Brain Buzz

We are finally releasing a long awaited episode with Dr. Jason Winters! If you are interested in what it looks like to be in sex therapy, how sex therapists interact with their clients, how Jason treats and assesses sex addiction, or any other sex therapy related inquiries… you found the perfect episode. The episode starts with Dr. Jason discussing how he became a sex therapist (discussing his work in pedophilia, sex addiction, and other interesting study designs including penile plethysmography work), we then discuss sex/porn addiction, and then explore what it is like to be in a sex therapy session. Dr. Jason Winters is a registered psychologist and sex therapist. https://www.drjasonwinters.com/ Brain Buzz will be going on a break for the remainder of the year and hope to start up their next season sometime early in the New Year! Have a happy holidays, much love from the Brain Buzz team!

On today's episode we are joined by Dr. Ashley Randall from Arizona State University and Gabe Leon (A PhD student from The University of Southern California). Ashley and Gabe are two researchers that recently published a paper examining how couples cope with COVID-19. In their paper they examined couples across a whopping 27 different countries to see how what impact COVID 19 has had on the way couples cope with the stress of the global pandemic. Make sure to check this episode out for tons of information on how stress and coping researchers examine such a massive sample and to learn more about dyadic coping research! Link to their newly published paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02654075211034236

Dive into the grey areas of global development and youth peacebuilding with our long awaited guest, Alina Dixon. Alina is a PhD student at Queens University, in Kingston, Ontario. She is interested in troubling the western, liberal traditions of the dominant peacebuilding lexicon by examining how peacebuilding knowledge is constructed and maintained, and what the implications of this are for youth-led, everyday peace efforts. We talk about her new work on how the show “Derry Girls” depicts youth peacebuilding in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. We explore what youth peacebuilding looks like now and what global development research aims to uncover. Want to connect with our guest? She is on Twitter @AlinaDixon and can be contacted via her Queen’s profile: https://www.queensu.ca/devs/graduate-program/student-profiles

Do single people really have it worse than couples??? Dr. Yuthika Girme joins Brain Buzz Podcast to talk about her work on Singlehood! Do people in relationship have better mental and physical health than single people? How many single people want to be single vs. want to be in relationships? We also talk about the unique gender differences that single people experience (Men are treated like sexy, eligible bachelors while women are often treated like they are running out of time). If you are currently single and interested in hearing what research says about singles or want to reminisce about your single days… this episode is for you! You can follow Yuthika on twitter: @YuthikaGirme or check her website out at: https://www.sfu.ca/psychology/about/people/profiles/ygirme.html

Episode 76 has Dr. Eric Helms, host of Iron Culture, and research fellow for AUT at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand talks all things POWERlifting and bodybuilding! Eric fills us in on how what the differences are between powerlifting and bodybuilding. Today’s episodes includes conversation on how traditional strength sports came to be and how competitive bodybuilding grew out of circus acts and expos. Why is it important to consume fats and carbs? Why are we so obsessed with protein? How can bodybuilding and powerlifting research improve how you workout and train, even if you’re just interested in reducing a little bit of belly fat or trying to be healthier in general. What do physical fitness reseachers do to measure fitness? Eric explains the work he does measuring professional and aspiring athletes. Lastly, we discuss the murky online fitness industry and what an obtainable body type really should look like!If you are a fan of Eric’s scientific approach to powerlifting and bodybuilding you need to check out his podcast: Iron Culture for more: https://ironculture.libsyn.com/

Where were you from 4pm-10pm last Tuesday? Who did you speak with or see? Can anyone corroborate your whereabouts? True crime enthusiasts, science lovers, and crime psychology fans rejoice! Dr. Kureva Matuku is going to explain how to make the perfect alibi. On episode 75 we figure out what issues are related to providing ACCURATE alibis, the fallibility of our memory and recollections, and what you can do to improve your alibis if you are ever required to provide one. Dr. Matuku also explains how eye witness lineups and photo spreads work, how reliable eye witness testimonies are, and the impact that alibis and eye witness testimonies have on judicial outcomes. If you like this episode and want to check out more of our catalogue of over 75 episodes go to www.brainbuzzpod.com, Brain Buzz on Spotify or Apple Podcast.Don’t want to miss any new psychology/science content from us? Follow us on Twitter/instagram @BrainBuzzPod to stay in the loop!

Shownotes:Check out Petra’s open access paper on how to reduce stigma:Gronholm, P. C., Nosé, M., Van Brakel, W. H., Eaton, J., Ebenso, B., Fiekert, K., ... & Thornicroft, G. (2021). Reducing stigma and discrimination associated with COVID-19: early stage pandemic rapid review and practical recommendations. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 1-23.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7884669/ Want to learn more about what Petra’s group does on mental health stigma? Check out www.Indigo-group.org for more information on how to access stigma, information on low-income country data, etc.Follow Petra on Twitter @GronholmPetra

If you enjoyed the content of today’s show, make sure to pick up John’s new book, “The Life Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit” wherever you buy books!

