My BrainWise Coach

Welcome to My BrainWise Coach — a podcast exploring the intersection of neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology to help you live and lead better lives. Hosted by Cole Bastian and Phil Dixon, each episode connects brain science to everyday life, leadership, and relationships. You’ll gain practical insights into emotional intelligence, habits, trust, change, growth, and many other topics — all grounded in research and real human experience. 🧠 Stay curious. Stay compassionate. Stay BrainWise.

My BrainWise Coach is a education podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 111 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts My BrainWise Coach, a education show with 111 episodes published.

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  Episode #15

  Big Five Personality Test: Why Knowing Your Results Won't Change You (S3E15)

  Oct 4, 202620 minS3

  You take a personality assessment, read the results, and think yes, that's me. Six months later you land in the exact situation it warned you about and respond exactly the way it predicted, having changed nothing. Phil and Cole unpack the neuroscience behind that gap, and why a description of what you're like is a fundamentally different measurement from a map of what your brain is most alert to. Visit https://brainwiseenterprises.com to learn more, get certified, take your Personal Threat Profile, and book personalized 1:1 coaching. What you get in this conversation: The lexical hypothesis and the 1936 dictionary study that produced the Big Five Costa and McCrae's NEO Personality Inventory and the 60-item NEO-FFI What a personality trait actually measures, and why traits hold steady across situations Big Five predictive validity, from conscientiousness and job performance to neuroticism and stress Why a neurological sensitivity is a different kind of measurement from a trait The Personal Threat and Reward Profile's five drivers: protection, participation, prediction, purpose, and pleasure Four coaching cases where the Big Five alone misreads the client, including the introvert with a high participation driver and the low-agreeableness client with a hidden belonging need Why two people with identical neuroticism scores need completely different coaching conversations The double edge principle and the developmental calibration of threat sensitivity Rate and review the show wherever you listen, then follow @mybrainwisecoach on every platform. CHAPTERS 00:00 Why Personality Assessments Don't Change Behavior 01:21 Welcome To My BrainWise Coach 02:28 Lexical Hypothesis And Big Five Origins 04:33 What Personality Traits Actually Measure 06:15 Traits Versus Neurological Threat Sensitivity 07:45 The Personal Threat And Reward Profile 09:48 Four Cases Where Frameworks Diverge 15:16 What Each Framework Uniquely Gives You 17:48 Field Guide Summary And Close REFERENCES Allport, G. W., and Odbert, H. S. (1936). Trait-Names: A Psycho-Lexical Study. Psychological Monographs, 47(1). https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093360 Costa, P. T., Jr., and McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NEO Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources. Barrick, M. R., and Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., and 78 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project (2005). Personality Profiles of Cultures: Aggregate Personality Traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(3), 407-425. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.3.407 CONNECT Website and Personal Threat Profile: https://brainwiseenterprises.com Podcast: https://brainwiseenterprises.com/podcast Everywhere else: @mybrainwisecoach #Neuroscience #BigFive #PersonalityTest #Leadership #ExecutiveCoaching #MyBrainWiseCoach

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  Episode #14

  Working With a Visionary Founder: The Curse of Knowledge Explained (S3E14)

