One Brain At A Time

Ever felt anxious for absolutely no reason you can put your finger on? There's a good chance your brain is doing something called rumination – and once you understand it, it loses a lot of its power.
This week Adam and Andy get into the neuroscience of rumination: why your brain replays old experiences, and why it drags the feelings along with them.

Adam opens up about something that happened to him this week – sitting with friends, pizza, a great evening, and yet gripped by anxiety he couldn't explain. The culprit? A TV show (The Traitors) he'd watched the same time last year, during a hard patch. We get into why memories aren't just facts – they're snapshots of experience that store the emotional response too – why the same thing happens with the change of seasons or the anniversary of losing someone, and the role dreams play in quietly "sanitising" our most difficult memories. Most importantly: why noticing it is the first step, why you should give yourself grace rather than fight it, and how to process it in a healthy way instead of bottling it up.

You're not crazy, and you're not alone. Everyone's brain does this.
We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

Buy us a Coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast
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Chapters
00:00 - Clip
01:04 - Intro (ft. a year of the podcast & the day-oners)
02:33 - What rumination actually is
03:30 - Models, uncertainty & why your brain replays the past
04:40 - Adam's story: anxious at pizza night (ft. The Traitors)
05:20 - Memories are snapshots – they store the feeling too
06:48 - Anniversaries, grief & why retired teachers still dread September
09:44 - Why it's so hard to spot in the moment
11:30 - Salience: why some memories hit harder
13:40 - Rumination, dreams & crying at 4am
15:43 - You're not crazy – and you're not alone
16:38 - What to do: insight, grace & talking about it
18:35 - Lean in, don't bottle up (maladaptive vs healthy coping)
21:34 - Outro
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This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

What does it actually take to run 100K through the night — and how do you do it without destroying your body?

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Joe Tinsley — Brighton running influencer, ultra-runner and all-round lovely human. (If you missed Part 1, go back and start there.) This week Joe drops an exclusive on his next challenge, and we get into the stuff nobody posts about: injuries, overtraining, and learning to actually listen to your body.

In this episode we get into:
– Joe's next race: a brutal winter Backyard Ultra (6.7K every hour, through the night)
– Why a bit of boredom is good for you — and the multitasking myth
– The real physical toll of ultra-running
– Managing injuries: Achilles, hips, knees & the dreaded fat pad
– What pain you can run through — and what means stop right now
– Interoception: tuning into your body's signals
– Why running belongs to everyone, gatekeeping be damned

Huge thanks to Joe for coming on — go give him a follow.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Joeruns
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joe_tinsley_?xtok=YTZ5ZDlkMGQwdmxm

If you're enjoying the show, the best thing you can do is subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

📩 [email protected]
☕ ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast

––––––––––––––––––––
CHAPTERS
––––––––––––––––––––
00:00 – Cold open – the real cause of running injuries
00:55 – Welcome back to Part 2
01:23 – Boredom, mindfulness & the multitasking myth
02:52 – Exclusive: Joe's next race (a winter Backyard Ultra)
03:23 – What on earth is a Backyard Ultra?
04:23 – Training for 100K+ weeks
05:27 – The real physical toll of ultra-running
08:14 – The messages that make it all worth it
09:08 – Adam's comeback & the comparison trap
10:47 – Managing injuries – Achilles, hips & knees
13:13 – What pain you can (and can't) run through
16:00 – Meet the fat pad & fatigue vs injury
18:48 – Against gatekeeping – running for everyone
21:28 – Proving it to yourself & goodbye to Joe
––––––––––––––––––––

One Brain At A Time breaks down the neuroscience of being human — how your brain works, and how to work with it. Hosted by Adam Wright & Andy Feist.

Brought to you by Action Your Potential — Building Better Humans Since 2018.

What actually happens in your brain when you run for 16 hours straight?

This week we're joined by the one and only Joe Tinsley — Brighton-based running influencer, full-time content creator, and the man who's racked up two 100Ks, a handful of ultras and back-to-back marathons this year alone (Berlin and the Manchester half in the same week… casually). Joe only started running two and a half years ago, after a mate bet him a pint he couldn't finish a half marathon with no training. He won the pint. The rest is history.

