Brain Science

we laughed so hard in front of you. But also after you left, there were some great imitations in the office of what you look like. I actually got a concussion and I actually had questions like why do I forget my nightmares? Why do I remember what my granny had inside her blue robe? What did your granny have inside her blue robe? Tits in a butt? She flashed me by accident. It was a long time ago, by accident.

What happened, Well, I was a young kid. I was just taking the trash out and she was grabbing the mail, and she looked at me, slowly opened her robe and then shut it and went inside that I don't think that was by accident then sounds like she just flashed you. Mm hmm. Well let's add that to my list of questions. Why did my grandmother flash me? Why are people color blind? Why does Baxter have night tares? So I'm sorry, who are these questions for? Because there's a lot of them.

I've got another question? Why does it take Carolina so long to get the point? Today we're talking to a real life brain scientist to get all those answers, and then some we'll learn the inner workings of the mind, that dark, cavernous space we rarely go. We use our minds to think, but we never use our minds to think about our minds. I don't know. Isn't that what therapy is or self help books are for. I think we actually do think about the inner workings of our minds,

and I think we don't. And it is my show. You know that phrase, it's not brain science, Well this is brain science, actually the phrases. It's not rocket science. Carolina. Can I talk to you for a second over here? Yeah? Sure, okay, thank you. What is your deal, lady? I'm just trying to make sure what you're saying is accurate and coming off as a real you know what, Ron, I'm sorry.

It's just that you're sorry. Yes, can we just make a pact that for the rest of the day, whatever I say, Okay, whatever you think of it, whatever your judgment is going to be, you just agree with me a right, even if you think, oh, it's so dumb, run or it's so weird, or oh look, I have a bookshelf and I know how to use a compass um and if I done, is this gonna affect my salary? It absolutely will affect yourself. Great, okay, okay, fine, just go with the flow. All right, I'll just agree today.

What's the name of the podcast? But then bury podcast it's not called the Carolina Podcast. Is no need because it's my podcast, and just support me. I want to feel supported. You're supported. I'm gonn support Okay to our listeners. Sorry for the pause. Carolina and I had a meeting about accounting. Yeah, just a quick meaning to discuss some disagreements. Today we're sitting down with a brain scientist, Dr Milstein.

He's smarter than almost all of us. I promise there is a strong chance that if you're listening to this, he's smarter than you. And if that pisces. You off, I get it made me a little angry just thinking about it. I mean, he's not smarter than me. God, I'm getting angry again. All right, Ron, try to be a professional, you know what. Nick cut to commercial. I've got to go scream this out and we're back. You're listening to the Ron Burgundy podcast. And I'm on a

mood stabilizer. So I feel much better. Um here we are with a real life brainiac in the studio. Dr Milstein, the brain scientist. He knows what's inside your brain. Pretty crazy stuff. How are you, Dr Millhouse, I'm doing good. It's actually el Stein, but thank you, thanks for having me. You know what I wrote that incorrectly? Doctor? What exactly

is your official title? So I am a scientist, and so what I do now is I take a lot of the latest cutting edge studies, things that are being discovered, and analyze them and try to get them out to doctors and people who want to know about how to live better, how to optimize their brain, keep it healthy. So you're not a physician, no, not a physician, scientist, but if like I had a heart attack right now, you could save You have some medical training, you could

save my life. I would probably call nine and maybe attempts CPR. All right, have you ever taken a CPR class? I did? I did? Yes in college, Carolina. Have you yeah? You asked me too? Okay, good? Um, let me ask you this question. I know there's a lot of information on the amount of sleep we get, right, So why do I need fourteen hours of sleep every night? Is that? Do you get fourteen hours of sleep at least? At

least that's a lot of sleep. That's uh, you might want to would you say that's a borderline too much? I would say that would be a concern. Oh, I thought I was doing great. Yet You'll always say I need to make sure I get my fourteen and I'll say I nailed it last night. I got sixteen and a half. So that's not that's not the way to go, right. So sleep is definitely very important for the brain, but we're looking at more the right amount as opposed to too much or too little. So fourteen would be you

