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

    2d ago

    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

    44 min
  2. The Neuroscience of Attitude: How Mindset Reshapes Your Body (ND2E26)

    6d ago ·  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

    21 min
  3. Feynman's Restaurant Problem: The Neuroscience of Better Decisions (S2E26)

    Jun 21

    Feynman's Restaurant Problem: The Neuroscience of Better Decisions (S2E26)

    Every important decision hides the same question. Do you stick with what already works, or gamble on something new that might be better? A team of researchers just answered it with math, using a problem Richard Feynman scribbled on a napkin and left unsolved for nearly 50 years. Cole and Phil walk you through the answer and what it means for the choices you face right now. The explore-exploit problem and why both naive strategies, always settling and always searching, leave value on the tableFeynman's 1986 ice-water demonstration at the Rogers Commission and the structural thinking behind itThe decreasing-threshold solution: explore early, commit late, recalibrated to how many chances remainHow Brian Christian, Evan Russek, and Tom Griffiths deciphered Feynman's notes and proved his answer optimal (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2026)What 2,520 participants revealed in a pre-registered experiment about the strategies people actually useGerd Gigerenzer's fast and frugal heuristics and why your mental shortcuts come close to optimalRight-skewed and left-skewed environments and where your calibration quietly failsHow your personal threat profile, prediction sensitivity versus protection sensitivity, pushes you to commit too soon or search too longIf this changes how you weigh your next big decision, rate and review the show, then follow @mybrainwisecoach across your platforms. 00:00 The Feynman Ice Water Demonstration 02:00 What This Has To Do With Dinner 03:00 Welcome And Episode Roadmap 04:00 Feynman's Search For Structure 05:00 The Thai Restaurant Napkin Problem 06:00 The Paper That Cracked It 07:00 Defining The Explore Exploit Problem 08:00 Why Both Naive Strategies Fail 09:00 The Optimal Decreasing Threshold 10:00 How Your Environment Changes Everything 11:00 Testing 2,520 Real People 12:00 Linear Thresholds And Cognitive Shortcuts 13:00 Why Brain Shortcuts Usually Work 14:00 Where The Heuristic Breaks Down 15:00 Hiring, Careers, And Relationships 16:00 The Two Most Common Errors 17:00 Three Variables And The Challenger Lesson 18:00 Your Personal Threat Profile 20:00 The One Question To Ask 21:00 Less Irrational Than We Fear 22:00 Stay Curious, Stay Brainwise

    22 min
  4. What 87 Years of Harvard Research Reveals About Resilience (ND2E25)

    Jun 18 ·  Bonus

    What 87 Years of Harvard Research Reveals About Resilience (ND2E25)

    Why do some people come through loss, failure, and illness intact, sometimes even stronger, while others facing the same hardship never recover? Phil and Cole turn to the longest-running study of human life ever conducted to answer that question with evidence instead of opinion. Across 87 years and two very different groups of men, the same pattern keeps surfacing. You come away with a clear map of how people adapt under pressure, and why the deciding factor is something you can build at any age. The Harvard Study of Adult Development (the Grant Study) and the Glueck inner-city cohortPsychiatrist George Vaillant and his validated hierarchy of defense mechanismsThe four levels of defense: psychotic, immature, neurotic, and matureThe five mature defenses: humor, sublimation, anticipation, altruism, and suppressionWhy conscious suppression beats unconscious repression for long-term wellbeingRobert Waldinger's central finding that relationship quality predicts health, happiness, and longevityAnn Masten's "ordinary magic" and how resilience holds up across very different populationsThe BrainWise field guide: relationships, meaning, and self-awareness through your Personal Threat ProfileIf this episode helps you think differently about how your brain handles hard things, rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen. It takes thirty seconds and helps new listeners find the show. You can find us everywhere at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 Why Some People Endure Hardship 02:00 The Harvard Study Of Adult Development 06:00 Vaillant's Hierarchy Of Adaptive Defenses 08:00 The Five Mature Defense Mechanisms 10:00 Suppression Versus Repression Explained 11:00 Why Relationships Predict Long-Term Health 12:30 Honest Limitations Of The Study 14:00 Ann Masten And Resilience Research 15:30 How To Build Mature Adaptation 18:00 The Single Most Important Lesson 19:30 Recommended Resources And Closing

    21 min
  5. The Neuroscience of Accountability: Why Your Brain Defaults to Victim (S2E25)

    Jun 14

    The Neuroscience of Accountability: Why Your Brain Defaults to Victim (S2E25)

