Episode 42: The Social Brain: Why We’re Wired to Connect (Podcast with US Leader Award–Winning Neuroscientist and Pioneer of the Social Brain, Dr.Henry Grafman) [LEADERSHIP SERIES]

What if your brain’s most natural state isn’t problem-solving or goal-chasing—but simply thinking about people? In this episode of the Professor P Podcast, we explore the science of human connection and the neuroscience that makes us profoundly social beings.

📘 Part 1 – Book Spotlight We begin with Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Dr. Matthew D. Lieberman, a pioneering UCLA professor and founding father of social cognitive neuroscience. His groundbreaking research reveals that social connection is not a luxury—it’s as essential as food, water, and shelter. From why rejection literally feels like pain to how helping others activates the brain’s reward system, we uncover five key lessons that prove: we are wired to belong.

🧠 Part 2 – Expert Conversation with Dr. Jordan Grafman Next, I sit down with neuroscientist Dr. Jordan Grafman to dive deeper into The Social Brain. We discuss the prefrontal cortex and how it shapes empathy, morality, and human interaction. From the Structured Event Complex theory to clinical implications for traumatic brain injury and mental health, Dr. Grafman unpacks how our brain represents the social world—and what happens when that system breaks down.

🎓 Part 3 – Student Reflection with Mila Chavez Finally, we bring these insights into lived experience. In conversation with my former student Mila Chavez, we reflect on how understanding the social brain impacts everyday life—our relationships, education, and the way we see ourselves in a hyper-connected (yet often isolating) digital world.

✨ Key Takeaway: Your brain didn’t evolve in isolation—it evolved in a tribe. Whether in the classroom, workplace, or your closest circle of friends, connection is the fuel for growth, healing, and purpose.

🧘‍♂️ Reflection Questions for Listeners:

1. Who are the people my brain returns to when I’m alone?
2. Do I treat social rejection or loneliness with the same seriousness as physical pain?
3. Where do I feel a true sense of belonging—and where am I performing just to be accepted?

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Act of Kindness: Give someone a compliment.

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Dr. Jordan H. Grafman is a distinguished American neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist, widely recognized for his groundbreaking work on the human prefrontal cortex and its role in social cognition, moral reasoning, and belief systems. Born in 1950, he completed his Ph.D. in Human Neuropsychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and began his career as a Captain in the United States Air Force, contributing to the historic Vietnam Head Injury Study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His early work established the foundation for a lifelong focus on how brain injuries and neurological conditions affect human thought, behavior, and social functioning.

Dr. Grafman went on to serve for more than two decades at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), where he was Chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section. Later, he directed Traumatic Brain Injury Research at the Kessler Foundation in New Jersey. Since 2012, he has led Brain Injury Research and the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago—ranked the #1 rehabilitation hospital in the United States—and holds professorships in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, as well as in Psychology at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

His research has spanned the neural basis of social cognition, moral judgment, structured event complex theory, brain plasticity, and the impact of traumatic brain injury on human behavior. With over 500 published scientific articles and an h-index above 130, Dr. Grafman’s scholarship has had lasting influence in both cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology. He also serves as co-editor of the prestigious journal Cortex and has edited multiple authoritative volumes on the frontal lobes, traumatic brain injury, and human beliefs.

Throughout his career, Dr. Grafman has been honored with numerous awards for his scientific contributions. These include the Humboldt Research Award (2011), as well as recognition from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health for his pioneering work in neuropsychology and rehabilitation science. More recently, he has been named among the top scientists in psychology and neuroscience by Research.com’s U.S. Leader Awards (2023–2025). His enduring impact lies not only in advancing our scientific understanding of the social brain but also in shaping clinical approaches that improve the lives of individuals with brain injuries and neuropsychiatric conditions.