Today, I spoke with Dr Douglas Fields, who is a neuroscientist and author of numerous books and articles about the brain. We discussed his excellent and important book, Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain, which focuses on the neuroscience that triggers rage and violence. It turns out, evolution has endowed every single one of us with nine neural pathways that, when activated, will lead to a violent and oftentimes involuntary and non-conscious response. During our chat, Doug explained these circuits—captured in the mnemonic LIFEMORTS—and how they relate to many important issues, including: their applicability to our interpersonal relationships; origins in threat detection; their unconscious nature and subsequent voluntary expression; impact of social media and technology; disproportionate effect of stress; power of genes and the environment; manifestations of violence in different genders; utility in peacebuilding; training of responses; role in PTSD and, perhaps most-importantly, geopolitics and war.
Several previous episodes that link to the topics we discussed include:
Role of the environment:
Geopolitics:
PTSD and trauma
I also mentioned an article I recently published on the state of Western democracy, grey zone warfare by authoritarian states and how social media is contributing to a build-up of tension in our societies. You can view the article here.
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Full show notes:
My guest today is Dr Douglas Fields, who is a neuroscientist and author of numerous books and articles about the brain. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, University of Maryland adjunct professor, and Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institutes of Health. He received advanced degrees at UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, UC San Diego, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and Yale University.
He writes about science for Scientific American, Quanta, Outside Magazine, Huffington Post, Undark Magazine, Psychology Today, and similar prestigious outlets. His neuroscience research has been featured on national television, radio, NPR, the National Geographic and others, and he speaks about neuroscience for the general public on mediums like NPR, World Science Festival, TEDex and Google Talks.
He is the author of three books about neuroscience for the general reader, The Other Brain, about glia, which are brain cells that communicate without electricity, Why We Snap, about the neuroscience of rage, and his new award-winning book, Electric Brain, about brainwaves, brain-computer interface, and brain stimulation. Some of the topics we discussed today include:
70. Dr Alexander Bellamy - R2P, Just War and prospects of World Peace - Part 1
69. Amanda Hsiao - China, US and Taiwan: A deep dive
68. Special Release: Dr Mike Martin and John Spencer - An update on Ukraine
67. Paul Ingram - On the threat of nuclear war and hopes of disarmament
66. Dr Jessica Wolfendale - On torture, war crimes and moral responsibility - Part 2
65. Dr Jessica Wolfendale - On torture, war crimes and moral responsibility - Part 1
64. John Spencer - On Ukraine, Urban Warfare and lessons learnt
63. Dr Ned Dobos - On the unaccounted costs of maintaining a military
62. Abby Zeith and Ruben Stewart: International Humanitarian Law in Urban Warfare
61. Brigadier Mark Ascough - On Military Intelligence
60. Dr Tony Ingesson - On military sub-cultures and their impact on behaviour
59. My personal reflections on war
58. Dr Mike Martin and LTGEN (Ret.) Arne Dalhaug - Update on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
57. John Gartner - Reflections on a lifetime of service in the Special Forces
56. Andy Norman - Mental Immunity: Inoculating against conspiracies and disinformation
55. Jason Pack - On the ’Global Enduring Disorder’
54. Duncan Spinner - The Fight for at-risk Ukrainians
53. Dr Deane-Peter Baker: State Ethics vs Soldier Morality
52. Dr David Whetham - On the Ethics of War, War Crimes and Ethical Decision Making
51. Carl Miller - On Information Warfare, Social Media and pro-Russian influence campaigns in BRICS
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