    Think back to the last time something went wrong for you. Your first instinct was probably to look outward, at what someone else did or at what the situation made unavoidable. That reflex is not a character flaw, it is what your brain is built to do under threat, and the neuroscience behind it changes how you hold yourself and everyone you lead accountable. Where the above the line and below the line model actually comes from: Julian Rotter's 1966 locus of control research, Karpman's drama triangle, Werner Erhard's est, and how The Oz Principle by Connors, Smith, and Hickman popularized it in 1994Martin Seligman and Steven Maier's learned helplessness research, and Maier's 2016 revision showing passivity is the brain's default while controllability is what you have to learnHow your Personal Threat Profile predicts which below the line behavior you fall into, from blame to denial to wait and hopeThe neuroscience of crossing the line, where prefrontal cortex control competes with the amygdala and the threat systemThe four above the line stages decoded: See It, Own It, Solve It, Do ItWhy psychological safety builds accountability far better than fear, with Amy Edmondson's research and Google's team findingsWhat actually moves people above the line, and the four things that keep them stuckIf this episode shifts how you think about accountability, follow the show and leave a five-star rating and review wherever you listen. Share your biggest takeaway with us at @mybrainwisecoach. 00:00 Why The Brain Looks Outward First 02:05 Welcome And What's Ahead 03:15 Where The Model Actually Came From 04:50 Rotter, Karpman, And Est Origins 08:45 Learned Helplessness And Seligman's Dogs 11:00 Maier's Revision To The Theory 12:50 The Immunization Effect Of Control 13:50 Threat Profiles And Below-Line Behavior 18:20 What The Line Is Neurologically 20:50 Psychological Safety And The Leader 23:40 The See It Stage Decoded 25:20 The Own It Stage Decoded 27:20 The Solve It Stage Decoded 29:20 The Do It Stage Decoded 30:50 What Moves People Above The Line 33:20 Four Things That Keep You Stuck 35:50 Building An Accountability Culture 40:20 The Most Important Takeaway 42:20 Field Guide And Further Reading 43:20 Closing Thoughts And Sign-Off

    44 min
  6. How Ambitious Should You Be? The Science of Optimal Ambition (ND2E24)

    Jun 11 ·  Bonus

    How Ambitious Should You Be? The Science of Optimal Ambition (ND2E24)

    You have heard both pieces of advice. Shoot for the moon. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They flatly contradict each other, and neither one tells you when to apply which. This episode walks through a 2025 mathematical model that settles the question of how ambitious you should actually be, and the answer takes real pressure off you. What you get in this episode: The sequential search model from Ekaterina Landgren, Ryan Langendorf, and Matthew Burgess, published in Physical Review EWhy your optimal satisfaction threshold sits above average but stays strictly finiteThe asymmetry finding: holding out for perfect costs you more than being slightly too easily satisfiedHow left-skewed and right-skewed environments flip the right level of ambition, with economic policy and entrepreneurship as the two casesBurgess on why you take entrepreneurial risks without needing to become the next billionaireThe upward social comparison trap, and how LinkedIn and Instagram feed you a distorted reward landscapeThe BrainWise link: chronic dissatisfaction runs as a threat state and drains the prefrontal capacity good decisions needA practical field guide for entrepreneurs, leaders, job seekers, and anyone navigating relationshipsIf this reframes how you set your goals, rate and review the show wherever you listen, then follow along at @mybrainwisecoach for more. 00:00 Two Contradictory Pieces Of Advice 02:00 Welcome And Today's Big Question 03:00 The Sequential Search Model Explained 05:00 Above Average But Strictly Finite 06:00 Why Perfectionism Costs You More 07:00 How Distribution Shape Changes Ambition 08:00 Right Skewed Environments And Entrepreneurs 10:00 Left Skewed Environments And Risk 12:00 The Upward Social Comparison Trap 13:00 How Social Media Distorts Ambition 14:00 Chronic Dissatisfaction As Threat State 15:00 Practical Field Guide Four Groups 19:00 Calibrate Ambition Don't Lower It 21:00 Closing Thoughts And Signoff

    21 min
  7. Willpower Neuroscience: Why Self-Control Fails and How to Fix It (S2E24)

    Jun 7

    Willpower Neuroscience: Why Self-Control Fails and How to Fix It (S2E24)

