A lot of the things that we’ve learned about how our minds work are simply not true.

Did you know that a small part of your brain can fall asleep while the other parts are awake and working? And we can't trust our memories, either: it turns out that much of what ends up getting stored in memory, especially what people remember about themselves and their past, is a distortion.

But it's not all bad news! Listen as Dr. Daniel Levitin of The Organized Mind sheds light on what we've long misunderstood about our brains and makes recommendations on how to keep your mind healthy with “cellular housekeeping."

Stick around after the interview for when Ben Schuman-Stoler joins Caitlin Schiller to talk about the key ideas in this episode and recommend some great reads on the various functions of the all-mighty mind.

For more info, including links to everything we discussed in the episode and a voucher to use Blinkist for free, go to

Let us know what you thought of the episode, or just give us some book recommendations on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you! Find Caitlin at @caitlinschiller and Ben at @bsto.

That excellent music you heard is by Nico Guiang. You can find more of it on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/niceaux) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/niceaux).