The Huberman Lab podcast is hosted by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. The podcast discusses neuroscience and science-based tools, including how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health, as well as existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works.
Huberman has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. He is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision, in 2017.
Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell, and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover, and other top media outlets.
In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.
Dr. Harold McGee, renowned author on food chemistry, joins the podcast to explore the science of taste and cooking. He explains how heat transforms food molecules, how individual biology and culture shape preferences, and shares insights into umami, fermentation, and beverage chemistry. This conversation offers actionable tools and a deeper appreciation for the sensory experience of eating.
In this episode, Dr. Anna Lembke explains how dopamine drives reward and addictive behaviors through the pleasure-pain balance model. She discusses how chronic exposure to high-dopamine stimuli can lower our baseline, leading to a dopamine deficit state akin to depression and driving cravings. The conversation covers strategies for recovery, including 30-day abstinence to reset the system, the role of truth-telling, understanding relapse triggers (even positive ones), and the potential pitfalls and limited clinical data on psychedelic-assisted therapy for addiction. The episode concludes by addressing social media as an engineered drug and the importance of intentional use and offline connections.
Learn how the vagus nerve, a vast body-brain pathway, regulates mood, digestion, alertness, and neuroplasticity. Discover actionable tools leveraging vagal sensory and motor pathways, including specific breathing techniques to improve heart rate variability, exercise for enhanced alertness and learning, and dietary strategies to support gut-brain serotonin signaling for better mood. Understand the science behind these powerful, non-pharmacological methods.
This episode explores how the brain and body sense and interpret pain and pleasure, discussing the role of the skin and neural pathways. It delves into subjective factors like expectation, anxiety, and genetics that influence perception and pain threshold, offering tools like managing temperature exposure, acupuncture, and understanding the neural basis of conditions like fibromyalgia. The episode also covers the pleasure system, focusing on dopamine and serotonin and the importance of the pain-pleasure balance.
Jun 19, 2025•37 min
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