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. 4h ago

    Six Things We Got Wrong About Your Brain, One Year In (S3E4)

    Six things you were told about your brain that turn out to be incomplete. One year into My BrainWise Coach, Phil Dixon and Cole Bastian revisit the claims they made with confidence and look honestly at where the science has moved. Being corrected is not a setback. It makes the picture more interesting, and it changes how you work. You hear: Why Karl Friston's predictive processing framework replaces the computer model of the brain, and why you cannot think your way out of a patternA 2025 Nature Communications paper from Mousley and colleagues mapping five phases of brain development with transitions at nine, 32, 66, and 83Why the shift at 32 is a reorganization rather than a peak followed by decline, and why your forties are your most contextually capable yearsHow the default mode network handles memory consolidation, future simulation, and insight, and why high performers switch between networks more cleanlyThe precise version of the multitasking claim, and how skill automatization frees executive capacity for what mattersMaiken Nedergaard's discovery of the glymphatic system, the brain's waste clearance mechanism that runs far more actively during sleepWhere Iain McGilchrist's work on hemispheric attention holds up, where A.C. Grayling's critique lands, and how to use the distinction with humility If this show changes how you think about your own brain, rate and review it wherever you listen. Follow @mybrainwisecoach on every platform for part two, six discoveries that were not even on the map. 00:00 A Year Of Being Wrong 00:01 The Question That Started This 00:02 Six Revisions, Six Discoveries 00:03 Predictive Processing Replaces The Computer Model 00:05 Five Phases Of Brain Development 00:08 Default Mode Network And Insight 00:10 What Multitasking Research Actually Says 00:12 The Glymphatic System And Sleep 00:14 Where The Glymphatic Model Is Debated 00:15 McGilchrist And Hemispheric Attention 00:17 Where The Grand Thesis Breaks Down 00:19 The Thread Connecting All Six 00:20 White Paper And Close

  2. 3d ago ·  Bonus

    Instant Gratification and Your Brain: Why Now Beats Later (ND3E3)

    You tell yourself you will save half the chocolate bar for tomorrow. You already know how that usually ends. This episode breaks down what actually happens in your brain the moment now competes with later, and why the pull of now runs so much stronger than it has any right to. Here is what you get into: The two-system brain model from McClure, Laibson, Loewenstein, and Cohen (2004), and why an available-now reward lights up your limbic system while your prefrontal cortex quietly does the mathGeorge Ainslie's hyperbolic discounting, and why the self-control strategies that work are really distance management, not willpower contestsWhat Walter Mischel's marshmallow test actually measured, and how Watts, Duncan, and Quan's 2018 replication shrank the myth once family background entered the pictureThe WEIRD sample problem from Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan, and why most foundational decision research studied a narrow slice of humanityCross-cultural time preferences from Wang, Rieger, and Hens across 53 countries, plus Keith Chen's contested work linking language to savingHow your mood shifts your discount curve, and what that means for your Personal Threat Profile and everyday coachingThe TRICC Project, a live global study from Dr. Kristof Keidel and Prof. Ulrich Ettinger at the University of Bonn that you can still take part in If this helps you see your own choices more clearly, rate and review the show, then follow @mybrainwisecoach across your platforms. 00:00 Why Now Beats Later 02:00 Welcome To Neuroscience Digest 03:00 Two Brain Systems For Reward 06:00 Why Immediate Reward Won Out* 08:00 Hyperbolic Discounting And Proximity 09:00 Self Control As Distance Management 10:00 The Marshmallow Test Reconsidered* 13:00 Revisiting The Marshmallow Replication 15:00 The WEIRD Sample Problem 17:00 Culture And Time Preferences* 18:00 Universal Hardware, Local Calibration 19:00 Mood, State, And The Discount Curve* 20:00 Inside The TRICC Project 22:00 How To Join The Study* 23:00 The Practical Field Guide 24:00 Save Half The Chocolate Bar*

  3. Jul 12

    Why We Comfort Others: The Neuroscience of Empathy (S3E3)

