Beat Your Genes Podcast - podcast cover

Beat Your Genes Podcast

BeatYourGenesbeatyourgenes.org
Evolutionary psychology with Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Nathan Gershfeld, D.C. Most psychology advice treats your brain like a broken machine. Beat Your Genes starts somewhere different: your instincts aren't broken. They're just optimized for a Stone Age environment that no longer exists. Dr. Lisle - Evolutionary psychologist, former Stanford lecturer, and co-author of The Pleasure Trap - has spent decades developing frameworks that explain human behavior from the ground up. Nathan Gershfeld, D.C. - trained first as an electrical engineer and then spent 14 years as a Doctor of Chiropractic. He brings a systems thinker's curiosity to every conversation. He mostly lets Dr. Lisle talk. Topics include relationships and attraction, self-esteem, personality, depression and anxiety, willpower, the ego trap, and how pushy people exploit agreeable ones. 380+ episodes. New episodes every other week. New here? Start at beatyourgenes.org/start-here
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Episodes

146: Broccoli Binges, Mate Value, and the Mathematization of Misery | Live caller

Most people assume that binging only happens with junk food, that we crave what we can't have because scarcity makes things magical, and that playing hard to get will raise your perceived value. Dr. Lisle says none of that is quite right. Your satiation system, your attraction system, and your status system are all running objective evaluations underneath, and most popular advice in these areas misreads what is actually happening. In this episode, Dr. Lisle unpacks the two satiation mechanisms b...

Dec 06, 20181 hr 4 minSeason 1Ep. 146

145: It's Always an Esteem Problem: Dr. Lisle on Holiday Food Fights, Ego Traps, and Family Estrangement | Live caller

Most people believe self-esteem is something you talk yourself into. Stand in front of the mirror, repeat affirmations, tell yourself you're enough. Dr. Lisle says that's nonsense. Self-esteem is a reputation mechanism, and the only audience whose opinion you can actually move is the one inside your own head. In this episode, Dr. Doug Lisle walks through four real listener dilemmas, from holiday food-shaming at family dinners to a 29-year-old fitness influencer trapped by her own Instagram abs, ...

Nov 29, 20181 hr 8 minSeason 1Ep. 145

138: Older vs younger generations, applying Evo Psych, genes vs environment

1. Why do many older people complain of younger people "ruining" the world. Is this contempt built into us as we age? 2. Evo Psych makes sense, but how should a therapist apply this knowledge to a client/patient? 3. If I'm born a disagreeable jerk, can I beat my genes in a simliar way that a person with genes for heart disease/cancer can beat their genes?

Oct 11, 201855 minSeason 1Ep. 138

135: Finding the Source of Depression: An On-Air Session

Most people assume depression that has no obvious cause is a chemical mystery. Dr. Lisle says that is almost never true. Depression is failure feedback from three specific domains of life, and the job is to find which one is pushing on you. In this on-air session, Dr. Lisle walks a listener named Amy through her life systematically, checks work, checks friendships, checks romance, and lands on the real source of her depression: the gap between her A-plus effort on a clean vegan diet and the B-mi...

Sep 20, 201859 minSeason 1Ep. 135

134: Nostalgia, Studying for MCAT, Getting asked health questions

Does bad weather trigger feelings of nostalgia which in turn results in more feelings of optimism and higher self-esteem? A listener is stuck trying to study for the MCAT but caught in the ego trap. Dr. Lisle's "seem strategy" works to get others to stop challenging us about our healthy diet but what can we do if we want to show off our knowledge?

Sep 13, 201847 minSeason 1Ep. 134
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