    Your willpower does not vanish at four o'clock because you are weak. It runs down because it is a biological function with real limits, and most of what you were taught about self-control is quietly making the problem worse. Learn what willpower actually is, why guilt backfires, and the eight things that genuinely work. You will learn: How Kelly McGonigal defines willpower and her three powers: I will, I won't, and I wantWhy the prefrontal cortex and limbic system compete, and how heart rate variability tracks your self-control capacityRoy Baumeister's willpower-as-a-muscle model, the radish experiment, and the 2016 ego depletion replication crisis led by Martin Hagger across 23 labsWhy the glucose hypothesis collapsed, and how motivation rather than fuel explains depletionVeronica Job and Carol Dweck's finding that your beliefs about willpower shape whether it runs outHow Robert Sapolsky's work on cortisol links chronic stress to a weaker prefrontal cortexWhy guilt and the what-the-heck effect make self-control worse, not betterThe dopamine science of wanting versus liking, plus Daniel Wegner's white bear problemEight strategies that work, including Peter Gollwitzer's implementation intentions, Kristin Neff's self-compassion research, urge surfing, and James Clear's identity-based habitsHow your Personal Threat Profile reveals where your willpower fails firstIf this reframes how you approach self-control, leave a five-star rating and review wherever you listen, then follow @mybrainwisecoach for the next episode. 00:00 The Four O'Clock Cookie Problem 02:00 Welcome And Today's Willpower Topic 03:00 Defining Willpower Neurologically 04:00 Prefrontal Cortex Versus Limbic System 05:00 The Three Powers Of Willpower 07:00 The Physiology Of Self-Control 08:00 Baumeister's Willpower Muscle Model 09:00 The Famous Radish Experiment 10:00 The Ego Depletion Replication Crisis 12:00 The Motivation Account Of Depletion 13:00 Your Beliefs Shape Your Willpower 15:00 How Chronic Stress Damages Willpower 16:00 Why Guilt Makes Self-Control Worse 18:00 The What-The-Heck Effect Explained 19:00 Anticipatory Stress And Future Threats 20:00 The Neuroscience Of Temptation 22:00 Wanting Versus Liking Dopamine 25:00 The White Bear Suppression Problem 27:00 Eight Evidence-Based Willpower Strategies 28:00 Exercise The Willpower Wonder Drug 29:00 Designing Your Environment For Success 30:00 Implementation Intentions And Pre-Planning 31:00 The Pause And Plan Response 32:00 Connecting To Your Identity 33:00 Self-Compassion After You Fail 34:00 Urge Surfing The Craving Wave 35:00 Your Personal Threat Profile 38:00 What This Means For Leaders 39:00 Willpower Is Biology Not Virtue 41:00 The Cookie Is A Symptom

    42 min
  8. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Neuroscience of Worry (ND2E23)

    Jun 4 ·  Bonus

    Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Neuroscience of Worry (ND2E23)

    The thing you are dreading has not happened yet, and it may never happen, but your body is already responding as if a lion is in the room. Your brain runs a survival program built for short, physical emergencies, and it cannot tell the difference between a real predator and an imagined one. This episode explains what that constant false alarm costs your body, and how you take back control. You will learn: Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers and what the acute stress response was actually designed to doHow cortisol, the adrenal glands, and the HPA axis mobilize you for a three-minute crisisWhy chronic activation damages the hippocampus, the immune system, and the cardiovascular systemAnticipatory stress at work, and why uncertainty does more harm than the bad news itselfHow leaders cut team stress by communicating early and handing people genuine controlAnticipatory stress in parenting, and why the parental brain never declares the child safe and stands downProductive versus unproductive worry, scheduled worry, and discharging cortisol through vigorous exerciseThe worry is not a defect. It is your prefrontal cortex doing exactly what evolution built it to do. The skill is noticing when the lion response fires at something that is not a lion, and redirecting it before it runs for months. If this reframes how you handle worry, leave a five-star rating and review wherever you listen, then follow @mybrainwisecoach across your platforms for more applied neuroscience. 00:00 The Worry That Hasn't Happened 02:00 Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers 04:00 A Short-Term Emergency System 05:00 When Humans Imagine the Threat 06:00 How Chronic Stress Harms the Body 07:00 Cortisol and the HPA Axis 08:00 Chronic Stress and the Hippocampus 10:00 Anticipatory Stress at Work 11:00 Uncertainty Is the Real Driver 12:00 How Leaders Communicate Through Uncertainty 13:00 Control as the Antidote 14:00 Anticipatory Stress in Parenting 17:00 Productive Versus Unproductive Worry 18:00 Scheduled Worry and Worry Postponement 19:00 Discharge Stress Through Exercise 20:00 Put Your Oxygen Mask On First 21:00 You're Not Broken, You're Human 22:00 Further Reading and Final Takeaways

    23 min
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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.

Information

  • Creator
    My BrainWise Coach
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © My BrainWise Coach
  • Show Website
    My BrainWise Coach