Do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? 2020 has been a tough year, testing our collective positivity, but what are optimism and pessimism? Neuroscientist Dr. Travis Hodges has some answers as he studies these patterns of thinking IN RATS. Travis is a postdoctoral fellow at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at UBC. We talk to Travis about his research, how he studies pessimism and optimism in adolescent rats, and ultimately what that can teach us about ourselves especially as we get older. A transcript of the episode can be found here: https://bit.ly/3kGHpGG