    Someone you love is upset, and your first instinct is to make them feel better fast. A new study across seventeen countries finds that instinct is not human nature. It is a cultural habit, strong in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and largely absent in South Korea, Japan, India, and China. You walk through the finding, then bring in the neuroscience of empathy to explain why the line falls where you stop managing your own feelings and start managing someone else's. You will hear: A cross-cultural study in PNAS on interpersonal emotion regulation, surveying roughly 6,900 people across 17 countries and tracking real couples in Germany and South KoreaWhy managing your own emotions looks nearly identical everywhere, while helping someone else splits sharply along cultural linesWhy some cultures treat negative emotion as a malfunction to fix and others treat it as functional and worth sitting withAffective empathy versus cognitive empathy, and the brain regions behind each, including the insula, anterior cingulate, temporoparietal junction, and medial prefrontal cortexWhat autism and psychopathy research reveals about two separable empathy systemsA field guide for coaches and leaders, and the Personal Threat Profile participation driverCare is not one universal script. The most skilled version asks what actually fits the person in front of you. If this helps you think differently about how your brain works, rate and review us five stars wherever you listen, then follow and share at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 The Instinct To Comfort Others 02:00 Welcome And The Central Claim 03:00 Your Emotions Versus Someone Else's 05:00 The Individualist Collectivist Split 06:00 When Sadness Has A Purpose 08:00 Couples Data From Germany And Korea 10:00 When Good-Faith Care Misses 11:00 Two Kinds Of Empathy 13:00 Autism, Psychopathy, And Split Empathy 14:00 What Culture Actually Installs 15:00 Brain Imaging Of Regulating Others 17:00 How Culture Shapes The Self 19:00 A Field Guide For Coaches 20:00 Ask A Better Question 21:00 The PTP Participation Connection 22:00 The Empathy Line, Self And Other 23:00 References And Close

    Why We Comfort Others: The Neuroscience of Empathy (S3E3)

  4. Jul 9 ·  Bonus

    How Screen Time Shapes Your Child's Brain (Age 1 and 6) (ND3E2)

    Your child's brain builds its most important circuits during two specific windows, age one and age six. What happens in those windows shapes learning and memory for the next decade, and it matters far more than any screen time headline suggests. You learn what the developing brain builds and what it needs from you. You will learn: The GUSTO birth cohort study from Inserm and the National University of Singapore (World Journal of Pediatrics, 2026), which followed 502 children and found a U-shaped risk pattern across age one and age sixWhy the effect sizes at age one are the largest measured, and how early infancy works as a window of heightened sensitivityJohn Hutton's brain imaging research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital (JAMA Pediatrics, 2019), using diffusion tensor imaging to link screen use with white matter developmentServe and return interaction, and why reciprocal human contact wires language, attention, working memory, and executive functionWHO and American Academy of Pediatrics screen guidelines and the developmental biology behind themThe 2025 Academic Pediatrics study connecting high preschool screen time to weaker inhibitory control and cognitive flexibilityThe Personal Threat Profile (PTP) link between children's executive function and adult performance under pressureThe takeaway frees rather than alarms: your child's brain is not waiting for content, it is waiting for connection. If this helps you think differently about how your brain works, rate, review, and follow the show, then share it with a parent who needs it. Find us everywhere at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 What A One-Year-Old Brain Needs 02:00 Neuroscience Digest Episode Introduction 03:00 The GUSTO Screen Time Study 04:00 The Surprising U-Shaped Pattern 05:00 Why Ages Two And Three Differ 07:00 Population Risk Versus Individual Risk 08:00 What The Infant Brain Builds 09:00 Serve And Return Interaction Explained 11:00 Hutton Brain Imaging White Matter Study 12:00 WHO And AAP Screen Guidelines 13:00 The School-Entry Window Reemergence 14:00 Prefrontal Cortex And Executive Function 15:00 Academic Pediatrics Preschooler Study 16:00 Working Memory Explained For Parents 18:00 Screen Quality And Parental Co-Viewing 20:00 Executive Function And Adult PTP 22:00 Practical Reassurance For Parents 24:00 Three Takeaways For Parents Educators 26:00 The Brain Waits For Connection 27:00 Closing Reflection And Sign-Off

    How Screen Time Shapes Your Child's Brain (Age 1 and 6) (ND3E2)

  5. Jul 5

    The Science of Why Your Heart Syncs With People You Love (S3E2)

