We are more isolated from one another than ever before — by our technology, by our political divides, and most of all, by our choices.

This week on the show, we talk with neuroscientist Ben Rein about why this social isolation is terrible for our health — implicated in not only rising rates of mental illness, but also heart disease, dementia and more.

We discuss Ben's new book, "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection", published earlier this week, and try to work out a plan for an improved social diet to restore our brains — and our society — to good health.

Learn More:

• Ben Rein's website
• Publisher's website
• References from the book
• Social Journaling template

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We are honored to have won a silver Signal Award for best science and education podcast of 2025, as well as an audience choice award — thanks so much to everyone who voted for the show!

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We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Before the written word — and possibly even before speech — humans have communicated through drawing. From crude scratches in the dirt or on cave walls to the arcane symbology of the laboratory whiteboard, our instinct for conveying our thoughts visually is pretty extraordinary.

We see or understand something in the world, we build an idea in our mind of what we think we see, and then using our hand and the utensil we re-create it to communicate the share our perception with others. Along the way, we add in our own understanding and experience to craft that communication in ways that might not correspond with a specific object in the world at all.

How we do this — and how we can learn to be better visual communicators — is at the heart of our conversation with Judy Fan, who runs the Cognitive Tools Lab in Stanford University's Department of Psychology.

We've been nominated for a 2025 Signal Award for Best Science & Education Podcast! Vote for us in the "Listener's Choice" category by October 9.

Learn More:

• Cognitive Tools Lab, Stanford Department of Psychology
• Fan, J., et al. (2023) "Drawing as a versatile cognitive tool." Nature Reviews Psychology. (pdf)
• Hawkins, R., Sano, M., Goodman, N., and Fan, J. (2023). Visual resemblance and interaction history jointly constrain pictorial meaning. Nature Communications. [pdf]
• Fan, J., et al. (2020). Relating visual production and recognition of objects in human visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. [pdf]
• Fan, J., Yamins, D., and Turk-Browne, N. (2018). Common object representations for visual production and recognition. Cognitive Science. [pdf]
• More recent papers

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Imagine if you couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality. If you couldn't tell whether what you were seeing or hearing was really there in front of you. What if you discovered you couldn't trust your own perceptions?

Psychosis is something three out of every a hundred people will experience at some point in their lifetimes. But what exactly is it, and is it something people can learn to live with?

Today we're fortunate to have on the show Dr. Jacob Ballon, the founding co-director of Stanford Medicine's Inspire Clinic, and Shannon Pagdon, a doctoral student, peer counselor, and advocate for those living with psychosis.

Learn More:

• Learn about the Inspire 360 Program at Stanford Medicine
• Explore Pagdon's Psychosis Outside the Box project and additional stories of the lived experience of psychosis from the Hearing Voices Network
• Read: "Psychosis 101: Unmasking one of the brain's most mysterious Malfunctions" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)
• Watch: "Demystifying Psychosis" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)
• Read: "Two key brain systems are central to psychosis, Stanford Medicine-led study finds" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)
• Watch: "Schizophrenia: Early signs and treatment options" (Stanford Center for Health Education, 2022)

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Most of us can agree: music is awesome. Regardless of which songs speak to you, music probably plays an important role in your life. The question is, what makes music so powerful? Why does a particular combination of sounds and rhythms grab us and affect us in the way that it does? And is it true that music can help heal patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, PTSD, chronic pain, and more?

To help us understand what we're learning about the neuroscience of music and how it can heal and enrich our lives, we're speaking with Daniel Levitin. He's a musician and a producer as well as a neuroscientist and bestselling author. His newest book is "I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music As Medicine."

Learn More:

• "I Heard There Was a Secret Chord" playlist
• Menon, V., & Levitin, D. J. (2005). The rewards of music listening: Response and connectivity of the mesolimbic system. NeuroImage.
• Menon, V. (2023). 20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis. Neuron.
• Salimpoor, V. N., et al. (2013). Interactions between the nucleus accumbens and auditory cortices predict music’s reward value. Science.
• Wang, L., Peng, J.-l., et al. (2022). Effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation on gait and motor function in Parkinson’s disease: Systematic review & meta-analysis. Frontiers in Neurology.
• Zumbansen, A., et al. (2014). Melodic Intonation Therapy: Back to basics for future research. Frontiers in Neurology.
• Moreno-Morales et al. (2020). Music therapy in the treatment of dementia: Systematic review & meta-analysis. Frontiers in Medicine.
• Allen, E. J., et al. (2017). Representations of pitch and timbre variation in human auditory cortex. Journal of Neuroscience.
• Sonos/Apple “Music Makes It Home” study (2016). "This Speaker Company Says Music Makes You Happier." Time Magazine.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

In this episode, we explore the fascinating neuroscience behind how children learn to read with Bruce McCandliss, director of the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative.

