590: The science of dopamine, oxytocin, & serotonin | Neuroscientist Tj Power
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Who are the hosts and guest of this episode?
Welcome to the My Buddy Green podcast. I'm Jason Wachub, founder and co-CEO of My Buddy Green and your host. This podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Saving and investing can feel impossible, but with Stash, it's not just a reality, it's easy. Stash isn't just an investing app, it's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals, or if you just wanna sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award-winning, expert-managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your savings sit around.
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What if the secret to feeling motivated, connected, and calm wasn't more productivity hacks or a 10-step routine, but better brain chemistry? Today's guest, TJ Power, is here to show us how to work with our brain, not against it. A neuroscientist, mental health educator, and the author of The Dose Effect, TJ is on a mission to change how we think about well-being in the digital age. Through his work at the Dose Lab, he's demystifying the science of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, those four powerful neurotransmitters that influence how we feel, act, and perform every single day. In today's show, we unpack the surprisingly simple and surprisingly overlooked ways to rebalance your brain chemistry.
From how to start your day without depleting your motivation molecule to why boredom might be the missing ingredient in your mental health routine, TJ breaks it all down. We also explore what too much screen time is really doing to your brain, how to support dopamine naturally, and why reconnecting with flow, stillness, and social bonds might be the ultimate path to sustainable happiness. If you're feeling drained, deflated, or stuck in a cycle of scrolling and stress sounds familiar, this conversation is for you. TJ's insights are science-backed and highly practical. Let's get to it. So let's start with dose. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Can you walk us through each one briefly? Give us a primer.
Yeah, for sure. So these are these fascinating brain chemicals that live within us, and each of them have a very specific function for us. Dopamine is effectively our motivation chemical, creates the capacity and the desire to do hard things. Oxytocin connects us together and creates the desire to socially bond.
What are dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins?
Serotonin is our kind of mood stabilizing chemical that really wants us to live very natural experiences of life as a human. And then endorphins is this very useful chemical that can de-stress our brain whenever we need.
Very helpful. And I think our audience is probably somewhat familiar with all of these, but less familiar, or maybe it's just me, when you start to dig into the why, the what behind these. So let's start with dopamine. So we want high dopamine, not low dopamine, correct?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who are the hosts and guest of this episode?
0:00–3:39
2
What are dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins?
3:39–5:57
3
How can we naturally support and boost dopamine levels?
5:57–11:02
4
What is the impact of technology and social media on dopamine?
11:02–13:02
5
How does boredom affect our brain and dopamine levels?
13:02–15:23
6
What are the health implications of low dopamine?
15:23–17:18
7
What routines help set you up for long-term dopamine success?
17:18–25:29
8
What is oxytocin and how can we increase it for better connection?
25:29–45:31
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The mindbodygreen Podcast
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