  Sep 27, 202620 minS3

  A visionary founder shares a brilliant idea, someone asks a reasonable clarifying question, and the meeting falls apart. You have probably watched this happen, or lived it from one side or the other. Cole Bastian and Phil Dixon explain why the pattern is neurologically predictable rather than anyone's fault, and hand you seven tools that work with the founder's brain instead of against it. Learn more, get certified, take your Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. What you get: Why high openness to experience and reduced latent inhibition let visionary founders see connections other people miss The schema problem, and why a founder's idea feels complete to them and incomplete to everyone else The curse of knowledge, first documented by Camerer, Loewenstein, and Weber in 1989 How the protection driver turns a clarifying question into a perceived attack on competence Why the team's prediction and participation drivers make speaking up feel socially risky Seven tools: confirmation questions, extension questions, the prototype sketch, the yes and opening, the designated translator, structured idea capture, and the PTP-informed pre-meeting frame Why the team member who does not understand the idea is your map, not your obstacle If this episode helps you think differently about how your brain works, rate and review us wherever you listen, and follow @mybrainwisecoach everywhere. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Joy And The Terror 01:42 Welcome To My BrainWise Coach 02:51 High Openness And Latent Inhibition 04:13 The Schema Problem Explained 05:10 The Curse Of Knowledge 06:02 The Clarification Trap Explained 07:11 Why The Team Nods Along 08:51 How The Failure Mode Accumulates 09:29 Tool One Confirmation Not Clarification 11:05 Tool Two Extension Not Evaluation 12:00 Tool Three The Prototype Sketch 13:00 Tool Four The Yes And Opening 13:50 Tool Five The Designated Translator 15:07 Tool Six Structured Idea Capture 16:01 Tool Seven PTP Pre-Meeting Frame 17:27 Phil's Single Most Important Point 18:51 White Paper And Closing Thoughts REFERENCES AND MATERIALS DISCUSSED Camerer, C., Loewenstein, G., and Weber, M. (1989). The Curse of Knowledge in Economic Settings: An Experimental Analysis. Journal of Political Economy, 97(5), 1232 to 1254. https://doi.org/10.1086/261651 Carson, S. H., Peterson, J. B., and Higgins, D. M. (2003). Decreased Latent Inhibition Is Associated With Increased Creative Achievement in High-Functioning Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 499 to 506. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.499 Peterson, J. B., and Carson, S. (2000). Latent Inhibition and Openness to Experience in a High-Achieving Student Population. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(2), 323 to 332. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge University Press. Felsman, P., Gunawardena, S., and Seifert, C. M. (2020). Improv Experience Promotes Divergent Thinking, Uncertainty Tolerance, and Affective Well-Being. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 35. Lewis, C., and Lovatt, P. J. (2013). Breaking Away From Set Patterns of Thinking: Improvisation and Divergent Thinking. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 9, 46 to 58.

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  Episode #13

  Neuroscience of Creativity: Why Your Prefrontal Cortex Blocks Ideas (S3E13)

  Sep 20, 202622 minS3

  Your best ideas rarely show up at your desk. They arrive in the shower, on a run, in the car, at the exact moment you stop trying to solve the problem. A brand-new Emory study explains why, and the answer is that the most sophisticated part of your brain is often the thing standing in your way. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book personalized 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. Cole and Phil walk you through: The 2026 Emory study in Science Advances by Kai Lu and Robert Liu, showing that silencing the medial prefrontal cortex lets mice learn a better strategy three times faster Why the prefrontal cortex runs a "win-stay" system that conserves old patterns instead of breaking them Charles Limb and Allen Braun's 2008 jazz improvisation fMRI study and the dorsolateral prefrontal deactivation it found Siyuan Liu's 2012 freestyle rap study reproducing the same neural fingerprint Arne Dietrich's transient hypofrontality hypothesis and what hard exercise does to your evaluating brain The 2026 Frontiers review on flow states and default mode to executive network connectivity Right temporal alpha and the neuroscience of the aha moment Why creative generation and creative evaluation need separate calendar blocks The prediction driver in the Personal Threat and Reward Profile, and why high-certainty brains feel this most The cognitive mechanism that makes psychological safety a creativity intervention, not just a culture one Rate, review, and follow the show at @mybrainwisecoach. It moves the episode in front of the leaders who need it. 00:00 When Your Best Thinking Happens 01:52 Welcome To Neuroscience Digest 02:54 The Emory Mouse Maze Study 04:17 Silencing The Prefrontal Cortex 05:19 The Poker Player Analogy 06:10 The Mouse Model Caveat 07:20 Jazz Improvisation In The Scanner 08:34 Freestyle Rap Shows The Same Pattern 09:18 Transient Hypofrontality And Hard Exercise 10:23 Exercise Intensity And Divergent Thinking 11:16 What Flow States Reveal 12:31 The Aha Moment Mechanism 13:21 Why Four Studies Converge 14:55 Generating Versus Evaluating Ideas 16:03 The Prediction Driver Connection 17:11 Stop Brainstorming At Peak Focus 18:09 Exercise As A Cognitive Strategy 19:07 Psychological Safety And Creative Output 20:23 The Single Most Important Point 21:50 Closing Thoughts And Sign-Off Lu, K., Wong, K. T., Yang, C. J., Zhou, L. N., Shi, Y. T., Costello, M. L., & Liu, R. C. (2026). Neural competition between prefrontal and auditory cortex constrains novel sound strategy learning. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb3005 Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R. (2008). Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: An fMRI study of jazz improvisation. PLoS ONE, 3(2), e1679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001679 Liu, S., Chow, H. M., Xu, Y., Erkkinen, M. G., Swett, K. E., Eagle, M. W., Rizik-Baer, D. A., & Braun, A. R. (2012). Neural correlates of lyrical improvisation: An fMRI study of freestyle rap. Scientific Reports, 2, 834. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00834 Dietrich, A. (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: The transient hypofrontality hypothesis. Consciousness and Cognition, 12(2), 231-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1053-8100(02)00046-6 Maleki, M., Ahmadpour, A., Moraru, A., & Memmert, D. (2024). Acute aerobic exercise and creative thinking: Comparison of transient hypofrontality state and strength model of self-control's theoretical predictions. Retos, 58. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v58.103685 Barnett, K., & Vasiu, F. (2026). Enhanced functional connectivity between the default mode network and executive control network during flow states may facilitate creativity and emotional regulation. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 19, 1690499. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1690499