Key topics include:
• How our brains "recycle" visual and language circuits to create reading expertise
• The crucial threshold when reading shifts from effortful to automatic
• Why some children struggle more than others to develop reading fluency
• How teachers can tailor instruction to help struggling readers
• The profound ways literacy reshapes our brains and cognition

Join us for a mind-expanding look at one of humanity's most transformative technologies - written language - and how mastering it quite literally changes our brains.

Learn More

• Learn about the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative at Stanford's Graduate School of Education
• Learn about the "brainwave learning center" at Menlo Park's Synapse School.
• Watch McCandliss present his work at Wu Tsai Neuro's 10th anniversary Symposium

Recent Academic Articles & News Coverage

• Tan LH, Perfetti CA, Ziegler JC, McCandliss B. "Editorial: Neural bases of reading acquisition and reading disability." Frontiers in Neuroscience (2023).
  
  This editorial highlights advances in the neuroscience of reading, focusing on the brain mechanisms underlying reading development and disabilities. The authors summarize key themes across international research, including neuroimaging insights and educational applications.
  
  
• Stanford News. "Stanford-led study links school environment to brain development" (2024)
  
  Researchers found that children who attend higher-performing schools have accelerated white matter development, including in an area of the brain closely associated with reading skills.
  
  
• Stanford News. "Stanford study on brain waves shows how different teaching methods affect reading development" (2015)
  
  Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss found that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Recognizing a familiar voice is one of the brain’s earliest social feats. But what are the brain circuits that let a newborn pick out mom in a crowded nursery? How do they change as kids turn toward friends and the wider world? And what are we learning about why this instinct fails to develop in the autistic brain?

This week, host Nicholas Weiler joins Stanford neuroscientist Dan Abrams on the quest to understand the neural “hub” that links our brains' hearing centers to the networks that tag voices as rewarding, social, and worth our attention. The findings could reshape early-intervention strategies for kids on the spectrum.

Learn More

• Stanford Speech and Social Neuroscience Lab
  • Participate in a Study
  • Community Support Resources
• Publications
  • Underconnectivity between voice-selective cortex and reward circuitry in children with autism (PNAS, 2013)
  • Neural circuits underlying mother’s voice perception predict social communication abilities in children (PNAS, 2016)
  • Impaired voice processing in reward and salience circuits predicts social communication in children with autism (eLife, 2019)
  • A Neurodevelopmental Shift in Reward Circuitry from Mother's to Nonfamilial Voices in Adolescence (Journal of Neuroscience, 2022)
• Stanford Coverage
  • "The teen brain tunes in less to Mom's voice, more to unfamiliar voices, study finds" (Stanford Medicine, 2022)
  • "Brain wiring explains why autism hinders grasp of vocal emotion, says Stanford Medicine study" (Stanford Medicine, 2023)

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

In this special crossover episode, we’re doing something a little different. From Our Neurons to Yours host Nicholas joins producer Michael Osborne to co-host his podcast Famous and Gravy for a lively conversation about the extraordinary life and mind of Stephen Hawking.

Hawking, one of the most renowned scientists of our time, lived with ALS for more than 50 years—defying medical expectations while also reshaping how we understand black holes, the universe, and our place within it. While Hawking wasn’t a neuroscientist, his neurological condition and his remarkable communication of complex ideas make his story especially relevant to From Our Neurons to Yours.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Hawking’s life with ALS shaped his outlook and scientific drive
• His talent for making theoretical physics accessible (and entertaining)
• Big philosophical questions about the universe and the nature of existence
• The intersection of science, celebrity, and personal legacy

We hope you enjoy this crossover conversation.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If addiction is a disease of the brain, what does that mean for how we treat people—and how we write policy? In this wide-ranging conversation, Stanford addiction expert and policy advisor Keith Humphreys returns to the show to walk us through what neuroscience has taught us about substance use disorders and how that science intersects with law, public health, and politics.

From the biology of craving to the limits of autonomy, we explore the tension between compassion and accountability, and what truly effective treatment and prevention might look like.

Episode Highlights

• Why addiction isn’t just a moral failure—and how brain science explains drug-seeking behavior
• The biological pathways affected by opioids, alcohol, and stimulants—and why some drugs are harder to treat
• What makes some people more vulnerable to addiction than others
• Why effective addiction policy must account for impaired decision-making
• How policy can—and can’t—respond to the science
• The promise and limitations of brain stimulation, psychedelics, and medications like naloxone
• Why prevention—especially for teens—is key to long-term change
• What a more human, effective, and science-based future could look like

Resources & Links

• Learn more about Keith Humphreys
• Learn about the Stanford Network on Addiction Policy
• Read about the NeuroChoice Initiative at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
• NIH resources on addiction science and treatment
• Read Humphreys' 2024 report on "The rise and fall of Pacific Northwest drug policy reform, 2020–2024" (Brookings Institution, 2024)
• Read about CARE Courts ( "New California Court for the Mentally Ill Tests a State’s Liberal Values", New York Times, 2024)
• Read Humphreys' 2025 Op-Ed: "Does harm reduction still have a future in San Francisco?" (SF Chronicle, 2025)
• Read a policy summary, "Blue states change course on mental health policies" (Axios, 2025)

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.