article this lecture grew from You Can Catch Madness — the previous lecture, on shared madness Mundane cults The charismatic leader (Weber) Cult charisma as social recognition, not a leader trait Charisma as representation Education is entertainment — the Musk write-up Social identity theory When culture trumps evidence Everything is ideology The loneliness epidemic References Marshall Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate — the 1997 video and contemporary coverage Teal Swan — a recent video and the Gateway podcast coverage Joe Navarro, “Dangerous Cult Leaders” (Psychology Today, 2012) Robert Hare, the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) Eileen Barker, The Making of a Moonie Meindl, Ehrlich & Dukerich, “The Romance of Leadership” Haslam, Reicher & Platow, The New Psychology of Leadership Max Weber, on charismatic authority Xavier Marquez, on charisma as representation Festinger, Riecken & Schachter, When Prophecy Fails (and a critique of the study) Janja Lalich, Bounded Choice — self-sealing systems Eastern Lightning

  4. Jun 13

    You Can Catch Madness

    Two ordinary people suddenly go insane together. It’s a premise we enjoy from a safe distance—because surely it could never be us. I’m not so sure. Shared madness isn’t rare, it isn’t aberrant, and it sits a lot closer to ordinary love than we’d like to think. Strip away the spectacle and what’s left is the most common thing in the world: two lonely people who found a home in each other. Show notes Further reading Folie à deux: the madness of two — the article that inspired this lecture. Four models of psychopathology — how we decide what counts as “abnormal”, and why a benign shared delusion slips past all of it. The loneliness epidemic and Explaining group dynamics — why social isolation is so dangerous for us. It’s Not Social Media, Life Is Just Worse — a companion lecture on modern isolation. Successful Prophets — the same connection mechanism scaled from the pair to the group. References Ursula and Sabina Eriksson (the Swedish sisters). Folie à deux; Jules Baillarger, Charles Lasègue and Jean-Pierre Falret. Shared psychotic disorder (the undiagnosis quote), and the intimacy-in-isolation qualification. The Japanese family case (shared delusional hallucination); delusional parasitosis; shared pseudocyesis. The Tromp family (BBC, Mamamia). Theranos: Elizabeth Holmes, Sunny Balwani, and Bad Blood. Group polarisation and risky shift. Gang-stalking, Morgellons, and mass psychogenic illness.

  5. May 30

    Meditation isn't for everyone

    Meditation is the one practice everyone agrees on. It’s on the NHS, in schools, in every influencer’s guide to life, and the pitch is always the same: good for you, good for everyone, can’t hurt. Two of those three are false. It can hurt, it isn’t for everyone—and once you see what it actually is underneath the cushion, you realise you’re probably already doing it. Further reading Meditating for fun and for profit — the article that inspired this lecture. The Scientific Ritual — the first lecture in this arc, on science as a belief system. In Praise of the Sage — the second, on why we trust doctors the way we trust gurus. Positive Intelligence — one of the wellbeing-program takedowns mentioned up top. It’s not ‘just’ a placebo — on why “all in the head” is the point, not the problem. Not brain regions, brain networks — where the harms of mindfulness for some populations come up again. Overengineering calming down — the companion takedown of the calm-down-advice genre. Spirituality of Mind — more on the contemplative tradition meditation was lifted from. References Farias, M. & Wikholm, C. (2015). The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? Publisher page. Van Dam, N. T., Targett, J., Davies, J. N., Burger, A. & Galante, J. (2025). Incidence and predictors of meditation-related unusual experiences and adverse effects in a representative sample of meditators in the United States. Clinical Psychological Science. Article. Schlosser, M., Sparby, T., Vörös, S., Jones, R. & Marchant, N. L. (2019). Unpleasant meditation-related experiences in regular meditators: Prevalence, predictors, and conceptual considerations. PLOS ONE. Article. Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K. & Britton, W. B. (2017). The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE. Article. Farias, M., Maraldi, E., Wallenkampf, K. C. & Lucchetti, G. (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: A systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Article. Kabat-Zinn, J. (1982). An outpatient program in behavioral medicine for chronic pain patients based on the practice of mindfulness meditation. General Hospital Psychiatry. Article.

    Meditation isn't for everyone

  6. May 16

    In Praise of the Sage

    The modern Western story is that real knowledge comes from science or careful reasoning, and anything else—the elder, the guru, the village wise woman—is suspect. But science and reflection themselves rest on a third, intuitive, embodied mode of knowing that we use constantly and pretend we don’t. The doctor and the guru are running on the same authority structure; the only difference is who’s allowed to wear the coat. Which means we’re picking our sages by taste instead of principle—and that’s how charlatans win. Not sure what I’ve got against linen trousers in this episode. Quite like them if I’m honest. Further reading In praise of the sage The scientific ritual (lecture) Mundane cults (lecture) It’s not ‘just’ a placebo Useful pharmacology How some psychics use psychology to screw you (Forer) AI hallucination is just man-guessing Moral blindspots Successful prophets Everything is ideology The charismatic leader (Weber) References Aristotle, Metaphysics John Dewey, Experience and Nature Richard Dawkins, TED: Militant atheism Bertram Forer, The fallacy of personal validation Phenotypic drug discovery Yann Martel, Life of Pi

