
From Our Neurons to Yours
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.
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
63 episodes
"I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine" | Daniel Levitin
Most of us can agree: music is awesome. Regardless of which songs speak to you, music probably plays an important role in your life. The question is, what makes music so powerful? Why does a particular combination of sounds and rhythms grab us ...
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Season 7
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Episode 13
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45:59

How we learn to read (and why some struggle): what neuroscience teaches us about a transformative human technology | Bruce McCandliss
In this episode, we explore the fascinating neuroscience behind how children learn to read with Bruce McCandliss, director of the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative.Key topics include:• How our brains "recycle" visua...
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Season 7
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Episode 12
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39:18

Why voices light us up—but leave the autistic brain in the dark | Dan Abrams
Recognizing a familiar voice is one of the brain’s earliest social feats. But what are the brain circuits that let a newborn pick out mom in a crowded nursery? How do they change as kids turn toward friends and the wider world? And what are we ...
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Season 7
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Episode 11
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31:51

Famous & Gravy: Cosmic Marketer and the Meaning of Life | Stephen Hawking
In this special crossover episode, we’re doing something a little different. From Our Neurons to Yours host Nicholas joins producer Michael Osborne to co-host his podcast Famous and Gravy for a...
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1:01:31

Can brain science save addiction policy? | Keith Humphreys
If addiction is a disease of the brain, what does that mean for how we treat people—and how we write policy? In this wide-ranging conversation, Stanford addiction expert and policy advisor Keith Humphreys returns to the show to walk us through ...
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Season 7
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Episode 10
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45:51

How basic science transformed stroke care | Marion Buckwalter
A generation ago, a big clot in the brain meant paralysis or worse. Today, doctors can diagnose clots on AI-enabled brain scans; provide life-saving, targeted medications; or snake a catheter from a patient’s groin into the brain to vacuum out ...
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Season 7
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Episode 9
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34:51

Surgery as a window into brain resilience | Martin Angst
We've all heard stories about someone who went in for surgery and came out...different. A grandmother who struggled with names after hip replacement, or an uncle who seemed foggy for months following cardiac bypass. But why does this happen to ...
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Season 7
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Episode 8
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37:32

Best of: How neural prosthetics could free minds trapped by brain injury | Jaimie Henderson
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.We're re-releasing one of our favorite e...
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Season 7
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Episode 7
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22:20

The secrets of resilient aging | Beth Mormino & Anthony Wagner
This week on the show, we're have our sights set on healthy aging. What would it mean to be able to live to 80, 90 or 100 with our cognitive abilities intact and able to maintain an independent lifestyle right to the end of our days?&nbs...
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Season 7
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Episode 6
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36:30

Building AI simulations of the human brain | Dan Yamins
This week on the show: Are we ready to create digital models of the human brain? Last month, Stanford researcher Andreas Tolias and colleagues created a "digital twin" of the mouse visual cortex. The researchers used the same...
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Season 7
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Episode 5
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32:56

What ChatGPT understands: Large language models and the neuroscience of meaning | Laura Gwilliams
If you spend any time chatting with a modern AI chatbot, you've probably been amazed at just how human it sounds, how much it feels like you're talking to a real person. Much ink has been spilled explaining how these systems are not actually co...
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Season 7
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Episode 4
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42:31

What the other half of the brain does | Brad Zuchero
We've talked about glia and sleep. We've talked about glia and neuroinflammation. We've talked about glia in the brain fog that can accompany COVID or chemotherapy. We've talked about the brain's quiet majority of non–neuronal cells in so many ...
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Season 7
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Episode 3
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35:00

Stimulating the brain with sound | Kim Butts Pauly and Raag Airan
As we gain a better understanding of how misfiring brain circuits lead to mental health conditions, we'd like to be able to go in and nudge those circuits back into balance. But this is hard — literally — because the brain is encased in th...
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Season 7
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Episode 2
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30:43

Does good sleep insulate the brain against Alzheimer's? | Erin Gibson
We're kicking off our new season with a deep dive into one of neuroscience's most fascinating mysteries: sleep. This unconscious third of our lives isn't just about rest – it's absolutely critical for brain health, memory consolidation, ...
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Season 7
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Episode 1
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39:25

How to live in a world without free will | Robert Sapolsky
Today, we are speaking with the one and only Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neurobiologist, a MacArthur "Genius", and best-selling author of books exploring the nature of stress, social behavior, and — as he puts it — "the biology of the human pre...
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Season 6
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Episode 7
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40:46

The power of psychedelics meets the power of placebo: ketamine, opioids, and hope in depression treatment | Boris Heifets & Theresa Lii
Join us as we dive back into the world of psychedelic medicine with anesthesiologists Boris Heifets and Theresa Lii, who share intriguing new data that sheds light on how ketamine and placebo effects may interact in treating depression.W...
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Season 6
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Episode 6
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35:10

Seeing sounds, tasting colors: the science of synaesthesia with David Eagleman (re-release)
Today, we are going back into the archives for one of my favorite episodes: We are talking to neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and best-selling author, David Eagleman. We're talking about synaesthesia — and if you don't know what that is, y...
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Season 6
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Episode 5
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21:52

The BRAIN Initiative: the national vision for the future of neuroscience is now in doubt | Bill Newsome
Earlier this year, President Obama's signature BRAIN Initiative, which has powered advances in neuroscience for the past 10 years, had its budget slashed by 40%. Over the past decade, the BRAIN Initiative made roughly $4 bil...
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Season 6
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Episode 4
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39:23

The cannabinoids within: how marijuana hijacks an ancient signaling system in the brain | Ivan Soltesz
Given the widespread legalization of cannabis for medical and recreational uses, you'd think we'd have a better understanding of how it works. But ask a neuroscientist exactly how cannabinoid compounds like THC and CBD alter our percepti...
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Season 6
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Episode 3
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37:33

Memory Palaces: the science of mental time travel and the brain's GPS system | Lisa Giocomo (Re-release)
Today we are re-releasing an episode we did last year with Stanford neurobiologist Lisa Giocomo exploring the intersection of memory, navigation and the boundaries we create between ourselves and the world around us.This episode ...
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Season 6
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Episode 2
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25:50

Why new Alzheimer's drugs don't work | Mike Greicius, Stanford University School of Medicine
In the past few years, Big Pharma has released not one, but three new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Aducanemab (2021), Lecanemab (2023), and Donanemab (2024), are the first treatments to effectively clear the brain of amylo...
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Season 6
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Episode 1
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25:48

Depression's distinctive fingerprints in the brain | Leanne Williams, Stanford University
Getting help for depression can be like purgatory. Setting aside for a moment the stigma and other barriers to seeking treatment in the first place, finding the right combination of medication and/or therapy can be a months- or years-lon...
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Season 5
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Episode 6
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28:11

How the brain helps cancers grow | Michelle Monje
Today, we're talking with Stanford neuro-oncologist, Michelle Monje. This is actually the third time we've had Michelle on the show, in part because she's been a pioneer of three exciting fr...
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Season 5
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Episode 5
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21:27

Unraveling Timothy Syndrome: the new science of human brain development | Sergiu Pasca
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 innovative Stanf...
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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30:31