    Sit beside someone you trust and your hearts begin to keep time with each other. That alignment is not a metaphor or a mood. It is a measurable signal of real social connection, and it can vanish the moment a room gets too loud. This episode walks through the new science of physiological synchrony and what it reveals about how your body registers the people around you. You learn: Hanlu He's 2026 PNAS Nexus study, which tracked heart rate synchrony across 72 students on three trips to New York CityHow physical proximity, joint attention, and prior social familiarity strengthen synchronyWhy excessive noise and open-plan offices break the conditions genuine connection needsHeart rate alignment in couples, including the hidden cost of synchrony during conflictRuth Feldman's research on parent and infant cardiac attunementMusician and audience synchrony, and why live performance feels irreplaceableThe mechanisms behind it: vagal tone, Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and oxytocinThe McClintock effect and an honest look at the weak evidence for menstrual synchronyHow all of this maps onto the Personal Threat Profile and its participation and protection driversPresence is not a metaphor. The people you give real attention to, in spaces quiet enough to allow it, you are physically tuning toward. If this episode changes how you think about connection, leave a five-star rating and review, and follow @mybrainwisecoach across your platforms. 00:00 Hearts That Beat Together 02:20 Welcome And Episode Roadmap 03:15 Established Science Versus Open Questions 04:00 Taking The Research Into Manhattan 05:00 The Wearable Sensor Setup 05:50 Consistent Results Across Three Trips 06:30 Proximity, Attention, And Familiarity 07:45 How Noise Disrupts Connection 08:40 A Biological Fingerprint For Engagement 09:50 Heart Rate Synchrony In Couples 10:45 When Conflict Synchrony Harms Health 12:00 Parent And Infant Cardiac Attunement 13:00 Musicians And Audiences In Sync 13:50 Why Live Performance Is Irreplaceable 14:30 Teachers, Coaches, And Therapists 15:10 Shared Environment As First Mechanism 16:45 The Vagus Nerve And Vagal Tone 17:50 Breathing And Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia 19:00 Oxytocin And Physiological Tuning 20:40 The McClintock Effect And Its Origins 22:30 Why The Idea Spread Widely 23:30 The Failed Replication Attempts 24:30 Statistical Artifact And Missing Mechanism 26:10 Compelling Versus Well-Supported Science 27:40 Connection Lives In The Body 28:20 The Open Office Problem 29:10 Linking Synchrony To The PTP 30:00 The Protection Driver And Conflict 30:50 Your Heart Knows Who You're With 31:50 The Primary Paper And Close

    The Science of Why Your Heart Syncs With People You Love (S3E2)

  6. Jul 2 ·  Bonus

    How Your Brain Processes Language Under Anesthesia (ND3E1)

    You go to sleep stuck on a problem and wake up with the answer. The solution surfaces in the shower, on a walk, three days after you stopped trying. A new Nature study finally reveals the machinery behind those moments, and it should change how you treat the quiet gaps in your day. Cole Bastian and Phil Dixon break down research from Baylor College of Medicine showing your hippocampus stays at work while you are fully unconscious under general anesthesia. It detects patterns, processes the meaning of language, and predicts what comes next, all without conscious direction. This episode covers: The Katlowitz and Sheth Nature study on the anaesthetized hippocampusHow the brain detects oddball tones and keeps learning while unconsciousSemantic processing and word prediction without awarenessWhat patients may still hear during surgeryThe default mode network and the science of shower momentsWhy unstructured time protects insightDesigning the space between coaching sessionsHow your Personal Threat Profile shapes background processingYou walk away with three moves you can use today: create space for insight to surface, trust the delay when answers refuse to come, and capture them fast before they dissolve back into the background. If this helps you think differently about how your brain works, leave a five-star rating, write a review, and follow the show at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 Waking Up With The Answer 01:00 The New Nature Study 02:00 Predicting And Learning While Unconscious 03:00 The Assumption Being Challenged 04:00 The Old Hierarchy Of Consciousness 05:00 Clues From Sleep And Insight Research 06:00 Why The Hippocampus Is Surprising 07:00 Inside The Baylor Anesthesia Study 08:00 Detecting Oddball Tones And Learning 09:00 Processing The Meaning Of Language 10:00 The Prediction Engine Keeps Running 11:00 What Patients Hear During Surgery 12:00 The Science Of Shower Moments 13:00 The Default Mode Network 14:00 Why Unstructured Time Matters 15:00 Designing The Space Between Sessions 16:00 The Three-Day Reflection Window 17:00 Prediction Driver And Background Processing 18:00 Participation Driver And Relational Replay 19:00 Three Practical Takeaways To Apply 20:00 Your Brain Is Larger Than You 21:00 The References And Close

    How Your Brain Processes Language Under Anesthesia (ND3E1)

  7. Jun 28

    The Neuroscience of Courage: Why Bravery Doesn't Transfer (S3E1)

