Your Brain On... Stress

2025-06-12

Stress isn’t just a threat to your brain. It’s also one of its best tools for growth. We often hear that stress is bad for your brain. And it can be. Chronic, unpredictable, and uncontrollable stress can damage cognition, harm memory, and accelerate aging. But we don’t talk enough about how the right kind of stress can actually improve brain function, grow your hippocampus, and help you feel happier and more purposeful. In this episode of Your Brain On..., we explore the science of stress with two brilliant guests:

Stress isn’t just a threat to your brain. It’s also one of its best tools for growth.

We often hear that stress is bad for your brain. And it can be. Chronic, unpredictable, and uncontrollable stress can damage cognition, harm memory, and accelerate aging.

But we don’t talk enough about how the right kind of stress can actually improve brain function, grow your hippocampus, and help you feel happier and more purposeful.

In this episode of Your Brain On..., we explore the science of stress with two brilliant guests:

Dr. Sharon Bergquist, Yale- and Harvard-trained internal medicine physician and author of ‘The Stress Paradox’

Dr. Mithu Storoni, neuroscientist and author of ‘Stress-Proof’ and ‘Hyper Efficient’

Together, we explore:

• The biological difference between good and bad stress

• Why ‘eustress’ (good stress) can actually build your brain

• Balancing stress: not too little, not too much

• How to use stress as a tool to enhance resilience and protect against aging

• What brain imaging reveals about stress hormones, attention, and burnout

• Practical ways to reframe, recover from, and even seek out positive stress

This is... Your Brain On Stress.

SUPPORTED BY: NEURO World. Help your brain thrive, now and into the future: https://neuro.world/