Your Brain On... Insomnia

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1. 

   S7 · E7 · 15 Jul 2026 · 45 min

   Your Brain On... Testosterone

   Testosterone for women: what the evidence actually shows vs. what social media is selling you. Testosterone has become the hormone every midlife woman is told she is missing: the third hormone lost at menopause, the fix for brain fog, low energy, stubborn weight, and thinning muscle. The science tells a different and more reassuring story. In this episode, Dr. Ayesha Sherzai sits down with Professor Susan Davis, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, the clinician-researcher and academic endocrinologist who gathered much of the data and helped write the global guidelines, to separate what the research supports…

2. 

   S7 · E6 · 2 Jul 2026 · 54 min

   Your Brain On... Memory Testing

   The neurologist who built the test that was used on the President of the United States explains what memory tests actually tell you, and why even a perfect score isn't the whole picture. We sit down with Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, the neurologist who created the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), to look at how memory is actually measured, why a score can be shaped by your education and how comfortable you are with tests, and what separates a quick screen from a full neuropsychological evaluation. The conversation opens with a patient who passed a short memory screen but whose family knew…

3. 

   S7 · E5 · 25 Jun 2026 · 55 min

   Your Brain On... Friendship

   We're more connected than ever, yet, we've never been lonelier. We sit down with neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein, author of Why Brains Need Friends, to look at what isolation does to the brain and body, why we badly underestimate our own social skills, and how to build real connection back into ordinary life. The conversation opens 45,000 years ago, with a healed bone that points to one of the earliest signs of human caregiving. From there it moves to the present: why "rejection hurts because it used to kill," how chronic loneliness raises cortisol and inflammation, and why regular social…

4. 

   S7 · E4 · 18 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

   Your Brain On... the MIND Diet

   Researchers found people who ate these 9 foods consistently had brains that aged 7.5 years slower. Not a supplement stack, not a protocol, not a hack. A pattern of real food that keeps showing up across decades and across the world. It's called the MIND diet, and it's what we're breaking down in this episode. We explore the scoring system behind the MIND diet with a registered dietician who came to brain health through her own mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis, and who has spent 20 years helping real women in real kitchens make these changes stick. In this episode, you'll learn: What the MIND…

5. 

   S7 · E2 · 27 May 2026 · 31 min

   Your Brain On... Microplastics

   Headlines warned us about microplastics in our brains. A chemist says the study may have been measuring brain fat instead. In 2025, a study claiming microplastics accumulate in human brain tissue dominated our feeds. We covered it. Then Dr. Michelle Wong, a chemical scientist and science communicator, flagged a problem with the methodology. So we went to the primary literature, read the critique, and brought in one of the first scientists to publicly challenge the findings: Dr. Oliver Jones, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at RMIT University in Melbourne. In this episode, we unpack what…

6. 

   S7 · E1 · 13 May 2026 · 1 hr 29 min

   Your Brain On... Menopause Hormone Therapy

   Menopause hormone therapy and your brain: what the evidence says vs. what the algorithm is selling you. Two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients are women. That statistic has fueled a social media narrative that hormone therapy can prevent dementia, but the current evidence doesn't support that claim. In this episode, Drs. Ayesha and Dean Sherzai sit down with OBGYN Dr. Jen Gunter and neuroscientist Dr. Sarah McKay to separate the science from the soundbites. Your Brain On... Menopause Hormone Therapy [Season 7, Episode 1] Get our FREE NEURO Plan Brain Health Playbook:…

7. 

   S6 · E8 · 4 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

   Your Brain On... Vascular Dementia

   Most people think dementia starts with memory loss. But for millions, it actually begins decades earlier: in the blood vessels. Long before someone forgets a name or misses an appointment, the brain is being quietly damaged by high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalance, poor sleep, inflammation, and chronic stress, day after day, year after year. This kind of damage doesn't look dramatic. There's no big stroke, no clear warning sign. It happens slowly and silently, which is why it's so often missed until it's too late. But here's the good news: vascular dementia is one of the most…

8. 

   S6 · E7 · 21 Jan 2026 · 47 min

   Your Brain On... Cold Plunges

   Cold plunges are everywhere, and the way people talk about them, you'd think they're a miracle cure for your brain, body, and soul. But in an age of algorithm-fueled evangelism, when a ritual becomes this ubiquitous and loud, we have to ask: how much of the buzz is backed by science… and how much is just marketing? In this episode, we explore the neuroscience of cold exposure: what's real, what's overstated, and why this "discomfort" has become a billion-dollar industry. We discuss: Why cold plunges went viral, and how wellness movements often devolve into identity-driven cultures The…

9. 

   S6 · E6 · 14 Jan 2026 · 43 min

   Your Brain On... Cheese

   Around the start of 2026, a study sparked viral headlines claiming that cheese could reduce dementia risk. But... nutrition science almost never works like this. One study can't "prove" a food is protective or harmful, and viral health claims often miss the most important details of research: how the data was gathered, what was actually measured, what variables were controlled for, and what it means in real life. In this episode, we unpack what the 'viral cheese study' (PMID: 41406402) actually found, what it DOESN'T mean, and why critical thinking around nutrition headlines matters more…