FULL EPISODE: Hack Your Brain While You Sleep - February 20, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
unfiltered discussions unexpected guests no topic is off limits from sex and relationships to the human condition personal anxieties and so much more the only talk show of its kind in the world world this is the last show with david cooper
What surprising solar system discovery did astronomers make?
Happy, happy Friday. It's the last show. You'll learn a lot of things on the show tonight. Here are some of them. What if you could hack your own dreams, sort of like using a cheat code at a video game to solve problems while you sleep? In 10 minutes time, we'll tell you about how scientists figured out how to plant ideas in your dreams to boost your creativity. Yes, it's basically inception. Then after that, some research that flips the script my mother told me about cannabis. In an admittedly narrow research study with patients with bipolar disorder, moderate cannabis use actually sharpened people's decision-making. Now, the science is nuanced, maybe a little controversial, and definitely not a green light to go green, if you know what I mean, but we'll tell you about that study halfway through the hour.
Those are some of tonight's topics, but let's start off with some science news. Far, far away in a planetary system that has astounded astronomers exists some planets that are breaking our brains. We're going to discuss them here with astrophysicist and professor Jesse Rogerson from York University. Jesse, I love doing science news with you. Thank you for being on the show.
You're welcome. I love doing it, too. You ready to talk some science?
I am, and I love space.
How can exercise alleviate depression and anxiety?
That's my jam. I always loved planets. I remember when planets were first discovered outside of our solar system when I was a kid and it blew my mind. Now we've mapped out tens of thousands of them and they are weird, some of them.
Yeah, 1995, that was the first official planet found around a sun-like star, 51 Peg B. 1995, it's a brand new field. And since I think the number is somewhere in the sixth, I don't know if it's 10,000 yet. I think it's 6,000 planets. And up until 1995, all we had was our solar system to go by. And there was this hypothesis, which is really a theory now, of how the solar system formed.
What role does cannabis play in decision-making for bipolar disorder?
It formed from a big gas cloud that collapsed down into a star, flattened out into a disk around it, and the planets formed inside. And this theory on how our solar system formed explains some really important things about our solar system, like why our solar system is flat, for example. You know, it's great. I literally just taught this in my astronomy class.
Cool. I remember being nine years old. And I mean, we did have one thing going for us before 1995, because at that time, Pluto was still a planet. So there is some loss, but what the gain was, is this discovery.
Why did a veterinarian prescribe a tiny blue pill for a dog?
Anyway, let's talk about this solar system, planetary system, what, some hundred plus light years away from Earth. So kind of our neighbor in galactic scales or universal scales. Yeah. These planets are orbiting a red dwarf star named LHS 1903. Tell me about what makes them so weird and why astronomers are so puzzled by this system.
So when you look at this system, so red dwarf stars are the most common type of star in the universe. So you expect to find planets around them. And there's both rocky and gassy planets around this star, just like we have rocky and gassy planets. But the order is confusing. Here in our solar system, we have the inner rocky ones.
How do pets influence criminal justice outcomes?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars are rocky planets. They're close to the sun. And then you have the gassy ones, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and they're far from the sun. And that is easily explained through like a temperature gradient where close to the star, it's hotter. And things like gases and volatiles like ices don't really like being near hot things. And so planets that are made of gases form farther away from the hot thing. That's a pretty standard approach to planetary formation.
Because if Uranus existed close to the sun, we would have a hot gas problem. Sorry, that's a different interview that I do on the show. Okay, so the kind of like structure or composition of planets kind of makes sense.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:25
2
What surprising solar system discovery did astronomers make?
0:25–1:44
3
How can exercise alleviate depression and anxiety?
1:44–2:22
4
What role does cannabis play in decision-making for bipolar disorder?
2:22–2:55
5
Why did a veterinarian prescribe a tiny blue pill for a dog?
2:55–3:36
6
How do pets influence criminal justice outcomes?
3:36–4:15
7
What alarming trends are revealed in sexting among teens?
4:15–5:03
8
Are dating apps really optimizing for love or profit?
5:03–1:20:08
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from The Last Show with David Cooper
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