want to check in with your personal doctor. So during sleep, what does the brain do? It's recharging, regenerating, just literally resting. So it's it's actually amazing what we've learned is that it's not just resting, it's actually going through almost like a program, a sequence. And so one thing that's amazing is that when you're asleep, your brain actually shrinks down to about sixty its current size and squeezes out of the brain cells trash, talks, and waste, and it squeezes

all that out into that empty space. And then where does that go? So then fluid comes up from your spinal cord and washes your brain. So every night you have a brainwash. So that's why it's so important to sleep. And then that waste in trash. This is true. I can show you a picture. This is yeah, this is this is cutting edge, just getting into the medical textbooks. So the brain shrinks, sprinks, dowwn. It sounds like a

horror movie, but it's real. Is there any chance that when the brain expands back that it would go it would start to explode out of your head. Uh, that's not a concern. No, But but it's a it's a dynamic process. It's pulse eights and it squeezes out all that trash and toxins and waste out of curiosity, what if you have a spinal cord injury, would that affect the process? That's a great question. So that is a concern, is that anyone who has a spinal cord. Why was

her question so great and mine wasn't so great? I should have said that you had That was a great question to go ahead, both great. Um, The concern can be that if that fluid is not making its way to the brain, that the washing might not be as as effective, and so you could keep toxins inside your body.

So what we're learning is is that even things like dementia, which is very complex, or someone losing their memory, that's why sleep is so important, is because that build up of toxins and trash, we need to wash it out every night while we're sleeping. God, is this why there's a new trend to drink your own spinal cord fluid. I haven't heard that. I think that would not be a good idea, because I I could have sworn that's you know a lot of professional athletes are now drinking

their own spinal cord fluid. Yeah, I haven't heard that, but that it would not be a good idea. Okay, And so during sleep time, what is the average man's risk for being incepted. Incepted meaning like the movie inceptional inception. Actually haven't seen that movie, so you mean you mean someone sneaking into your brain and planting like bad ideas inside your head A lot of times when Ron makes a mistake, he says, oh, I was incepted, right right. The statistics on that I'm not aware of. I would

say they're extremely low to zero. But I would say that, well, what we can learn while we're sleeping is pretty interesting because inception is based on a true story. So I don't know if it's said that, but i'd like doctor, I'd like you to tell that to Chris Nolan. Uh. One area though, the is you can there's some interesting research you might be able to learn while you're sleep. Maybe a word here, you might process it like a foreign language or so that that's CPR foreign language. I

wish that was true. But it seems like maybe you could learn a word here, and then it would be fun to take CPR and a foreign language, because then you'd kill two birds with one stone. That's a good idea. I popped it on your list. So you're having a dream, Let's say you die in your dream. Does that kill you? Like in Freddy Krueger's Nightmare on Elm Street. No, that

does not that does not kill you. No, if you die in your dream, yes, so yeah, your dream are not not based on what happens in your and what's going to happen to you in your day to day. That is a relief. That is an absolute relief. Um. The other day, I forgot to have my cup of morning Joe, right, and wouldn't you know it, I punched a hole through this wall. Uh what what the heck is that about not getting that morning caffeine. Yes, well, caffeine is something that is very helpful in you know,

it wakes you up. People can help them with their mood. So it's possible that if you had a bit of a mood sweet had a bit of a mood swing about your your morning morning coffee. That because I'm getting fourteen hours of sleep and it takes me, what would you say, another three hours to get out of my groggy state. Yeah. I don't usually understand what you're talking

about until three cups of coffee. Yes, but you've said some really sweet things, and then after coffee, you say, I become a normal rationally exactly, doctor, When you scan my brain, what color is it? So is it necessarily a color? It depends what type of scanning you're using. But you're usually looking at things like white matter and gray matter, so usually would come up in a scan as white or gray. But there are ways that now they do scans where there's colors that represent different parts

