Podcasts · Science · Health & Fitness

From Our Neurons to Yours

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University, Nicholas Weiler

90 episodes

This award-winning show from Stanford’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute is a field manual for anyone who wants to understand their own brain and the new science reshaping how we learn, age, heal, and make sense of ourselves.

More about the show

Each episode, host Nicholas Weiler sits down with leading scientists to unpack big ideas from the frontiers of the field—brain-computer interfaces and AI language models; new therapies for depression, dementia, and stroke; the mysteries of perception and memory; even the debate over free will. You’ll hear how basic research becomes clinical insight and how emerging tech might expand what it means to be human. If you’ve got a brain, take a listen.

Episodes page 2 of 2

  1. Unraveling Timothy Syndrome: the new science of human brain development | Sergiu Pasca

    · 31 min · S5 E4

    This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about using new techniques for growing human brain tissue in the lab to solve a rare neurological disorder. Host Nicholas Weiler sits down with Sergiu Pasca an…

  2. How VR could help treat depression with "radical behaviorist" Dr. Kim Bullock

    · 22 min · S5 E3

    Today, we're going to talk about virtual reality and how it could be used to treat depression. We're talking with psychiatrist Kim Bullock, the founding director of Stanford's Neurobehavioral Clinic and Virtual Reality…

  3. Electronic skin and the future of wearable technology | Zhenan Bao

    · 24 min · S5 E2

    The skin is full of contradictions. It’s soft and sensitive, but also tough and resilient, even self-healing. It’s both the barrier that protects us from infections and our most intimate connection with the outside…

  4. How a new kind of brain plasticity could help make sense of addiction | Michelle Monje and Rob Malenka

    · 23 min · S5 E1

    This week, we're diving into recent research that sheds light on a new form of brain plasticity involving changes in the insulation of nerve fibers — called myelin. It turns out that myelin plasticity is implicated in…

  5. Our plastic brains: learning, memory and aging with the one and only Carla Shatz (Rerelease)

    · 22 min · S4 E6

    -- We're re-releasing our conversation with Carla Shatz, one of our favorites from the archive, which comes up all the time on the show in the context of brain plasticity and aging. Enjoy, and see you next time! -NW --…

  6. Programming Announcement

    · 0:25

    Hi everyone — quick programming announcement. As we head into summer, we'll be moving to an every-other-week cadence as we prepare more conversations from the frontiers of neuroscience. I'm very excited about what…

  7. Neuroscience and AI: What artificial intelligence teaches us about the brain (and vice versa) | Surya Ganguli

    · 28 min · S4 E5

    The powerful new generation of AI tools that has come out over the past few years — DALL-E, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the rest — have blown away our old ideas about what AI can do and raised questions about what it…

  8. How we remember, why we forget | Anthony Wagner

    · 29 min · S4 E4

    At some point in our lives, we all struggle with memory — learning a new name, remembering that book you were reading just yesterday or that word on the tip of your tongue. So what can neuroscience teach us about why…

  9. Psychedelics Part 2: How do drugs alter our perceptions? | Boris Heifets

    · 24 min · S4 E3

    Today, we're going to talk about how psychedelics alter our perception of reality and what that says about... reality! Welcome to part two of our conversation with Stanford anesthesiologist and psychedelics researcher…

  10. Psychedelics, placebo, and anesthetic dreams | Boris Heifets (part 1)

    · 30 min · S4 E2

    Psychedelics are a hot topic in psychiatry today. They’re producing dramatic reversals for patients with severe depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. But scientists still have fundamental questions…

  11. Why our brains are bad at climate change | Nik Sawe

    · 24 min · S4 E1

    This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of climate change with neuroeconomist Nik Sawe. If you follow the science or the news, you know how big of a risk climate change is. Storms,…

  12. Famous & Gravy: Mind Traveler | Oliver Sacks

    · 1 h 00 min · S3 E7

    This week we’re doing something a little different. My good friend Michael Osborne, who produces this show also has his own podcast, called Famous & Gravy – Life Lessons from Dead Celebrities. I recently guest-hosted…

  13. The clocks in your body | Tony Wyss-Coray

    · 22 min · S3 E6

    Today: the clocks in your body. We're talking again this week with Tony Wyss-Coray, the director of the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience here at Wu Tsai Neuro. Last year, we spoke with Tony about the biological…

  14. Redefining Parkinson's Disease | Kathleen Poston

    · 24 min · S3 E5

    Today on the show, a new understanding of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders — right after Alzheimer's disease. It's familiar to many as a movement disorder:…

  15. Space and Memory | Lisa Giocomo

    · 25 min · S3 E4

    This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we sit down with Stanford neurobiologist Lisa Giocomo to explore the intersection of memory and navigation. This episode was inspired by the idea of memory palaces. The idea is…

  16. OCD & Ketamine | Carolyn Rodriguez

    · 23 min · S3 E3

    In this episode of "From Our Neurons to Yours," we're taking a deep dive into the neuroscience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the recent discovery that the anesthetic ketamine can give patients a week-long…

  17. Why we do what we do | Neir Eshel

    · 23 min · S3 E2

    Welcome to "From Our Neurons to Yours," from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. Each week, we bring you to the frontiers of brain science — to meet the scientists unlocking the mysteries of the…

  18. Brain-Machine Interfaces | Jaimie Henderson

    · 22 min · S3 E1

    Imagine being trapped in your own body, unable to move or communicate effectively. This may seem like a nightmare, but it is a reality for many people living with brain or spinal cord injuries. Join us as we talk with…

