BRAINWAVES: SMOOTH BRAIN SOCIETY
Words by Sahir Hussain (he/him) and Alex Marinkovich-Josey (he/him)
You can’t have an issue on the brain without input from Smooth Brain Society. We’re a psychology-focused podcast that tries to make the field more accessible. Scientific research is far from sexy, so this podcast helps bring forward all the cool work people do and disprove Maria Mitchell saying "knowledge which is popular is not scientific". In a world with endless information available to us at all times, we want to go straight to the source.
We talk to experts in the field about their work, what the research tells us, and what things we need to weary of when we see clickbait titles about miracle cures.
Making science attractive in hour-long episodes is pretty hard, so we decided to start with psychology and neuroscience related fields. This immediately makes things interesting by trying to understand the entire human experience, unboxing the plethora of ways in which researchers conceptualise the brain. A relationship researcher would remind you that the brain is what makes one fall in love—the heart can only cause erections.
A neurochemist would look at the brain and see how the cells talk to each other in ways that make us
human and make each person unique. A developmental researcher would look at how the brain’s development links to behaviour, while cognitive researchers would look at specific brain regions and how we perceive the world.
In our most recent episode, we talked to neuropsychologist Dr Caroline Wilshire. Dr Wilshire spoke to the mismatch between the causes of depression and its current treatments. Her work highlights how damage or
dysfunction to certain areas of the brain can produce symptoms of depression and be diagnosed as such,
but the treatments don't work. In her words, "you cannot talk yourself out of something you didn’t talk yourself into.” There is a need for not only broadening research, but also increasing awareness about health issues to lead to the best possible outcomes for everyone.
You can check out that episode now, wherever you get your podcasts, and keep an eye out for these other
excellent episodes sure to wrinkle your brain.
Being Creative
What do we mean when someone is creative? Professor Vlad Glaveanu from Dublin City University
video called us to talk about his work with creativity, imagination, culture, societal changes, and possibility.
We cover the factors useful to creativity, types of creative identities, creativity and culture, and Prof Vlad's recent work on possibility and researching memes.
“From a cognitive approach and somatic networks, when you combine concepts that are very separate,
for instance ice-cream and zebras, that connection is going to have to be creative and more cognitively challenging! Our brains cluster directly related concepts together more easily.” - Professor Vlad Glaveanu.
Mental Health Awareness Special With Youthline, Bravely and Jasmin Shoukri
Rob Cartwright joined us to speak about Bravely, a global mental health app trying to bridge the gap between therapy and 'just using Google'. We also talk to Jasmin Shoukri, a mental health coach in Germany, who spoke about the similarities and differences between support work in New Zealand and Germany, before talking about her own coaching. Lastly, we come back to the studio with Abbey Busch, the Education and Youth Development Coordinator of Youthline Wellington, to talk about the services they offer for youth mental
health support work in Wellington and Aotearoa.
How to stop a Murderer
Dr Adrian Raine is one of the leading voices in neurocriminology. He was the first scientist to use neuroimaging to study the brains of murderers and is noted for his research on the neurobiological causes
of violent behaviour in children and adults. He currently holds the chair of Richard Perry University Professor of Criminology and Psychiatry in the Department of Criminology. Smooth Brain Society was honoured
to have Dr Raine talk about his research and the steps he hopes to see in order to reduce violent crimes in the future.