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  Episode #12

  Can Dogs Smell Stress? What Brain Scans Reveal About Your Dog (S3E12)

  Sep 13, 202617 minS3

  You walk in after a brutal day, and before you say a word your dog is already there, doing the specific thing they do when something is wrong. You assume you are projecting. Four peer-reviewed studies say you are not. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. Hernández-Pérez and Cuaya's 2026 iScience study at the University of Vienna, scanning awake pet dogs in an fMRI as they viewed human faces Why a human smile lights up the caudate nucleus, the dog's reward center, and the caveat the authors raise themselves Wilson, Campbell, Petzel and Reeve at Queen's University Belfast, where four dogs identified human stress by scent alone at 93.75% accuracy How your stress chemistry changes your breath and sweat within four minutes, and what that means for service dogs and panic attacks Koskela and colleagues on heart rate variability synchrony between dogs and owners, and why the dog appears to be leading Sundman's finding that long-term cortisol mirroring survives when you control for shared exercise Nagasawa's oxytocin gaze loop and Larry Young's feedback model of social bonding Where the participation, pleasure, and protection drivers show up inside the dog-human bond Rate, review, and follow @mybrainwisecoach wherever you listen. Your review is what helps other people find the show. 00:00 Your Dog Already Knows Something 01:03 Four Studies On Dog Cognition 01:46 Awake Dogs Inside An fMRI 03:01 Happy Faces Light Reward Centers 03:55 Separating Anger Fear And Sadness 05:26 What Brain Scans Cannot Prove 06:16 Can A Dog Smell Stress 07:54 Ninety Three Percent Scent Accuracy 09:25 Service Dogs And Panic Attacks 09:58 Heart Rate Variability Synchrony Explained 11:36 Long Term Cortisol Mirroring Owners 12:24 The Oxytocin Loop Both Ways 13:19 Three BrainWise Drivers Explained 15:35 The Practical Takeaway For Owners 16:21 Closing Thoughts And Sign Off Hernández-Pérez, R., Concha, L., Andics, A., Bernal-Gamboa, R., & Cuaya, L. V. (2026). Dog brain representations of human facial expressions: Encoding happiness and differentiating specific negative expressions. iScience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.116900 — Published August 7, 2026. First author Raúl Hernández-Pérez, senior author Laura V. Cuaya, University of Vienna. Wilson, C., Campbell, K., Petzel, Z., & Reeve, C. (2022). Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours. PLOS ONE, 17(9), e0274143. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274143 Koskela, A., Törnqvist, H., Somppi, S., Tiira, K., Kykyri, V.-L., Hänninen, L., Kujala, J., Nagasawa, M., Kikusui, T., & Kujala, M. V. (2024). Behavioral and emotional co-modulation during dog–owner interaction measured by heart rate variability and activity. Scientific Reports, 14, 25201. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76831-x Sundman, A.-S., et al. (2019). Long-term stress levels are synchronized in dogs and their owners. Scientific Reports, 9, 7391. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43851-x Nagasawa, M., et al. (2015). Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human–dog bonds. Science, 348(6232), 333–336. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261022 Stoeckel, L. E., Palley, L. S., Gollub, R. L., Niemi, S. M., & Evins, A. E. (2014). Patterns of brain activation when mothers view their own child and dog: An fMRI study. PLOS ONE, 9(10), e107205. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107205 Young, L. J. (1967–2024), Emory University. Founder of the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience and the Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition. See obituary: Larry J. Young (1967–2024) , Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.05.014

