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July 22, 2025 69 mins

You're about to learn:

  • Why your brain rewards you for being biased—and how to break the cycle
  • The two-minute breathing trick that helps you think clearly under pressure
  • How to build “brain reserve” to protect your mind as you age


What if I told you your brain is literally shrinking right now?

I’ve been into brain hacks since I was a kid. I believed “mind over matter” was more than a saying—it was a strategy. And I swear I used it to outgrow asthma.

I have this core memory in 8th grade. We were running the mile in P.E., and I started feeling that tightness in my chest, like I couldn’t get a full breath in. My P.E. teacher looked freaked out, holding out my inhaler like “take it.”

But I didn’t. I just slowed down, took the deepest breaths I could, and kept repeating something in my head like “my lungs are healing.”

That’s the last time I really remember having an asthma attack. Maybe something small came up later, but nothing that stuck. After that, I became a cross country runner.

That moment changed the way I thought about what the mind can do. It made me wonder how much of what we accept as “just the way we are” could actually change.

Today’s guest is Dr. Therese Huston. She’s a cognitive scientist who realized neuroscience finally has tools that apply to real life. She wrote Sharp: How to Make Better Decisions, Solve Problems, and Think More Clearly—and she’s breaking down how we can actually train our brains to work better.


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