Why Brains Need Friends w/ Dr. Ben Rein

L.A. Paul joins Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman to explore transformative experiences, the nature of personal change, and why some of life's most important decisions cannot be fully understood until we experience them. They discuss how trauma can lead to growth without making the origina ...  Show more

Michael Levin joins Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman to explore intelligence beyond the human brain, the hidden minds of cells and biological systems, the origins of genius and inspiration, and the possibility that intelligence and creativity may not be something we simply "make."They dis ...  Show more

Why do human brains need social interaction? Why might AI chatbots be insufficient to scratch the itch? What do we love so much about real human touch and in-person interaction? Why do so many of us live with dogs? From empathy to introversion to social media to isolation (and wh ...  Show more

What does loneliness do to our brains? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O’Reilly explore how the loneliness epidemic impacts our minds, bodies, and even our lifespan with neuroscientist Ben Rein, author of Why Brains Need Friends: The Science of Social Connection.< ...

Ben Rein, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Robert Malenka's lab at Stanford University and a science communicator with over 925,000 followers on social media. In his current research, Ben is exploring the neural basis of empathy and how drugs such as MDMA act in the brain ...  Show more