of the brain or different connections. So there's the computer assigns colors to different parts of you. If you scan someone's brain, can you tell if they're a white hat or a black hat. That's a term we just learned in cybersecurity, where black hat is a bad hacker in a white hat. Yes, pick thank you. That was a good question, right, that was a good question. I don't believe sometin I don't think you can do that. I mean, if I was in a bad mood and you scan

my brain, would it be red? Because angry? So when you're certain moods, certain parts of your brain, blood flows to that part of the brain, and so that you can pick that up in a brain scan and say, oh, this person is angry or that they're more in a calm state. So those types of things you can't see on a brain scan. Um Carolina here is a pathological liar. Okay, so what does her brain look like? I normally would disagree with this, but I made a pact with run earlier,

so yeah, let's go with it. What does the brain look like that somebody who's a pathological liar, in other words, Carolina's brain? What would it look like? You know, on one hand, we learn a lot from brain scans, but it's very difficult to just look at a brain skin and make that sort of conclusion that this person is a pathological liar. Um. But our ability to control parts of our brain, our emotions, uh, it really comes from this part of our our brain right here behind our forehead,

our prefrontal cortex. So that would be something that could be investigated. Is the size and the strength of that part of the brain. Should you get a brain scan like once a week, just to stay on top of things that would not be recommended? Okay? Alright, if someone say Ron may have exaggerated something, here we go again, and he highly highly doubtful, go ahead. Then he believed

that it was the truth. So some liars believe their own lives eventually, is that from a deep seated sort of route that they keep using or by the way, she's referring to the fact that I won the Heisman Trophy. You see, that is a hard it's a hard Southern Methodist university. So something that's really interesting about memory and

what we think is reality is that every time. So when you have a memory, when you have an experience, you make when I ran for a hundred and forty seven yards when that's Baylor right, right, when something like the cotton Bull, when that memory that memory. So if we go back to what happened in was it nineteen the moment that happened, your brain made a connection. Every

time you rethink of it, you revisit that connection. We think of my seventy eight yard touchdown run and you win the game in overtime form the connection, yes, And so every time you revisit it, you actually reformed the connection. So you'll know just when people retell stories, the stories change, but they believe what they're telling you because they're revisiting the most recent version of the connection as opposed to what happened in the moment they made the connection. So

that's why the right that's they remember their memory. That's why witness testimony is very flawed. That's why two people experienced the same event years later, they have very different, very different accounts, very different accounts of it. Yes, so memory is very strange. It's not really you're not revisiting what actually happened, but the last time you thought of it. Because some people come to me and say, no, you didn't run for seven or seventy two yard touchdown. You

ran a sixty eight yard touchdown. And then a lot of people come up to me and say, you were never at that game, you never played college football, and that's their memory of it, of what happened. That's true. Uh, where in my brain are my taste buds? Oh, that's a good question. So your taste buds are actually in your mouth, on your and many of them actually in your nose. So when you're tasting things and you plug your nose, uh, you have a very hard time tasting.

Most of taste sensation is actually through the nose. The nose is actually connected very closely to the brain, so the sensory of smell is right here below your nose. So is that why a lot of the world's top chefs, when they're you know, sampling their their dish before it's about to be plated, will shove a portion of it

up their nose to taste it. So the nose I'm not sure if they do that, but what I do know is that the nose is very connected to the brain and the sense of smell, and so it's right there. Your your brain is right here at the top of your nose, and that's the chemicals from the food. Actually, they go in the air and they attach right there, and that your brain makes sense. How could I train my taste buds, well, my brain to like lettuce, to tell my taste buds, Oh you love lettuce. I guess

you could make an association lettuce. That's a positive thing, something that you like about something else. Anytime you eat lettuce, let us, I'll think of the joy of what I won, the Heisman troph You could do that then that that moment, eat more lettuce? Yeah. Um, do you do experiments on mice? I have? How cute are they? I think they're pretty cute. They can be they can't be cute? Yeah, and so I when I was sometimes we're about to, you know, hook a mouse up to an electrode, Like he's too cute.

