Mandyland

Dopamine Hits and Reward (S5E1)

In this educational monologue Mandy talks about what is actually going on with the dopamine hits everyone talks about these days and then ends with some practical ways to control our behaviour for better mental health and wellbeing through harnessing the power of the reward system. See also: Berridge KC, Kringelbach ML. Pleasure systems in the brain. Neuron. 2015 May 6;86(3):646-64. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018. PMID: 25950633; PMCID: PMC4425246. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/...

Talking with Sarah about her experience with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic (S3E14)

Pandemic Take Aways with Mike (S3E13)

Reflecting on what part of this experience we want to take forward...

Talking with the Hosts of the Uncoverup Conspiracy Podcast (S3E11)

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-psychology-of-conspiracy-thinking/id1316684637?i=1000467017701 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nathan-radke-671614139/the-psychology-of-conspiracy-thinking https://www.instagram.com/theuncoverup/?hl=en https://twitter.com/TheUncoverUp

Mandyland Rant: Christmas (S3E10)

It’s December. Christmas season is well among us. It’s a crazy time of year for many people. Not me. But for many others. Here in this rant I talk about my process of degifting my holidays, the terribleness of commercialized Christmas, the egocentrism of Christmas, the stress and money issues around Christmas, and where is religion in all of this? I end with some thoughts on Santa.

Mandyland Rant: Gender (S3E9)

Me… ranting about gender, gender issues, gender reveal parties, gendered clothing, gender segregation, gender neutral, gender expansion, gendered opportunities, gendered washrooms… It didn’t start out as a rant. It was going to be an introduction to two other conversations about gender I’ve had specifically around gender-expansive parenting. But 17 minutes in, I realized it was a rant. Oops. One thing I should add, that I didn’t add during the audio is that despite hating segregation, I do think...

Mandyland Rant: University Education (S3E8)

Me ranting about accessibility issues and the university system. No, I’m not actually lacking compassion for people’s needs. What I’m annoyed with is why we aren’t individualizing education more. I have lots of issues with the university system and you can read about some of them in the MicroDegree Manifesto too.

Lindsay and her NXIVM Cult Experience: Getting and Being In (S3E7)

EPISODE 2: Today, I share parts of my conversation with Lindsay about what compelled into this world. I love how she starts with it’s not like they say “hey wanna join this cult and we’re gonna have this sex group?”. The recruiting process is very deliberate and calculated.

Lindsay and her NXIVM Cult Experience: PTSD and Life After Leaving (S3E6)

I am talking with my very dear friend, Lindsay. About 8 years ago, Lindsay got involved in the now famous cult, NXIVM, lead by Keith Raniere. In June of this year (2019) Keith was convicted of federal crimes including sex trafficking, conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor. His sentencing is at the end of October, 2019. I have been talking with Lindsay about her involvement since she started, back in 2011. Then this past summer, 2 years after she left the cult, we decided to make some...

Co-Living and Community (S3E5)

Alia and I speak for the first time during this conversation. We were introduced through email by a mutual friend, Paul, who we both know from CSI (Centre for Social Innovation). Paul connected us because Alia is interested in co-living and because my partner and I bought a house in Toronto with our friends and are in a co-living situation. We talk here about what makes for a good human experience and community in a good co-living situation. Resources: Centre for Social Innovation https://social...

Bisexuality bi Vanessa, prefaced bi Mandy (S3E4)

If you want to sit in on a class presentation on the research related to bisexuality please listen to this podcast! Vanessa is a MicroMasters student (part of the Centre for Applied Neuroscience MicroDegree in Psychological Neuroscience) supervised by me, Mandy Wintink. This week’s seminar class was on Sex and Gender and Vanessa’s topic was “Bisexuality” and she presents on the topic according to the guiding questions that provoked the research (see below). The other voices you can hear are that...

Nailing the Ask... i.e., asking for money with Mandy (S3E3)

I reflect on two examples of people asking for money, one good, one not-so good.

Coaching Dawn Around Her Acute Stress Reactions (S3E2)

Dawn has spoken before about her sever mental health issues (e.g., Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder). She works with a psychiatrist, is on medication, and is on permanent disability and unable to work. Today, she shares with an acute stress reaction she recently had and aims to get some perspective on it. She had approached me to do a live coaching session. The video associated with this session will also be released soon. If you have benefited...

Candid Conversation Refining A Mission Statement (S3E1)

Truth be told, Mandyland is not my main gig. I actually run a company on the side. ;) The Centre for Applied Neuroscience is where I do most of my work as a life coach, life coach trainer, and a neuroscience workshop leader in organizations. I founded the company in 2010 and now have 7-8 people working for me part-time. During this team meeting, we brainstormed our mission and corporate philosophy and present it to our clients, potential clients, and friends of Mandyland as part of our “openness...

Season 2 Recap and Season 3 Forecast (S2E35)

Just a little recap of my experience with season two and forecasting what to expect for season 3. In case it interests you, look into the MicroDegree mentioned in this episode: http://www.knowyourbrain.ca/microdegree

Mike's Cancer Patient Experience (S2E34)

A year ago Mike was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a cancer of the kidneys. He had surgery 6 months later. His experience was, on paper, great because everything went medically well. But his patient experience made him think very deeply about how to improve the cancer patient experience. Mike is the Design Director at Healthcare Human Factors, a consultancy through University Health Network in Toronto. He is fortunate to be in a position to rethink and design cancer care and he’s doing tha...