    In Praise of the Sage

  7. May 2

    The Scientific Ritual

    Science feels like the most reliable thing we have. The opposite of belief. But it’s a belief system itself—a ritual, with all the failure modes that rituals have. And the receipts are right there in the replication crisis. Further reading The Scientific Ritual — the article this lecture is based on Problems with p-values — the technical companion: Fisher, Neyman-Pearson, the hybrid mess The trap of scientific evidence — on the “no evidence” tension and the homeopathy/parachute paradox Everything is ideology — science as one belief system among several In praise of the sage — other ways of knowing; the MD/PhD distinction Scientific fact — on what science actually does The value of ritual — ritual as a knowledge-production strategy Meditation — on the dinner-table meditation example Beyond System 1 and System 2 — on Kahneman’s dual-process framework The placebo effect — on why “works for some, not for others” is a feature, not a bug Grit — positive-psychology critique Overengineering calming down (lecture) — the broader positive-psychology audit Bias is good (lecture) — the cognitive-bias series Life is worse (lecture) — the previous episode; a worked example of reading a literature References The replication crisis itself Open Science Collaboration (2015), Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science, Science 349 (6251) Wikipedia: replication crisis American Statistical Association: Wasserstein, Schirm & Lazar (2019), Moving to a World Beyond “p 3 substantial, BF > 10 strong) come from JASP — the open-source Bayesian statistics software with default priors Specific replication-crisis casualties Cuddy, Wilmuth & Carney (2010) original power posing paper; Carney’s later statement withdrawing support Hagger et al. (2016), A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect Bargh, Chen & Burrows (1996) original elderly priming paper; failed Doyen et al. (2012) replication Brown, Sokal & Friedman (2013), The Complex Dynamics of Wishful Thinking — demolishing the 3:1 positivity ratio Carol Dweck, growth mindset — replication concerns documented in Sisk et al. (2018) and Bahník & Vranka (2017) Angela Duckworth, grit — meta-analytic critique in Credé, Tynan & Harms (2017) Books cited in the lecture Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow Stephen J. Gould, Adam’s Navel and Other Essays Yann Martel, Life of Pi Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual Other Richard Dawkins on militant atheism (TED) — the “evidence vs. faith” framing Reform efforts: preregistration, open data, multi-lab replication consortia (e.g. ManyLabs)

    The Scientific Ritual

  8. Apr 17

    It’s Not Social Media, Life Is Just Worse

    Everyone’s worried about social media and mental health. Jonathan Haidt sold two million copies telling us smartphones rewired our children’s brains. Thirty-five US states passed phone restriction legislation off the back of it. But when you look at the research—really look—the evidence for social media causing mental health problems is shockingly thin. What isn’t thin is the evidence that life, structurally, is getting worse in a dozen measurable ways. Maybe we’re blaming the screen because the alternative is harder to fix. Further reading It’s Not Social Media, Life Is Just Worse—the article that inspired this lecture Amusing Ourselves to Death—on Neil Postman and the information overload problem Why Do People Kill Themselves—on what structural decline does to the most vulnerable Atavism Isn’t the Answer—the lecture on why “go back to the old ways” rarely works The Trap of Scientific Evidence—on the two forms of “no evidence” Why Being Sad Isn’t Always a Bad Thing—on situation–symptom congruence The Loneliness Epidemic Models of Psychopathology—on diagnostic quality and what counts as mental illness The Scientific Ritual—on the replication crisis and lazy application of the scientific method The True Meaning of Family Ties—on changing family structures and social fragmentation Creating a Digital Home—on digital selfhood and why we don’t treat our digital lives with care References Amy Orben’s research group, University of Cambridge Ferguson, C. J. et al. (2024). Social media use and youth mental health: A meta-analysis. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. doi:10.1037/pro0000589 Fassi, L., Orben, A. et al. (2024). Social media and adolescent mental health: A meta-analysis of 143 studies. JAMA Pediatrics. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.2078 Tolboll, K. B. (2026). Social media use and mental health in children and adolescents: An umbrella review. Child and Adolescent Mental Health. doi:10.1111/camh.70071 Fassi, L., Orben, A. et al. (2025). Digital technology use and adolescent mental health: A registered report. Nature Human Behaviour. doi:10.1038/s41562-025-02134-4 Broadbent, P. et al. (2023). The public health implications of the cost-of-living crisis. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. doi:10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100585 Arundel, R. et al. (2022). Housing unaffordability and mental health. International Journal of Housing Policy. doi:10.1080/19491247.2022.2106541 McGorry, P. D. et al. (2025). The youth mental health crisis: A paradigm shift. Frontiers in Psychiatry. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1517533 Kirkbride, J. B. et al. (2024). The social determinants of mental health and disorder. World Psychiatry. doi:10.1002/wps.21160 Plackett, R. et al. (2022). Digital technology and mental health of young people: A scoping review. JMIR Mental Health. doi:10.2196/43213 Garcia-Manglano, J. et al. (2024). Escapism, social media, and internalising symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi:10.1177/02654075241230248 Maheux, A. J. et al. (2024). Social media use and adolescent mental health: An annual research review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. doi:10.1111/jcpp.14085 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). Wikipedia Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation (2024). Wikipedia Stuart Ritchie, Science Fictions (2020). Publisher

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A brain scientist talking about (better) patterns of thought, of feeling, and of action. One pattern, one podcast—you see if it works for you. The btrmt. lectures, with Dr Dorian Minors. (btrmt.—said "betterment.")

Information

  • Creator
    Dorian Minors
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Dorian Minors
  • Show Website
    btrmt. lectures