The question of whether mental disorders are disorders of the brain has led to a long-running and controversial dispute within psychiatry, psychology and philosophy of mind and psychology. While recent work in neuroscience frequently tries to identify underlying brain dysfunction in mental disorders, detractors argue that labelling mental disorders as brain ... Show More
Yesterday
Joanna Bourke, "Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker" (Reaktion, 2026)
Why do certain women become icons of evil? Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion, 2026) by Professor Joanna Bourke offers the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, ... Show More
1h 1m
Feb 25
Mari Ruti and Gail N. Newman, "The Creative Self: Beyond Individualism" (Columbia UP, 2025)
In their book The Creative Self: Beyond Individualism (Columbia UP, 2025) Mari Ruti and Gail N. Newman offer our beleaguered souls a breather. Together they tackle the question of what makes life worth living, and before you recoil at the sound of that question, which intentiona ... Show More
1h 8m
Feb 18
Erica Lorentz, "Body As Shadow: Jung’s Method of Embodied Healing" (Karnac, 2026)
Body as Shadow: Jung’s Method of Embodied Healing is Jungian analyst Erica Lorentz’s passionate, clinically grounded argument that Jung’s psychology was never meant to be “head-only.” It was always an embodied practice, one that asks us to meet psyche where it actually lives: in ... Show More
48m 24s
Jul 2025
Madness explained: How trauma and stress can break the mind
I talk to psychologist Richard Bentall about psychosis, schizophrenia, and the psychological roots of mental illness. Bentall is the author of the well known book "Madness Explained." We explore how symptoms like hallucinations and delusions can often be traced to trauma, stress, ... Show More
59m 54s
Feb 2025
Steven Lesk, "Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Mental Illness" (Prometheus, 2023)
Of all the mental illnesses, schizophrenia eludes us the most. No matter the strides scientists have made in neurological research nor doctors have made in psychiatric treatment, schizophrenia remains misunderstood, almost complacently mythologized. Without a reason for the illne ... Show More
1h 2m
Sep 2025
Busting Viral Mental Health Myths w/Joe Nucci
This week, Scott speaks with psychotherapist and writer Joe Nucci, whose work tackles the intersection of mental health, misinformation, and pop psychology. Joe has built a large following by debunking viral myths and bringing nuance to conversations that are too often oversimpli ... Show More
1h 8m
Apr 2023
Commusings: Is Mental Illness a Metabolic Disorder?
Could there be a unifying theory of mental disorder? Could mental illness be a metabolic disorder of the brain? In this episode, I summarize my extensive conversation with Dr. Chris Palmer, author of the new fascinating book, Brain Energy. Commusings are thoughtful essays and sho ... Show More
29m 39s
Mar 2025
M. Chirimuuta, "The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience" (MIT Press, 2024)
This book is available open access here. The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience (MIT Press, 2024), Mazviita Chirimuuta argues that the standard ways neuroscientists simplify the human brain to build models for their research purposes mi ... Show More
50m 44s
Mar 2025
This Is Your Brain on 2025: The Biohacker’s Guide to Mental Clarity & Mood | Dr. Drew Ramsey : 1263
<p>You think you’re optimizing your brain—but what if the real culprit behind your brain fog, anxiety, and burnout is the modern world itself? </p><p>In this episode, <em>Columbia University psychiatrist and nutritional neuroscience pioneer</em> Dr. Drew Ramsey joi ... Show More
1h 11m