Exercise gives your brain a “bubble bath of neurochemicals,” says Wendy Suzuki, a professor of neural science. Exercise can have surprisingly transformative impacts on the brain, according neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki. It has the power not only to boost mood and focus due to the increase in neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline, but also contributes to long-term brain health. Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, particularly in the hippocampus, improving long-term memory and increasing its volume. Suzuki notes that you don’t have to become a marathon runner to obtain these benefits — even just 10 minutes of walking per day can have noticeable benefits. It just takes a bit of willpower and experimentation.

Chapters:

0:00 My exercise epiphany

1:35 What is “runner’s high”?

2:40 The hippocampus & prefrontal cortex

3:32 Neuroplasticity: It’s never too late to move your body

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About Wendy Suzuki: Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. She received her undergraduate degree in Physiology and Human Anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987, studying with Prof. Marion C. Diamond, a leader in the field of brain plasticity. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from U.C. San Diego in 1993 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health before accepting her faculty position at New York University in 1998. Dr. Suzuki is author of the book Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better.

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Collective illusions lie to us. Here’s what they are, with Todd Rose

“Collective illusions” is a situation where most people in a group go along with an opinion they don’t agree with, simply because they incorrectly believe that the majority also agrees with it.

We’ve known about collective illusions for over 100 years, but our cultural and technological conditions have changed. Today, creating and sustaining these illusions is so easy that they proliferate at a speed we’ve never seen in history.

From trust and conformity to aspiration, this new series, hosted by Todd Rose, explores and decodes the world's greatest Collective Illusions.

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Collective Illusions is a 9-part series brought to you by Stand Together: a community of changemakers tackling our biggest challenges

For more stories, ideas, and advice from changemakers, subscribe to Stand Together ►   / standtogethercc  

Watch the entire Collective Illusions playlist ►   • Collective Illusions  

And visit Stand Together’s website to learn more ► https://standtogether.org/

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About Todd Rose:

Todd Rose is the co-founder and president of Populace, a think tank committed to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to pursue fulfilling lives in a thriving society. Prior to Populace, he was a faculty member at Harvard University where he founded the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality and directed the Mind, Brain, and Education program. Todd is the best selling author of Collective Illusions, Dark Horse, and The End of Average. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

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There are three kinds of memory that all work together to shape your reality. Neuroscientist André Fenton explains. Neuroscientist André Fenton discusses the intricate relationship between memory, perception, and reality, shedding light on the complexity of human cognition. Fenton believes memories are not fixed but are continually modified by our experiences and mindsets. This, in his mind, underscores the importance of humility and empathy in acknowledging the fallibility of our memories and the need to consider different perspectives in our quest for truth. We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About André Fenton: André Fenton, professor of neural science at New York University, investigates the molecular, neural, behavioral, and computational aspects of memory. He studies how brains store experiences as memories, how they learn to learn, and how knowing activates relevant information without activating what is irrelevant. His investigations and understanding integrates across levels of biological organization, his research uses genetic, molecular, electrophysiological, imaging, behavioral, engineering, and theoretical methods. This computational psychiatry research is helping to elucidate and understand mental dysfunction in diverse conditions like schizophrenia, autism, and depression. André founded Bio-Signal Group Corp., which commercialized an FDA-approved portable, wireless, and easy-to-use platform for recording EEGs in novel medical applications. André implemented a CPAP-Oxygen helmet treatment for COVID-19 in Nigeria and other LMICs and founded Med2.0 to use information technology for the patient-centric coordination of behavioral health services that is desperately needed to equitably deliver care for mental health. André hosts “The Data Set” a new web series on how data and analytics are being used to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems

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Is technology melting your memory? Or helping it?, with Lisa Genova

Technology is a double-edged sword. There is a common belief that smartphones are hurting our memory, but this isn’t entirely true.

Certainly, if you want to form memories effectively, you need to be aware of your surroundings in the present moment, not distracted by your phone.

Yet there is a lot of upside to technology as well. In an instant, you have all the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. And social media reminds us of past events that we otherwise might not remember.