  19. An electrical storm in the brain | Fiona Baumer

    · 19 min · S2 E6

    Imagine an electrical storm in your brain, a power surge that passes through delicately wired neural circuits, making thousands of cells all activate at once. Depending on where it starts and where it travels in the…

  20. Seeing sound, tasting color | David Eagleman

    · 21 min · S2 E5

    Imagine Thursday. Does Thursday have a color? What about the sound of rain — does that sound taste like chocolate? Or does the sound of a saxophone feel triangular to you? For about 3% of the population, the sharp…

  21. Why sleep keeps us young | Luis de Lecea

    · 21 min · S2 E4

    Welcome back, neuron lovers! In this week's episode of From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of sleep. Why is slumber so important for our health that we spend a third of our lives…

  22. Where ant colonies keep their brains | Deborah Gordon

    · 18 min · S2 E3

    Welcome back to "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. In this episode, we explore the collective intelligence of ant colonies with Deborah Gordon, a…

  23. Why we get dizzy | Kristen Steenerson

    · 17 min · S2 E2

    Welcome back to "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast where we criss-cross scientific disciplines to take you to the frontiers of brain science. This week, we explore the science of dizziness with Stanford Medicine…

  24. How we understand each other | Laura Gwilliams

    · 22 min · S2 E1

    Welcome back to our second season of "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast where we criss-cross scientific disciplines to take you to the cutting edge of brain science. In this episode, we explore how sound becomes…

  25. Exercise and the brain | Jonathan Long

    · 22 min · S1 E15

    We all know exercise has all sorts of benefits beyond just making us stronger and fitter. It lowers and inflammation. It buffers stress and anxiety. It clarifies our thinking. In fact, regular exercise is one of the…

  26. Aging and Brain Plasticity | Carla Shatz

    · 21 min · S1 E14

    When we're kids, our brains are amazing at learning. We absorb information from the outside world with ease, and we can adapt to anything. But as we age, our brains become a little more fixed. Our brain circuits become…

  27. Brain stimulation & "psychiatry 3.0" | Nolan Williams

    · 25 min · S1 E13

    Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technology that uses magnetic fields to stimulate or suppress electrical activity in brain circuits. It's part of a transformation in how psychiatrists are thinking about…

  28. Brain Fog | Michelle Monje

    · 20 min · S1 E12

    One of the strangest and most disconcerting things about the COVID 19 pandemic has been the story of long COVID. Many COVID long-haulers have continued experiencing cognitive symptoms long after their initial COVID…

  29. Assembling the brain | Sergiu Pasca

    · 23 min · S1 E11

    Nearly one in five Americans lives with a mental illness. Unfortunately there’s a limited set of options for treating psychiatric disorders. One reason for that is that these disorders are still defined based on…

  30. Parenting Lessons from Frogs and Spiders | Lauren O'Connell

    · 19 min · S1 E10

    Today we’re going to talk about frogs — and spiders — as parents. What today’s show is really about is “pair bonding” — that’s the scientific term for the collaborative bonds that form between two parents — as well as…

  31. Virtual Touch | Allison Okamura

    · 20 min · S1 E9

    Recently on the show, we had a conversation about the possibility of creating artificial vision with a bionic eye. Today we're going to talk about technology to enhance another sense, one that often goes…

  32. Brain Rejuvenation | Tony Wyss-Coray

    · 17 min · S1 E8

    Hi listeners, we're shifting to a biweekly release schedule after this episode. See you in a couple weeks! --- Most of us probably know someone who developed Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia as they got…

  33. Building a bionic eye | EJ Chichilnisky

    · 18 min · S1 E7

    We take this for granted, but our eyes are amazing. They're incredible. We process the visual world so automatically and so instantaneously, we forget how much work our eyes and our brains are doing behind the scenes,…

  34. Respect your Biological Clock | Erin Gibson

    · 16 min · S1 E6

    We've probably all heard of circadian rhythms, the idea that our bodies have biological clocks that keep track of the daily cycle, sunrise to sunset. Maybe we've even heard that it's these biological rhythms that get…

  35. Is Addiction a Disease? | Keith Humphreys

    · 10 min · S1 E5

    What makes addiction a disease? I think we all know at this point that addiction is another major epidemic that is sweeping our country and the world, but there are few topics that are more misunderstood than…

  36. Your gut - the second brain? | Julia Kaltschmidt

    · 14 min · S1 E4

    You may have heard the idea that the gut is the second brain, but what does that really mean? Maybe it has to do with the fact that there are something like 100 to 600 million neurons in your gut. That's a lot of…

  37. The Octopus Brain | Ernie Hwaun & Matt McCoy

    · 14 min · S1 E3

    What can octopus and squid brains teach us about intelligence? One of the incredible things about octopus's is that not only do they have an advanced intelligence that lets them camouflage themselves, use tools and…

  38. The Mystery of Migraines | Gabriella Muwanga

    · 13 min · S1 E2

    If you've ever had a migraine, you know that the symptoms — splitting headache, nausea, sensitivity to light — mean you're going to want to spend some time in bed, in a dark room. Migraines are flat out debilitating,…

  39. Psychedelics and Empathy | Rob Malenka

    · 19 min · S1 E1

    Why are psychiatrists taking a fresh look at MDMA? Recently, there's been growing excitement in the scientific community about revisiting the potential medical benefits of psychedelic drugs that have been off limits…

  40. Announcing: From Our Neurons to Yours!

    · 1:39 · Trailer

    Announcing: From our Neurons to Yours, the new podcast from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. On this show, we criss-cross scientific disciplines to bring you to the frontiers of brain…

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