Conversation with Vanessa: The Concept of Sexual Orientation is Not Enough To Capture Modern Relationships (S2E33)

Vanessa, who recently came out as Polyamorous , is questioning whether identifying a sexual orientation is enough to really capture all the nuances of romantic relationships. So we discuss… and that obviously brings up a discussion about gay versus bisexual and gender and labels in general. Resources: Living Apart Together: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/child-poverty-john-cleese-mail-paid-sick-leave-revolution-baby-living-arrangements-episode-3-1.2905289/living-apart-together-1.29052...

Saying Goodbye to Jett, My Amazing Dog (S2E32)

Pets: We love them dearly, oftentimes more than the humans in our life. When they leave us it is one of the hardest things to experience. It’s been 2 days since we said goodbye to our amazing dog Jett. It hurts like hell. I miss her dearly. I will love her forever. I want her to come back.

Sarah Reacts to News That Her Liver Tumour Shrank (S2E31)

Sarah just got news that one of her tumours (a liver tumour) shrunk! Yay! It appears to be from the radiation she had back in March, which is welcomed news after being a bit confused as to what the initial report meant. She shares this with us today in context with the past 5 days of the perpetual roller coaster she is on. We end with a little life coachey-rest officer discussion about how she is planning to manage her energy for an upcoming trip to Australia.

The Science of Love and the Brain (S2E30)

Tackling the science of [heterosexual] love is an interesting endeavour indeed. Lauren starts us off with the idea of three phases of love (lust, attraction, and attachment), the hormones and neurotransmitters associated with some of these phases, differences between men and women* and an evolutionary perspective on love. We then spend a good deal of time talking about attachment and what that kind of love means in parenting and with pet animals. We even talk about how the brain is affected by a...

Vanessa comes out as Poly (S2E29)

My friend and colleague, Vanessa, recently came out as polyamorous. She’s been living this philosophy for a long time but I was not privy to it, mostly because she had been keeping her professional life separate from her polyamorous life. But she’s been provoked (by our Cosmic Consultant, Cylla — see Cosmic Consultation episode) to let these two worlds collide. So over breakfast in Costa Rica (we were there for work actually!) I open up my phone to record and solicit her into a conversation, whi...

Mourning Sounds of Costa Rica (S2E28)

The morning sounds of Costa Rica is such a great example of the diversity of their ecosystem. It makes me laugh thinking back to when I posted a Birds Chirping Meditation from a park in Toronto. This recording was done while I did a morning yoga practice in the open yoga studio. Now, I do my practice to it while back in Toronto, keeping my eyes closed and feeling like I'm back there. It's a good interim until we return next April again!

Marijuana and the Brain (S2E27)

In a (school) year when marijuana became legal, how could we resist the temptation to discuss the neuroscience side of this popular drug. With this change in legislation here in Canada, it granted us the ability to have an open conversation about it, including some of our own personal experiences along with research related to two psychoactive ingredients: CBD (cannabidiol) and and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). We covered both sides of this in terms the benefits and the negative side effects. Refe...

Update from Sarah Monologue Style (S2E26)

Sarah provides a spring update on where she's at with cancer. It’s been a year since her metastatic cancer diagnosis. More scans, treatment protocols, surgeries, emotions, and science.

Impermanence and Expectations Talk and Meditation (S2E25)

Join me for a sitting meditation. Find your comfortable sitting position, close your eyes, focus on your breath, listen to me talk about impermanence and expectations in the context of anxiety. Then stay for silence together.

Memory and the Brain (S2E24)

In this week’s episode, we explore one of the most crucial aspects of the human experience; memory. We start off with a phenomenon Lauren finds particularly interesting: Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, in which individuals can recall specific, extremely detailed aspects of their daily lives spanning years and even decades in the past. From there we discuss How do we store memories? What different facets and types of memory are there? What is going on with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. We al...

Vision and the Brain (S2E23)

Summary: Humans experience and observe some of the most extravagant wonders and marvelous sights the world has to offer using the sense many of us sometimes take for granted ; Vision! How do eyes work? What role does the brain play in all of it ? Can we trust what we see ? Find out in this week’s episode of the neuroscience podcast. Quite literally, there is more than meets the eye! References: Bokkon, I. (2009). Visual perception and imagery: A new molecular hypothesis. Biosystems, 96(2), 178-1...

Nutrition and the Brain (S2E22)

For the second week of our Conversations with Neuroscience Students series, we discuss Nutrition and the Brain, which is a nice extension from what we talked about last week regarding Exercise and the Brain. There were many places we could have gone with this. What we did get into included the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (referred to as simply ‘BDNF' in the episode… and in neuroscience). We talked about toxins and diets and inflammation and even meandered into a discussion about so...

More Breath Awareness Meditation (S2E21)

This is a guided meditation practice with a focus on breath awareness. It's one of several basic introductory meditations to help build concentration skills with a focus on the breath.

Exercise and the Brain (S2E20)

In this episode, we dive into the world of health and wellness and how exercise affects the brain. We explore concepts such as CBR (cerebral blood flow) and BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor) to see how these are affected by exercise. We also talk about how exercise can affect different demographics and what significance it holds for illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We also share some of personal experiences with exercise and how it affects us and our studies.