    You know someone who jumps out of planes but cannot give a colleague honest feedback. You know someone who races cars at the limit but never says how they actually feel. Courage is not one trait. It is domain specific, and the bravery you show in one part of your life does not automatically transfer to the parts that matter most. The three-part research definition of courage from Christopher Rate and Robert Sternberg (2007)Cynthia Pury's two decades of courage research at Clemson University and the idea of process courageUri Nili's Weizmann Institute snake study and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex that overrides fearHow Milad and Quirk's fear extinction work shows the prefrontal to amygdala circuit physically remodels with practiceThe five domains of courage: physical, social, moral, emotional, and intellectualWhy chronic stress and elevated cortisol quietly weaken your courage circuitThe Personal Threat Profile and how your sensitive drivers predict your courage gapsSteven Maier's learned controllability research and why courage builds one small act at a timeWhy the corporate trust fall never delivered the courage it promisedIf this episode helps you see your own courage differently, rate and review the show wherever you listen, then follow @mybrainwisecoach across your platforms. 00:00 Why Brave People Aren't Brave Everywhere 03:00 The Research Definition of Courage 06:00 Aristotle and the Types of Courage 08:00 The Brain's Courage Override Circuit 10:00 How Practice Rewires the Courage Circuit 11:00 How Chronic Stress Weakens Courage 12:00 Why Courage Is Domain Specific 13:00 Physical Courage and Its Limits 15:00 Social Courage and Fear of Judgment 17:00 Moral Courage and Personal Cost 20:00 Emotional Courage and Vulnerability 23:00 Intellectual Courage and Changing Your Mind 25:00 Why Courage Doesn't Transfer 27:00 Why the Corporate Trust Fall Fails 30:00 How to Build Courage Safely 33:00 Map Your Personal Courage Profile 38:00 What Leaders Should Do Differently 40:00 Building Courage One Step at a Time 42:00 The Courage Nobody Gives Medals For

    The Neuroscience of Courage: Why Bravery Doesn't Transfer (S3E1)

  8. Jun 25 ·  Bonus

    The Neuroscience of Attitude: How Mindset Reshapes Your Body (ND2E26)

    Drink a milkshake you believe is rich and indulgent, and your body produces a stronger fullness signal than if you drink the identical shake believing it is light and sensible. Your attitude is not a mood or a motivational slogan. It is a stored evaluation your brain runs as a prior, and it shapes your hormones, your thinking, and your ability to recover from setbacks. This episode breaks down what attitude actually is inside the brain, and how to work with it instead of against it. You will learn: The difference between explicit and implicit attitudes, and where the brain stores each oneThe Implicit Association Test and the implicit social cognition research of Greenwald and BanajiCarol Dweck's fixed and growth mindset researchJason Moser's EEG study on how mindset changes the brain's response to mistakesAlia Crum's milkshake study on mindset and the hunger hormone ghrelinThe Crum, Salovey, and Achor stress mindset study on cortisol and performancePlacebo and nocebo effects and the brain's opioid systemJob, Dweck, and Walton's research on willpower beliefs and ego depletionHow the Personal Threat Profile maps your implicit attitudesA three-part field guide for managing your own and other people's attitudesYour attitude toward stress, failure, and effort is a neurologically active input, and you have more say over it than you think. Rate and review the show wherever you listen, and follow @mybrainwisecoach across every platform. 00:00 The Milkshake Mindset Experiment 02:00 Welcome And Episode Introduction 03:00 Defining Attitude In Neuroscience 03:40 Explicit Versus Implicit Attitudes 04:30 The Implicit Association Test 06:00 Attitudes And Your Threat Profile 07:00 Carol Dweck's Mindset Research 08:00 How Mindset Shapes Error Response 09:30 Mindset Is Learnable And Changeable 11:00 The Milkshake And Ghrelin Study 12:00 How The Predictive Brain Works 13:30 The Stress Mindset Research 15:00 Willpower Beliefs And Ego Depletion 16:00 Placebo And Nocebo Effects 18:00 How Leaders Shape Attitudes 19:00 A Practical Field Guide 21:00 Sources And Study Citations 22:00 Closing Thoughts And Sign Off

    The Neuroscience of Attitude: How Mindset Reshapes Your Body (ND2E26)
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

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.

Information

  • Creator
    My BrainWise Coach
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    95
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © My BrainWise Coach
  • Show Website
    My BrainWise Coach

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