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  Episode #11

  Power Posing Debunked: What New Research Says About Posture and Mood (S3E11)

  Sep 6, 202620 minS3

  In 2012 Amy Cuddy tells a TED audience that two minutes of open posture rewires your hormones. Three years later a bigger study finds nothing, and the original lead author publicly abandons her own finding. The question buried under that wreckage finally gets asked properly. Learn more, get certified, take the Personal Threat Profile (PTP), and book 1:1 coaching at brainwiseenterprises.com. Carney, Cuddy and Yap's 2010 power posing study and what it actually claimed Eva Ranehill's 2015 replication in Psychological Science and why the hormone effects vanished Dana Carney's 2016 statement abandoning power pose effects The replication crisis in psychology and what it repaired Demand characteristics, and why telling someone to pose invalidates the test Veenstra, Schneider and Koole on stooped posture, mood recovery and negative thoughts Interoception, and how your brain reads your body as live evidence The 2026 McGill study by Wainio-Theberge and Armony in the British Journal of Psychology Manipulating posture through desk height instead of instruction Neck angle measured objectively from video tracking software Upright posture, smarter risk-taking on the balloon task, and higher pride The protection driver inside the BrainWise framework Workplace ergonomics as a quiet input to your mood and your decisions Rate, review and follow @mybrainwisecoach so more people find the show. 00:00 The Power Pose Origin Story 02:14 Welcome To My BrainWise Coach 02:57 What Carney Cuddy And Yap Claimed 04:34 Why The Power Pose Spread 05:35 The 2015 Replication That Failed 06:38 Dana Carney Retracts Her Finding 07:48 The Question That Survived The Collapse 08:38 The Demand Characteristics Problem Explained 09:35 Veenstra Posture And Mood Recovery 11:22 Interoception And Body Brain Signals 12:19 The McGill Study Design Explained 13:59 Measuring Neck Angle From Video 15:31 Upright Posture And Better Risk 16:57 Protection Driver And BrainWise Framework 17:54 Workplace Ergonomics Field Guide 18:48 Why Science Correcting Itself Matters 19:44 Close And Final Takeaway Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. J. (2010). Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological Science , 21(10), 1363–1368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610383437 Cuddy, A. (2012). Your body language may shape who you are. TEDGlobal 2012 . https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are Ranehill, E., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Leiberg, S., Sul, S., & Weber, R. A. (2015). Assessing the robustness of power posing: No effect on hormones and risk tolerance in a large sample of men and women. Psychological Science , 26(5), 653–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614553946 Carney, D. R. (2016). My position on "Power Poses." Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley . https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/dana_carney/pdf_my%20position%20on%20power%20poses.pdf Veenstra, L., Schneider, I. K., & Koole, S. L. (2017). Embodied mood regulation: The impact of body posture on mood recovery, negative thoughts, and mood-congruent recall. Cognition and Emotion , 31(7), 1361–1376. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1225003 Wainio-Theberge, S., & Armony, J. (2026). Manipulating posture implicitly through environmental constraints influences mood and risk-taking behaviour. British Journal of Psychology . https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70083

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