DL Ep. 31: Your Brain Is a Storyteller

About this episode

This episode explores the science of the emotional brain and how storytelling relates to consciousness and meditation.

In this episode, Richie Davidson and Cortland Dahl deeply explore the science of the emotional brain: why the mind is a storyteller, what split-brain research reveals about consciousness, how brain asymmetry shapes emotion, why some people approach opportunity with optimism while others withdraw, and what meditation may do to the brain and immune system. Enjoy! See below for FLASHCARDS , Full Transcript Below Watch on Youtube ; Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts . FLASHCARDS / EPISODE COMPANION HERE Podcast Chapter List (00:00:00) – The brain is a storyteller (00:01:03) – Welcome to Dharma Lab (00:04:05) – Norman Geschwind and behavioral neurology (00:06:31) – The thumbtack story: emotional memory without conscious memory (00:12:12) – Language, the left hemisphere, and the corpus callosum (00:19:04) – Brain asymmetry and emotion (00:22:54) – Why emotion was so understudied (00:29:26) – Brain asymmetry, attachment, and aversion (00:31:19) – The prefrontal cortex and the old divide between thought and feeling (00:37:07) – Studying emotion in newborn infants (00:42:37) – Meditation, brain asymmetry, and the immune system (00:47:04) – Why “it’s not so simple” Written transcript for…

People in this episode

Host: Cortland Dahl

Guest: Richie Davidson

Topics covered

• emotional brain
• split-brain research
• brain asymmetry
• meditation
• consciousness
• optimism

Keywords

• emotional brain
• storytelling
• brain asymmetry
• meditation
• consciousness
• optimism
• immune system

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dharma Lab

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