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About Lisa Genova:

Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Every Note Played. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases she writes about and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and NPR. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times. The New York Times bestseller REMEMBER is her first work of nonfiction.

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This productivity hack comes with an asterisk, explains note-taking guru Tiago Forte. What would you learn about yourself if you temporarily stopped using the tools that make your life easier? That’s the main question in this Big Think video with author Tiago Forte, who describes what happened when he changed the way he took digital notes. The utility of note-taking depends on the context, Forte says. During face-to-face conversations, he found that taking notes was helpful for him, but it came at the cost of being less connected to the person in front of him. In contrast, taking notes while he’s by himself — walking around a city, for example — is more beneficial, and often ends up influencing his work in a positive way.

About Tiago Forte: Tiago Forte is one of the world’s foremost experts on productivity. He has taught more than 20,000 people worldwide through his programs and writes and speaks on how technology can help knowledge workers revolutionize their personal effectiveness. Tiago’s online course, Building a Second Brain, has produced more than 5,000 graduates from over 70 countries. The course draws on his experience in academic disciplines such as information science, practical fields such as user experience design, and his work with top organizations and leaders in Silicon Valley. Tiago believes knowledge management is one of the most impactful skills in the world today, and his work is dedicated to making it accessible to individuals for the first time. In a previous life, he worked in microfinance in Latin America, served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and consulted for large companies on product development in San Francisco. He lives in Long Beach, California, with his wife Lauren, son Caio, and dog Ximena.

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"Sludge": How bureaucracies abuse your time, with Cass Sunstein

"Sludge" constitutes the obstacles, such as bureaucratic paperwork, that society puts in place to prevent a person from accomplishing something they want to do.

Sludge can be good when it ensures that people do not behave recklessly or impulsively. But oftentimes, sludge is nothing more than an obstacle to freedom.

Sludge can be found everywhere, from the criminal justice system to acquiring a mortgage. Much of this sludge needs to be eliminated.

To learn even more from the world's biggest thinkers, get Big Think+ for your business: https://bigthink.com/plus/

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About Cass Sunstein:

Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. In 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President's Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Board. Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has advised officials at the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations on issues of law and public policy. He serves as an adviser to the Behavioural Insights Team in the United Kingdom.

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The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

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Scientists can't define spirituality. But we can study its healing effects, says Columbia professor Lisa Miller.

This interview is an episode from @The-Well our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation .

Clinical psychologist Lisa Miller asserts that we are at epidemic levels of loneliness in modern society, and attributes this to a distorted perception of isolation. All humans are hardwired with neural circuits that allow us to realize our connection to a profound unit of consciousness, she explains — so why aren’t we recognizing it? Regardless of our faith, traditions, or spiritual beliefs, when humans enter spiritual awareness, our brains emit a specific wavelength called high amplitude alpha. This wavelength is known as the Schumann Resonance, the wavelength of nature and all life emitted by the Earth. This shared wavelength between humanity and all nature is a force of oneness that we can tap into through prayer, meditation, and mystical moments. Despite the loneliness we may feel, Miller asserts that in truth, we are interconnected with all beings — each of us a unit in a profound shared consciousness. Embracing spirituality, and practicing it with intention, can have a transformative impact on our lives, helping us to realize in times of difficulty that we are never really alone.

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About Lisa Miller: Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is a professor in the linical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child

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Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

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"Collective Illusions": Why false consensus in society is so dangerous, with Todd Rose

In a perfect world, the relationship between private opinion and public opinion would be basically like a mirror. At its best, the public opinion holds a mirror to us, and it reflects exactly who we are. But because of collective illusions, that's typically not the case.

Collective illusions lead individuals to make decisions that are contrary to their private values simply because a majority of people in a group believe the majority thinks something that they don't. As a result, the entire group can end up doing something that almost nobody wants, which is fatal to a free society.

But if society creates a space where people feel comfortable expressing views they believe might deviate from the group, you'll find out pretty quickly whether your impression of the group is correct or not. Even when we fundamentally end up disagreeing, a truthful disagreement is always better than a collective illusion.

