Feeling good is more complicated than it looks. Armand DiMele, joined by Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, and co-host Giullian Gioiello, unpacks the spectrum of gladness, from alert calm to manic highs to nervous laughter, drawing on brain chemistry, fruit fly research, and callers sharing their own deflections from pain.
Dopamine, not brain size or specific genes, is what made us human. Dr. Fred Previck, MD, author of a book on the dopaminergic mind, walks Armand DiMele through how dopamine drove language, working memory, abstract thought, and civilization itself, and why its runaway modern excess now threatens the very societies it built.
Anxiety is learned, measurable, and catchable before it spirals. Dr. Sarah Denning, Founder of Adaptive Behavioral Therapy, joins Armand to explain how a personal stress scale, breathing awareness, and resensitizing to subtle body signals can help people intervene at a level five before panic takes over.
What made humans human? Dr. Fred Previck, MD, cognitive neuroscientist and author, argues that a dramatic expansion of dopamine in the brain drove our species to language, abstract thought, strategic planning, and civilization itself. Armand DiMele traces the arc from early hominids to modern society, asking whether our dopaminergic drive is now outpacing our wisdom.
Why do scattered people suddenly need to line up the ducks? Armand DiMele and guest Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D. trace the spectrum from everyday tidying impulses to obsessive-compulsive disorder, examining the biology of doubt, the genetics of compulsive behavior, and why nightmares may all be, at root, about organizing chaos.
Are you in control of your mind, or is your mind controlling you? Armand DiMele and Dr. Bernard Starr, PhD, Psychologist, trace how chemistry, conditioning, and automatic thought patterns quietly drive behavior, then explore whether meditation, introspection, and spiritual detachment can help us step back and truly observe our own thinking.
Why do we want to be lied to? Armand DiMele uses the Bernie Madoff scandal as a jumping-off point to argue that humans are wired for deception, both giving and receiving it. Drawing on primate research and brain science, he explores the fine line between healthy trust and paranoid suspicion.
Self-loathing drives the very behaviors we are trying to stop. Dr. Martha Beck, author of The Four Day Win, explains how fight-or-flight responses sabotage change, introduces the “dictator” and “wild child” as tools for self-understanding, and offers a Tibetan loving-kindness practice as the surprisingly simple engine of lasting transformation.
What derails an otherwise simple conversation? Armand DiMele argues the culprit is usually physiology, not psychology. Drawing on the autonomic nervous system, he traces how sympathetic overload turns minor irritations into blowups, and teaches listeners to self-monitor their nervous state before engaging the people they love.
Why can’t you think your way out of an emotion? Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti dig into how the amygdala dominates the brain’s fear circuitry, why emotional states resist rational override, and how synaptic buildup (“neuro-gunk”) may underlie compulsion, addiction, and depression. Practical tips on hydration, nutrition, and movement close the episode.