It's such a good conversation we've split it into two — this is Part 1.

In this episode we get into:
– How a £3 pint turned into an ultramarathon habit
– Why self-doubt never fully goes away (and why that's okay)
– Flow state, and the two dopamine systems behind it
– The pleasure–pain seesaw, and why the hard thing pays you back
– How endurance rewires your sense of what "hard" even means
– Executive function: the focus, attention & resilience running builds
– BDNF, your brain's own fertiliser, and why movement makes you learn faster

Part 2 drops next Monday — subscribe so you don't miss it.

If you're enjoying the show, the best thing you can do is subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

📩 [email protected]
☕ ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast

Check out Joe:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Joeruns
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joe_tinsley_?xtok=YTZ5ZDlkMGQwdmxm
CHAPTERS
––––––––––––––––––––
00:00 – Cold open – 16 hours on the Isle of Wight
01:27 – Welcome ft. Joe Tinsley (& why it's a two-parter)
02:56 – Meet Joe – two 100Ks, ultras & back-to-back marathons
04:30 – How it started – the pint-bet half marathon
06:07 – Self-doubt & proving it to yourself
07:45 – Why the marathon is the victory lap, not the race
10:30 – Flow state & your two dopamine systems
12:12 – When flow doesn't come (intervals & the watch)
14:32 – Most runs aren't fun – but you feel good after
15:48 – How endurance rewires your sense of "hard"
18:29 – Executive function – focus, attention & resilience
19:29 – The pleasure–pain seesaw
21:14 – Running without music & the power of presence
23:05 – BDNF – your brain's own fertiliser
24:45 – Wrap & part two next Monday
––––––––––––––––––––

One Brain At A Time breaks down the neuroscience of being human — how your brain works, and how to work with it. Hosted by Adam Wright & Andy Feist.

Brought to you by Action Your Potential — Building More Insightful Brains Since 2018.

Gaming can be genuinely good for your brain – we said so last week. But there's a flip side, and it's worth talking about honestly

This is part two of our conversation with game designer Pavel Tomasik (Mimesis Studios). If you haven't heard part one, start there – this won't make much sense without it

We get into the cynical side of the industry: how some games (loot boxes, "ultimate team", free-to-play mobile titles) are engineered like gambling to hook your reward system rather than to be fun, and why kids should never be near that. Pavel makes the case for intrinsic fun (Minecraft, Lego) over extrinsic reward-farming, and we land on the real takeaway: balance.

Games are a brilliant, safe space – Adam shares how they got a shy teenager through school – but they can't replace real-world connection, physical activity, or the awe you only get from touching grass. Everything in moderation. Even art galleries.

That's it for Pavel (for now). Find out more about Mimesis:

https://mimesis-studios.com

https://indie.mimesis-studios.com

https://www.instagram.com/mimesis_studios/

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

We spend a lot of time telling kids to get off the Xbox and do their homework. But what if gaming is genuinely good for your brain?

This week Adam and Andy are joined by Pavel Tomasik – game designer and co-founder of Mimesis Game Studios – for part one of a two-part deep dive into play, gaming, and why your brain needs it more than you think.

We get into play as a genuine brain need (it's one of our 12 Rocks of Wellbeing), why games are a uniquely safe space to explore ideas, roles and consequences, and why the decades-old moral panic about "violent games" quietly ignores how creative, social and profound gaming can be.

Pavel gets into what games can do that no film or novel can – handing you real agency rather than passive watching – and we celebrate the narrative games that genuinely move people (It Takes Two, Split Fiction). Plus Adam's confession about the game designer he almost became, and the real friendships that games built for both him and Andy.

Find out more about Pavel & Mimesis:

https://mimesis-studios.com

https://indie.mimesis-studios.com

https://www.instagram.com/mimesis_studios/

It's a big one – so big we split it in two. Part two lands next Monday.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

You built the habit over summer. Now it's dark earlier and the whole thing's falling apart. That's not a willpower problem – it's completely normal, and there's a fix.

This week Adam and Andy get into something we usually skip over: not building good habits, but keeping them alive when the seasons turn and your whole routine gets upended.