Follow Dr. David Shiffman on Twitter @whysharksmatter and check out his “Save our seas” project here: https://saveourseas.com/project-leader/david-shiffman/.For David’s open access research on marine conservation and other topics visit: davidshiffmancv.com

For more information Sir Graham Thornicoft’s research: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/graham-thornicroft Make sure to follow us on Twitter and instagram @brainbuzzpod and to follow us on Spotify/Apple podcast to get updates when new episodes are published! Cheers :)

Do you or one of your good friends strongly believe the earth is flat? Do you believe the COVID-19 vaccines are tracking us? Are all politicians really lizard people? Our guests: Ricky Green and Mikey Biddlestone (two PhD students from the University of Kent) are researchers that investigate why people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. We discuss how attachment theory can predict the likelihood of you believing in conspiracy theories. We explain what collective narcissism is and why it is seen more often among conspiracy believers. Are there any benefits to believing in conspiracy theories? What are some of the sneaky ways that conspiracy theories can convince us they are true? All this and more in this weeks episode!

Dr. Edward Slingerland from the University of British Columbia joins Brain Buzz to talk discuss his new book DRUNK! We talk about how alcohol and drinking may have shaped our modern civilization, impacted how we interact as humans, and why alcohol is so important to humans. What benefits does drinking really provide us as humans? Why would we continue to drink considering the negative consequences associated it with? Should evolution not have weeded this behaviour out already? What barriers does drinking cause in our society today? All this and more on today’s episode! Make sure to follow us our Twitter and instagram @brainbuzzpod and to follow us on Spotify/Apple podcast to get updates when new episodes are published! Cheers :)

Grab a cup of coffee, take a cold shower, do what you have to do to wake yourself up! In episode 68 we got Dr. Lauren Whitehurst in the studio to talk about her work on sleep and cognition. Are you curious about what the world record for hours spent awake is? Have you ever wondered what sleep stages we go through every night and what each stage does? What exactly are microsleeps? We discuss these topics as well as Dr. Lauren Whitehurst’s research on how drugs, stress, and discrimination can significantly perturb your sleep!

Tiana Sharifi is the founder and owner of Sexual Exploitation Education, a British Columbia based organization dedicated to raising awareness and addressing service gaps around sexual exploitation in Canada. Tiana joins Kyle and Drake to discuss the prevalence and severity of sexual exploitation and human trafficking in Canada today. What constitutes sexual exploitation and human trafficking? Where is human trafficking most likely to occur and is it a problem in Canada that is worth addressing? What resources/strategies are there to combat or respond to human trafficking and sexual exploitation? Make sure to check out this episode to learn all this and more!

Gabe Brooks, a returning guest from the University of British Columbia joins us to talk about the phenomenon of online gaming “Lootboxes” and the possible implications they have on imbuing problematic gambling behaviours in children and adult gamers! Why do people spend money on online lootboxes and what populations are at risk? We also discuss the future of gaming and microtransactions. If you are interested in how gambling may be related to online gaming for you, your friends, or children… check out this episode now!

On today’s episode we are joined by Tessa Charlesworth, researcher at Harvard University, to talk about implicit attitudes and biases over time. Tessa shares with us how people change their minds in response to new experiences across the lifespan and how social attitudes and stereotypes shift over time in response to societal events. How do you measure implicit attitudes in historical records? Can we predict future levels of implicit biases? Are all biases harmful? All this and much more in Implicit Attitudes and Biases with Tessa Charlesworth!

On today’s episode we are joined by Ben Davis-Purcell, researcher at Carleton University, to talk about the study of the smallest things in the universe. Ben shares with us why studying particle physics is important to understanding the natural world and how particles interact to create everything in the known universe. How many fundamental particles are there and what do they do? What are the four fundamental forces? What does the Large Hadron Collider do and what kind of research is being conducted at it? All this and much more in Particle Physics with Ben Davis-Purcell!

On today’s episode we are joined by Dr. Gwendolyn Seidman, Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair at Albright College, to talk about presentations of relationships on social media and how the posts are related to relationship satisfaction. Gwen shares with us how patterns of social media use, and how the relationship is presented, can be indicative of the relationship satisfaction, long-term prognosis, and desire to ward off or invite potential suitors. What is the investment model of commitment and how is it reflected in social media use? Does the social media platform change the motive of the post? Why are some posts ‘gross’? All this and much more in Online Presentations of Relationships with Dr. Gwendolyn Seidman!

On today’s episode we sit down to chat with Ryan Dwyer, graduate student in the Social Cognition and Emotion Lab at the University of British Columbia, to talk about phones and happiness. Ryan shares with us how phone use impacts our social and emotional relationships, and why it might be important to put your phone down. How do you define happiness? How are phones affecting our happiness? What is Phubbing? All this and much more in Phubbing with Ryan Dwyer!Today we are re-releasing a classic episode from Season 1 with Ryan Dwyer! Like and subscribe to us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts/Facebook. Enjoy the episode!

In episode 61 we are joined by Dr. Chris Barry, Professor of Psychology at Washington State University, to chat about how adolescent’s self-perceptions impact their social media use. Chris shares how selfies and “posies” are related to an individual’s self-esteem and narcissism, and what that means for how they interact with social media. We talk about his work on the fear of missing out and how social media contributes to it in the digital age. What is a “posie”? How do others perceive your selfies and what can you do to make others like your pictures more? Can restricting social media access help individuals feel better about its use? All this and much more in Selfies and Posies with Dr. Chris Barry!