Inside the Cortex

Your attention might not be as much under your control as you think.

In this episode, we explore why your brain is drawn to novelty, notifications, and constant stimulation—and why multitasking can feel productive even when it isn't.

So when you reach for your phone without thinking, ask yourself: Did I choose to give this my attention, or did something choose it for me?

Why does something you've been looking forward to for months sometimes feel underwhelming when you finally get it? In this episode of Inside the Cortex, we explore what happens in your brain before, during, and after a reward.

We'll break down how your brain predicts what’s coming, why wanting something isn't always the same as liking it, and how dopamine, anticipation, and reward prediction error influence the way you experience rewards. We’ll also look at why the excitement around something can fade over time and why sometimes, the anticipation is more powerful than the reward itself.

Why is it so hard to admit when we’re wrong? In this episode we dive into the neuroscience behind why our brains can resist information that challenges what we already believe.

From cognitive dissonance to confirmation bias, discover what’s happening inside your brain when someone proves you wrong and why being wrong can actually feel uncomfortable.

Most importantly, we’ll explore why changing your mind isn’t a weakness. It’s one of the most powerful things your brain can do.

If you’ve ever waited until the last possible second to start an assignment, told yourself you “work better under pressure,” or somehow ended up scrolling TikTok instead of doing the thing you actually need to do, this episode is for you.

In Episode 2 of Inside the Cortex, we unpack what’s really happening in your brain when you procrastinate. From task aversion and the battle between your limbic system and prefrontal cortex to dopamine, temporal discounting, and the strange way your brain treats your future self like a stranger, we’ll explore why procrastination has much less to do with laziness than you might think.

And most importantly, we’ll look at what actually helps you break the cycle—and a few unexpected insights into what actually gets you started.

What if some of your most certain memories never happened exactly the way you remember them?

In the first episode of Inside the Cortex, we unpack the neuroscience of memory and why your brain doesn’t store the past like a recording. From encoding and reconsolidation to the surprising ways other people can alter what you remember, we’ll explore why memories can feel incredibly vivid and still be wrong. We’ll also put your own memory to the test and look at what this reveals about how the brain constructs our sense of the past—and ultimately, ourselves.