We get into why adaptability matters more than rigid structure this time of year, the difference between your non-negotiables (the things you protect no matter what) and your negotiables (the things that can flex), and why the trick is being flexible about when you do something rather than whether you do it at all. We talk sleep as the one habit to guard above all, why one broken routine can topple the whole tower, the winter vitamin D dip that quietly drains your motivation, and the single easiest change that takes the pressure off: making your goals weekly instead of daily. (70,000 steps a week, not 10,000 a day.)

It all comes down to one word: sustainability.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

Buy us a Coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast
---
Chapters
00:00 - Clip
00:59 - Intro (ft. the equinox & slipping into the darkness)
03:00 - Building habits is one thing – keeping them is another
04:40 - The power of adaptability (the opposite of what we preach)
06:04 - Summer freedom vs the return of structure
07:31 - Give yourself grace: everyone's finding their feet
09:00 - Why neuroscience shouldn't feel robotic
10:11 - Sleep: the one rock of wellbeing to guard above all
16:09 - Non-negotiables vs negotiables
18:18 - Flexibility in WHEN, not whether
19:00 - Andy's non-negotiables
23:32 - Don't let one broken habit topple the whole tower
28:40 - Winter, less sunlight & the vitamin D / dopamine dip
31:38 - Sustainability & consistency are what actually matter
34:31 - Outro (ft. Big Granola, please sponsor us)
---
This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

"There's nothing physically wrong with you." It's one of the most frustrating things a person in chronic pain can be told – and the neuroscience of why is genuinely fascinating.

This week Adam and Andy are joined by Maddie Gwynee Hughes – a neuroscientist about to start a master's at Imperial – who's been working in Norway on the PRIME study: research into why some people recover from pain while others develop chronic pain that never switches off.

We get into what actually separates pain from chronic pain, why long-term pain rewires your whole nervous system, and how inflammation crosses the blood-brain barrier so that your body and brain are never really two separate things.

Maddie breaks down the study itself – challenging people's immune systems, tracking inflammatory markers like IL-6 – and we get into the strangest part of all: because your brain is a prediction engine, it can keep generating very real pain even when the injury is long gone. Phantom limbs and all.

It's a proper nerdy one – no cures, no snake oil, just a better understanding of your own body. And as ever, the real takeaway is insight: the better you understand your body and brain, the better placed you are to make the right calls for you.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

---

This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

Feeling a bit anxious now that September's here? There's a good chance it's got nothing to do with anything happening in your actual life – and everything to do with your brain.

This week Adam and Andy get into the strange, near-universal dread that arrives with the end of summer – why the drop in temperature and the return of the rain can flood you with the exact stress you felt walking to school as a kid, even decades later.

We get into the neuroscience of "models" and why your brain builds one for every situation, why the gap before a new model forms (cognitive dissonance) is felt as pure anxiety, and why the only way to close that gap is to do the uncomfortable thing and go through it. We talk about giving yourself grace – and extending it to everyone else who's just as frazzled – the small practical moves that lower the load (prep the night before, protect your bandwidth), and why understanding your brain never stops it doing its thing. Anyone who says otherwise is selling snake oil.

Whether you're a student, a teacher, a parent at the school gate for the first time, or just someone who feels a bit off every autumn – this one's for you.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

Buy us a Coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast
---
Chapters
00:00 - Clip
00:41 - Intro & why September makes you anxious
04:11 - Models & cognitive dissonance: the science of the dread
06:04 - Andy's green-carpet-stairs story
14:08 - Give yourself grace (and everyone else too)
17:45 - Practical: prep the night before, save your bandwidth
20:59 - Teachers & parents
26:00 - It passes: homeostasis & doing it anyway
---
This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

"I'm just not a productive person" is one of the most common refrains we hear people say about themselves – and it usually has nothing to do with laziness, and everything to do with dopamine.

This week Adam and Andy get into screens, scrolling, and the one chemical that's constantly misunderstood – a part two to the conversation we started at our Brighton event.