I can't do it, um, there's death, shove a sensor up its butt or something like that. You know, I love animals, and it's it's a it's and I currently don't do any animal research, but I always try to remind myself of the greater good for humans. But but at the same time, it's it's tough. I'm gonna be honest, right right right, m hmm. Well and what was your

what was a successful ron just thinking about a mouse? Yeah, okay, the mouse I met okay, um, go ahead, sorry, Caroline, what were you saying, give me, give me a chase to compose myself? What's this successful mouse experiment that you've done where mice have taught us about something? Uh, so specifically that I've done or or anyone has done that

was interesting to you. Well, wow, there's there's so what we talked about the brainwash that was initially discovered in animals like mind and then it was and then moved up into understanding humans. So, uh, there is quite a bit of what we understand starts at the level of so things starting dishes essentially with cells, and then if that is understood, then it goes to the next level. Oftentimes something like a worm or a fruit fly, and then it moves up up the ladder until we can

make sure that this is valid information that can be helpful. Wait, so you're doing tests on fruit flies. Yeah, I used to do fruit fly research. Yeah, that's a lot of our genetic studies come, believe it or not, from mantalizing flies. And has anyone ever cloned to fly before? Yes, so that that that has happened, so that that's where they So they've cloned sheep and things like that. But um, that's those are tricky experiments because there's some issues there

about how healthy the clone is. Right, dr Sometimes I lose myself to dance. How can I stop that? I would not stop that, I would you know. They looked at a study where they found that essentially one of the best things you can do for your brain danceing. They actually took people who are older and they said, what can we do to make these people have younger brains? And they tried all different activities, exercise, you name it.

Nothing was better than dancing because it's a combination of physical and creative, physical, mental, social thing, feel good, it's it's it's everything you want to do for your brain in one activity. So don't don't give that up. So dance like a fool. Dance like a fool. I won't feel so guilty when I you know, in the middle of it's been kind of distracting airplane flight. I just stand up and like it. That's boogie. Yes, we're heading to San Jose. People NonStop to San Jose. Let's dance

the whole time. They usually asked me to sit down. When I are the song bad Girls by Donna Summers, I have to dance, Okay, I have no choice. Is my brain a mere servant for Donna's beats? How do I get free of her control? Or what? I guess you would argue, don't don't free yourself. So there's two things I think that you were talking about, which is one is why why when you hear a beat do you want to move? Specifically Donna Summer, Donna Summer specifically?

Are you talking about earworms? This idea that of song you can't get out of your head? How do you get out of your head? That's sort of the question. Or why is Donna summing? I would never put am in my ear? What you know, there's a term that you know when you have a song stuck in your head and yeah, yeah, yeah, that's they call that an

earworm and why does that happen? Um, So, there's been these really interesting studies where they found that your brain loves to predict what's going to happen next in a song, and a lot of these songs that are so catchy, they're not quite predictable, and so your brain is constantly replaying that little piece over and over again to try to make sense of why it wasn't quite exactly what your brain expected, and it goes on a loop. So

your brain finds comfort in predicting the next pattern. Yes, something. Your brain loves to predict the next thing. That's why, Uh, you know, when you're driving work to home, home to work and you say, how did I get here? Your brain loves that predictability. It loves to go auto pilot. Yeah, it loves to go into autopilot because the brain gets a chance to to check out. Essentially, Yeah, it goes

into what we call autopilot or habit mode. And so when something is surprising or knew, your brain can become fixated on it. Now, I wonder what GPS is that affecting the brain's ability to remember how to get home. There's some They did this study with taxi drivers who had to learn London and it seems like there's something good about finding your way using directions and it actually can be helpful to the brain. That it's possible we