Up next ►► Sam Harris: The self is an illusion   • Sam Harris: The Self is an Illusion |...  

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Collective Illusions is a 9-part series brought to you by Stand Together: a community of changemakers tackling our biggest challenges

For more stories, ideas, and advice from changemakers, subscribe to Stand Together ►   / standtogethercc  

Watch the entire Collective Illusions playlist ►   • Collective Illusions  

And visit Stand Together’s website to learn more ► https://standtogether.org/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Todd Rose:

Todd Rose is the co-founder and president of Populace, a think tank committed to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to pursue fulfilling lives in a thriving society. Prior to Populace, he was a faculty member at Harvard University where he founded the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality and directed the Mind, Brain, and Education program. Todd is the best selling author of Collective Illusions, Dark Horse, and The End of Average. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

► Big Think

The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

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Two-thirds of our days are spent alone. The Metaverse will bring us together, argues leading Metaverse thinker Matthew Ball.

Will the metaverse lean more toward dystopia or utopia? If you base your answer solely on Hollywood’s vision of the future, you might say the former, considering that blockbusters like “The Matrix” and “Blade Runner” paint an ominous future where technology has helped fuel massive inequality and human suffering.

But that’s just one vision. In many ways, humans have been exploring metaverse-like worlds for decades, through text-based role-playing games to “Second Life” to the consumer-grade VR systems that have become popular over the past decade — and we’ve done it all without ushering in a dystopia.

The metaverse will soon enable immersive, collaborative, and social experiences that could change not only leisure, but also learning. For young students, the technology could replace paper mache models of volcanoes with something very much like “The Magic School Bus.”

That’s not to say there aren’t legitimate concerns about the metaverse, especially when it comes to questions about who owns what in this emerging world. Matthew Ball, author of “The Metaverse,” explains more in this interview with Big Think.

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About Matthew Ball:

Matthew Ball is the CEO of Epyllion, a diversified holding company which makes angel investments, provides advisory services, and produces television, films, and video games. Ball is also a Venture Partner at Makers Fund, Senior Advisor to KKR, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and sits on the board of numerous start-ups. His first book, “The Metaverse and How it Will Revolutionize Everything”, was published in July 2022 and became an instant national and international bestseller. Ball is also an “Occasional Contributor” to The Economist, holds bylines at Bloomberg, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and wrote the August 8, 2022 cover story for Time Magazine.

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“How I reversed my unhappiness,” with Tal Ben-Shahar

We were told from a very young age, whether explicitly or implicitly, that happiness stems from success. It's all about the attainment of the next goal. And yet, more often than not, achieving these goals does not bring us to a happier place, certainly not in the long-term.

One of the issues that people have with the pursuit of happiness is that it's a selfish endeavor. But is it? When we pursue happiness, oftentimes, we are in a much better place to also help others. The problem though, doesn't lie in the pursuit of happiness but rather in our concepts.

So is the pursuit of happiness selfish or selfless? According to Harvard professor Tal Ben-Shahar, it's neither and both. It's self-full. Selfulness synthesizes the best of both worlds of selfishness and selflessness. The two work together reinforcing one another in an upward spiral of generosity and benevolence.

Up next ►► Don’t chase happiness. Become antifragile   • Don’t chase happiness. Become antifra...  

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About Tal Ben-Shahar:

Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is an internationally renowned teacher and author in the fields of happiness and leadership. After graduating from Harvard with a BA in Philosophy and Psychology and a PhD in Organizational Behavior, Tal taught two of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history: Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership. He then taught Happiness Studies at Columbia University. A prolific writer, Tal's books have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world and have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Tal Ben-Shahar consults and lectures to executives in multinational corporations, educational institutions, and the general public. Topics include leadership, education, ethics, happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting and mindfulness. Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is also the co-founder of the Happiness Studies Academy. Learn more here: https://www.happinessstudies.academy/

Tal is an avid sportsman and a certified yoga instructor whose work bridges Eastern and Western traditions, ancient wisdom and modern technology, science and art.

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About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

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The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

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