We get into why dopamine isn't a "pleasure chemical" but a reward-seeking one, why it's a finite resource you can genuinely run dry, and how your phone hijacks it through intermittent rewards – the same trick that makes a slot machine so hard to leave. We cover the pleasure-pain seesaw, why doom scrolling leaves you feeling flat and useless, and why cancelling plans you were excited about isn't a character flaw – it's a dopamine deficit. Then we get practical, from the "phone audit" to why the best thing you can do is leave your phone alone first thing in the morning.

You're not lazy. You've just been outplayed by something designed to beat you – and this one's about getting your life back.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

Buy us a Coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast
Chapters
00:00 - Clip
01:04 - Intro
02:27 - Today's topic: screens
02:54 - Dopamine is NOT a pleasure chemical
03:54 - The two dopamine systems: impulsive vs measured
10:51 - The rats that starved with food in front of them
16:29 - Intermittent rewards & why notifications are red
17:24 - The Instagram loop: reward, no reward, crash
20:38 - The pleasure-pain seesaw & homeostasis
23:30 - Step one: the phone audit
24:36 - Effortful vs purposeful phone use
26:01 - The algorithms are designed to beat you
27:30 - It's not a fair fight (and not a matter of will)
32:29 - Control the environment around your phone
33:26 - Don't touch your phone first thing in the morning
33:52 - Outro
---
This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

Want to learn more about the work we do at AYP? Find out more on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. Intro Music: "Happy Life" by Fredji (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvQ-5RCt9xs&list=PLfP6i5T0-DkK-1uhfhicxlQ2FJwbuA7uU&index=26). One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.

"I'm just not a maths person" is one of the most common refrains we hear people saying about themselves – and it's neuroscientifically unfounded.

Adam and Andy are joined by Professor Geetha Ramani, developmental psychologist at the University of Maryland, whose research focuses on how children actually learn maths.

We get into why "I'm bad at maths" is socially acceptable in a way "I'm bad at reading" never is, why all learning looks identical in the brain, right down to the neuron, and how one bad experience becomes a "prior" that runs your whole relationship with a subject.

Send it to a maths hater – we'll fix them for you.

We want to hear from you! Don't hesitate to email the show: [email protected]

Buy us a Coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/onebrainpodcast
---
Chapters
00:00 - Clip
00:26 - Intro & meet Prof. Geetha Ramani (ft. Adam's maths beef)
02:40 - Why "I'm bad at maths" is socially acceptable (and reading isn't)
04:06 - All learning looks the same in the brain
05:32 - Resilience: you can learn it even if you don't enjoy it
07:56 - Why effort is the thing that makes a game work
08:28 - Setting kids by ability & the stigma problem
10:29 - Priors: how one bad experience becomes "I can't do maths"
13:02 - There's no such thing as a "maths person"
15:07 - Why maths feels abstract (and reading doesn't)
16:04 - Gamifying maths: making repetition fun
22:26 - Maths as problem-solving, not rote memorisation
23:15 - The hidden executive-function skills you build
25:14 - Home vs school: kids spend 85% of their time out of class
28:40 - Maths is NOT genetic – it doesn't get passed down
31:04 - Summer learning loss & "use it or lose it"
33:45 - Outro (ft. send us your maths haters)
---
This podcast will change your life, if you let it.

Welcome to One Brain At A Time, an Action Your Potential podcast.

At the top of your neck you have the most powerful processing device in the known universe. But no-one's ever told you how it works... until now.

Each Monday, Action Your Potential consultants Adam Wright and Andy Feist strip away the jargon and break down the neuroscience into practical tools you can apply straight away.

Entertaining, evidence-based, and 100% woo-woo free. That's a guarantee.

If you want to learn more about the work we do at AYP, you can find out more information on our website!

📲 Follow us on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@one.brain.atatime

📲 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_brain_podcast?igsh=MTdxMmVvMndoeDNydg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

📬 Subscribe to the AYP Newsletter: https://substack.com/@actionyourpotential

One Brain At A Time is written and presented by Adam Wright & Andy Feist. Production from Adam Wright and Andy Feist. Intro Music: "Happy Life" by Fredji (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvQ-5RCt9xs&list=PLfP6i5T0-DkK-1uhfhicxlQ2FJwbuA7uU&index=26). One Brain At A Time is an Action Your Potential production.