could be losing that predictability. This makes me think of monogamy. So how because the airline is not she's never been in a monogamous relationship in her life. Continue, Yeah, thus the song bad Girls. Yeah, do you think the brain likes predictability? Obviously, So if you're in a monogamous relationship, get to the point, geez, do you think that the brain likes the monogamy? But also it obviously when you have a song stuck in your head, likes the new

thing that they can't predict. So how does that affect monogamy versus a new person. So love and the brain is something that's been analyzed quite a bit in the last few years, and so there is this there's different stages of love. There's early love where you're excited, it's new and exciting, and then it kind of calms down. There's kind of the sweatpants phase of love where people get more comfortable and that can be a good thing,

but it can get a little monotonous. And so what is often recommended based upon the brain is that keep doing new and surprising things. Go new places, see a new movie, go to a new restaurant, because that element of surprise causes dopamine release in the brain and actually helps keep the relationship exciting. So, dr, I'm a guy who likes to go with my gut. You know, I want it, I got it, you like my hair, just bought it. What does my brain have to do with

my gut instinct? So that's that's really one of the most exciting areas of brain science right now, which is that what's happening down here in your connection is this connection and so a big part of that is that you have trillions of bacteria living in your gut, and those bacteria are releasing chemicals and we all have different types of bacteria. Those different chemicals can stimulate UH nerves

that sends signals to the brain. So so the idea of the gut instinct, there is a real connection that you should listen to that. So we're not sure yet if you should be completely listening to your gut, but your gut is sending signals to your brain. So one are you? What do you like chocolate? I'm a chocoholic. Chocoholic, so people whore chocoholics oftentimes have certain types of bacteria in their gut. They're actually sending signals to their brain saying,

go get some chocolate. Our mood, our anxiety, are feelings of stress complex. But what's happening in our gut Bacteria send signals and can impact how we're feeling. So it's a really we wouldn't think that, but what's happening down here in our gut has this really fascinating relationship with our brain. So when you feel your stomach drop, or you feel that sinking feeling of you're scared or you're anxious, or you have to go to work, um you, that's

connected to what what are you? What are you? Sometimes you have a sinking feeling, you're good a little bit, then just eat some chocolate. So that that's your advice for literally everything, Well, is it bad? It's no, it's good advice. Actually, it's positive reinforcement at the very least. So we used to always think that, for example, if you're stressed or worried, that that was happening from your brain and then you would get an upset stomach. And

that's true, that's still very true. But now we realize it's a two way street. So it can happen is that your gut can be off, and then that can set signals to your brain that make you nervous or worry. So it's this idea that there are these two organs are talking to each other, and so nutrition affects our moods a lot. Yeah, So that's what we're learning is

what we eat can have an impact. It's very It's not the only thing that impacts, but what we eat determines what types of bacteria live there, and then what type of bacteria there can impact how your mood is. Um, I forget everyone's birthday. That's just me. I've never remembered a birthday in my life. How can I remember one? I just need to remember one, my own. How do

you remember your own birthday? Remembering your own birthday? Usually when things are repeated over and over again, they get deep, it gets locked in. Uh, writing it down and revisiting it can be helpful. So putting it on a post it note. The more we see things making it emotional. Maybe you can't say your birthday is every Friday. I've had to wish you a happy birthday. Well, he loves the attention of the cake and the candles. I've gotten used to it to have my birthday every Friday, and

that's the repeated behavior again. Right, my brain loves it. But subsequently I've actually forgotten the actual date of my own birthday. Huh. Well, fascinating. Yes. Um, so will we ever develop powers of esp brains? That's a good question. Um, I would say not in the near future. No, in terms of evolution, like next year, not No, not not next not in not and not any time in in

evolution is very very slow. That's a shame. But we know so little about the brain that there is, you know, a lot of hope for understanding more and tapping into things and everyone you hear this like we only use x percent of our brain, right, what would you you know? That's what that's that's considered one of the biggest myths in brain science. That's based upon this idea that you're only using your brain, but you're really using your whole brain.

