My guest for this episode is Chantel Prat. If her name is not already familiar to you, she is the author of the book The Neuroscience of You. What got me really excited about having her on the podcast was her willingness to play with ideas about learning from two sides of the coin: the science of it in her academic world and the experience of it in my world as a lay person. 

We met in 2023 at the Journey on Podcast Summit where we were fellow presenters. In the last year, I’ve been putting together some pieces about learning how to stay present under pressure – even when the body starts saying “danger, danger.” Some if what I’m experiencing flies in the face of the typical coaching around managing stress. It’s made me curious about how the neuroscience of it works. So at the 2024 Podcast Summit, I spontaneously asked Chantel to help me make sense of it and she agreed. After our first conversation, we said “We’ve got to do a podcast.” So that’s the backstory.

As you will hear, this episode is all about learning. In our conversation, we truly geeked out together about how we humans learn, grow and change. Chantel asks two very relevant questions about what happens when we start getting the physical signals of stress: What is the feeling for? And what is the story for? 

What most impresses me about Chantel is that she models what she teaches. She is truly a learner, which is what makes her a great teacher. 

We had many quotable moments in this episode. Perhaps my favorite was when she said: “The feeling is the fuel that catalyzes change.” If you follow any of my blog posts or social media pages, you will recognize that I couldn’t agree more!

Now here’s a little more about Chantel:

Chantel Prat, author of The Neuroscience of You, is a Professor at the University of Washington with appointments in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Linguistics, and at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. Her interdisciplinary research investigates how variable brain designs combine with our lifetime of experiences to shape the unique way each person learns, understands the world and operates in it. She is the recipient of a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Health, speaks internationally at events like the World Science Festival, and has appeared in a number of media outlets including PBS, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, Popular Mechanics, and Travel + Leisure.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Creative Spirits Unleashed podcast. Please be sure to share it with anyone you think would enjoy it!