New Podcast Release: Lisa Feldman Barrett
The latest episode of "Lives Well Lived," the podcast I co-host with Kasia de Lazari-Radek, is now available.
It features Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, and the author of 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain, which has been called the first “neuroscience beach read,” as well as How Emotions are Made, which you probably wouldn’t want to read on the beach.
Kasia and I had an excellent discussion with Lisa on topics like emotions, anxiety, brain function, free will, the construction of social realities, and the philosophical implications of scientific research. It includes personal anecdotes, scientific insights into how the brain works, reflections on how these concepts tie into living a meaningful life, and balancing a scientific career with being a mother.
On Anxiety and Performance:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: "I have a little more control over what I experience. I can't really reduce the arousal level very easily. And I wouldn't want to. You need that arousal to actually perform well. But I can change its meaning. And actually there's a lot of research to show that you can train people who have test anxiety, really crippling test anxiety, to experience that pounding heart and those sweaty palms as determination instead of anxiety”
On Brain Function and Thinking:
Kasia de Lazari-Radek: “So what is the brain for if it's not for this wonderful thing that we are doing right now?”
Lisa Feldman Barrett: “Well, we are doing other wonderful things right now. We're just not aware of it. Inside Peter, inside you, Kasia, inside me, inside all of our listeners. There's a whole drama going on in each one of us. And that drama is being coordinated by your brain. And that has to happen in order for us to speak to each other, to have the breath to speak. In order to think, in order for all of these things to happen there has to be this very basic function of the brain coordinating and regulating the body. The brain is always anticipating the needs of the body and attempting to meet those needs before they arise, and in the process of doing that, what emerges is thinking and feeling and seeing and hearing.”
On the Predictive Nature of the Brain:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: "Your brain is functioning predictively, meaning if we were to stop time right now and we peered inside your brain, your brain would be remembering, reinstating patterns of activation that are similar to the present in some way because really what the brain needs to know how to do is what to do in the next moment in order to keep you alive and well.”
On Free Will and the Self:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: "I think when philosophers and scientists have debated something for thousands of years, it’s probably the wrong question to be asking... you don't have some enduring self that is you and always you and is stable across time. I'm not a Buddhist, but I think contemplative philosophy is right on the mark in that sense. I think the sense of who you are in a moment is being constantly reconstituted over and over and over again. And again, we still end up having this sense of ourselves as stable. And so that's interesting as to why that would happen and how that happens."
On Social Reality:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: "Many of the things that we take for granted as being part of reality are constructed and maintained by us. And when I say constructed, I don't mean they're not real. I mean, they are real by virtue of the fact that we have all imposed certain functions on physical things that those physical things don't have by their physical nature. And we all agree on those functions. And so, therefore, they have those functions like money or like the presidency or like citizenship or race or what have you.”
On Balancing Work and Life:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: “When I'm at home, I want to be at work. When I'm at work, I want to be at home. It's not just that I'm unhappy with everything. I mean, some people might say that, it's not, it's that I actually want both. I want to do both things and I can't do both things.”
Kasia de Lazari-Radek: “Thank you for saying it. Thank you because you just express my thoughts from when I was a young mother with young children.”
On Living Well and Regret:
Lisa Feldman Barrett: "I want to be present in the moment, and I also don't want to engage in actions or experiences that I will regret at the end of my life.”
On Spending Time:
Peter Singer: “Thank you for what you said because that really is what we're trying to do with the ‘Lives Well Lived’ podcast: to help people by exposing them to a range of different opinions. Obviously, scientists like you who work in relevant areas, but also some others who have simply lived their lives in certain ways, and we invite them to reflect on how well they've lived.”
Lisa Feldman Barrett: “I think the main thing for me is that at a certain point, I think I realized that spending time is not a metaphor. You spend it, and you can never get it back. So, you just have to think about how you can spend it well. You've been given one life; what are you going to do with it? What is that life going to be? And I just think we're not given the opportunity to ask that question very often. I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you about this. It's been really fun.”