You're using that That's what I've always said, you're using the whole thing. But your ability to learn more is almost limitless. Yeah, pretty much, even with age. Even with age, many parts of learning actually in the ability to learn new things, to analyze things can get better with age. So you can teach a new dog old tricks. Yes, the brain is trick constantly rebuilding, remodeling. So let's say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Yes, we're

teaching around some sayings. Yes, what was the other saying we were working on? You said, um, this isn't my first rodeo, but you said my first merry go round? Yes, sayings are fun. Is that a sign of intelligence? Uh? I guess referencing things? Yeah? What about if you can name like all the teams in the NFL, Is that a sign of intelligence? Uh? You know, intelligence is many different things. But recall memory, that's a that's a part of it, part of intelligence. But many different things were

involved in intelligence. So he here's a big question. It's been put out there by certain pundits that our current president is cuckoo. Where do you stand on that? On your on your analysis from afar? Is he a crazy man? Um? You know? Or is he crazy like a fox? So? Is that the saying I think that is the same. I think you're right. Usually so psychologists, which is different than what I do. I think they're uh, they try

not to analyze people unless they've met them. That's that's essentially the credo, and that that makes it makes sense making that assessment. And so even though I'm a pretty good judge of a character from afar right right right, I'll often walk into a crowded room and just go, I don't like you, bozo narcissist anyway. Yeah, sorry to keep interrupting. No, no, no, those but those terms like

narcissist or or psychopath. We throw those terms around, but really to actually, um, I know if somebody truly is that term in general, you have to you have to sit down and talk to them really and have a professional really analyze them. Mhm okay, well, doctor, thank you so much for spending time with us here in the Ron Burgundy Podcast. We have learned so much. You've you've put to rest a lot of questions that we had, and uh we wish you continued success. Oh, thank you

for having me. I really appreciate being here, and we'll have more right after this commercial bake break, My brain is tired on Ron Suargundy podcast. Welcome back to the Ron Burgundy Podcast. Here are my final thoughts, Caroline, I have to say something now that Dr Millstein is gone, now that he's out of here, I just I have to say something controversial. I really didn't think he was that smart, really, and I think some of his words

were made up. I'm serious. He just he seemed a little smug, don't you think, I mean, does he think he's smarter than us? I think he's smarter than us. I mean he's a professional scientist. Wow, you think he's smarter than me? After all I've taught you? I'm sorry, what what do you think you've taught me? What have

I taught you? Yeah? I mean, um, let me think. Um, how about how to play green sleeves on the jazz flute, how to take a horse bath, how to wash under my car, how to wash eight mildly aggressive Doberman's um? What else? Oh, how to shine fifteen candelabras, how to wire money to an offshore Okay, let's stop, let's stop right there. I mean, yes, that's true. You did teach me some of those things, and that's something a brain

scientist wouldn't know how to do right. Let's face it, You're right, yeah, those are some skills that you don't learn. I mean, we should hand that guy the garden hose and put him in my backyard with the domeriman. See if he can even wash one of them, because I'm telling you, those animals they hate smarty pants. If they can detect a smarty pants in the room, they will go for the jugular. All right. For my listeners out there, thank you for your business. It was a pleasure as always.

And to any know it alls listening out there, I hope today taught you that you don't know at all. In fact, you don't know from Shinola. And with that ad, The Ron Burgundy Podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and Funnier Die. I'm Ron Burgundy. The host, writer and executive producer. Carolina Barlow is my co host, writer and producer. Our producers are Jack O'Brien, Nick Stump, Miles Gray, and Whitney Ode. Our executive producer is Mike Farren. A

consulting producer is Andrew Steele. Our coordinating producer is Colin McDougald. Our associate producers are Anna Holsnian and Sophie Lichtman. Our writer is Jake Fogels. Our production coordinator is Hannah Jacobs. Said this episode was engineered, mixed, and edited by Nick Stuff. Until next time, Ron Bernie stand, oh you bad, no, your bead No, you're such a dirty, bad ground