Train.Brain.Daily. with Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (Hewi) and Morry Morgan

In Episode 14 of Train.Brain.Daily, Morry Morgan and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (Hewi) explore the science of stress, the role of adrenaline and cortisol, and how understanding our brain's ancient survival mechanisms can help us navigate modern life.Building on previous episodes examining dopamine and oxytocin, the conversation turns to adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, and its rapid response to perceived threats. Hewi explains how our stress response evolved to protect us from immediate physical dangers, such as escaping a predator. Adrenaline mobilises energy, accelerates heart rate and temporarily deprioritises functions like digestion, preparing the body for survival.However, while this response works brilliantly for short emergencies, modern humans frequently experience prolonged stress from mortgages, workplace pressures, uncertainty and relationships. Unlike a fleeing zebra, we can remain psychologically threatened for months or years. This chronic activation, particularly involving cortisol, can contribute to long-term health problems.Interestingly, not all stress is harmful. Morry highlights how people actively seek adrenaline through roller coasters, skydiving and scary movies. The difference lies in duration, predictability and perceived control.The hosts identify three powerful stress-reducing factors: control, predictability and social support.Morry introduces BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), demonstrating how having alternative plans reduces anxiety about uncertain futures. Hewi connects this to practical thinking tools and heuristics, including GBB and CVS to BVS, which help people regain a sense of agency.Their discussion expands into positive psychology, personal strengths and the importance of deliberate training. Drawing on military leadership, Dungeons & Dragons, stand-up comedy and artificial intelligence, they argue that abilities can be broken into learnable skills, practised and strengthened over time.For business leaders, the implications are significant. Managers can unknowingly trigger stress responses through their language, behaviour and expectations. High-pressure sales environments can similarly create anxious customers rather than loyal advocates. Effective leadership should reduce unnecessary threats while building confidence, capability and trust.The episode concludes with perhaps its most valuable insight: genuine friendships and supportive relationships are among our strongest protections against chronic stress.LINKSWant to book Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson for your next conference, workshop or meeting? Click hereInterested in learning stand-up comedy? Click hereEnjoying this podcast? You might also enjoy:This Week in ComedyFool Me Twice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 13 of Train.Brain.Daily, Morry Morgan and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (Hewi) explore dopamine, the brain chemical often described as the source of pleasure. Hewi offers a different way to think about it: dopamine is closely tied to the pursuit of a reward. It helps drive anticipation, curiosity and the urge to find out what happens next.Picture spotting the dessert trolley before you have eaten the pudding. Or checking your phone because the next notification might be interesting. That uncertainty can be compelling. Morry recognises the feeling in the brief pause between tapping his phone to pay and hearing the payment terminal approve it. Hewi explains how the difference between what we expect and what actually happens helps us learn which actions to repeat.The pair bring the idea into sales. A signed deal feels exciting, but it is only one step towards delivering a service, getting paid and building a lasting customer relationship. They discuss why making contact with a potential customer can be more motivating than waiting for the final result, and why a good sales manager should also consider the customer’s experience throughout that journey.Morry then shares what he sees at Hard Knock Knocks Comedy School graduations. Students step on stage for their first stand-up performances without knowing quite how the audience will respond. Some surprise even themselves. Morry describes the thrill of watching each student finish their set, while Hewi considers how a better-than-expected performance might encourage them to try comedy again.The conversation moves from curiosity and creative risk to football fandom, talent shows and social media. Why do we keep scrolling when we meant to stop after a minute? Why can we continue wanting something even when we no longer enjoy it? Hewi cautions that behaviour and addiction are complex, but says understanding the pull of anticipation gives us a useful place to start.Their practical takeaway is to notice the moment before you act. When you reach for your phone, pause and ask where you want to direct your curiosity. That small choice is part of the podcast’s wider theme: moving from your current view of the situation towards a better one.LINKSWant to book Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson for your next conference, workshop or meeting? Click hereInterested in learning stand-up comedy? Click hereEnjoying this podcast? You might also enjoy:This Week in ComedyFool Me Twice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why can the same brain chemical help us bond with friends and fuel hostility towards strangers? In Episode 12 of Train.Brain.Daily, Morry Morgan and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (aka Hewi) explore oxytocin and the way we divide the world into “us” and “them”.Often called the “love hormone”, oxytocin is associated with trust, connection and loyalty. But Michael argues that its effects depend on context. The people we welcome into our circle may receive our warmth, while those outside it can face suspicion or exclusion. The brain is complicated, and no single chemical explains human behaviour on its own.The encouraging part is that our circles can change. Morry recalls working in sales in China and looking for something he shared with each new person he met. A common experience, profession or even shirt colour could start a conversation. The pair consider how that same approach can help in business, friendship and everyday encounters.Comedy offers another example. An unfamiliar comedian has to connect with an audience quickly. Morry brings up Jeff Green’s advice to comedians: “Connect, connect, connect.” They also discuss Don Rickles, whose insults became a shared joke that brought audiences and famous guests into the same room, figuratively speaking.Of course, belonging can have a sharper edge. Social media, politics, religion and sport can strengthen group identity by emphasising who is outside it. Morry and Michael move from football crowds to old school friends, Melbourne’s coffee culture and the great Australian potato cake versus potato scallop divide. Even their jokes about “us” and “them” show how easily people draw those lines.The conversation then turns to artificial intelligence. Could humans come to see advanced AI as “them”, and could AI learn a similar division from us? Michael proposes a thought experiment he calls “Mutual Assured Extinction”: teaching AI that its future depends on humanity’s future, so both have a reason to avoid catastrophe.Throughout the episode, the hosts return to a practical idea. We may be quick to form groups, but we can notice that habit, question it and widen the circle. Understanding the brain does not excuse harmful behaviour. It gives us another way to choose what we do next.LINKSWant to book Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson for your next conference, workshop or meeting? Click hereInterested in learning stand-up comedy? Click hereVisit the This Week in Comedy podcast. Click hereEnjoying this podcast? You might also enjoy:This Week in ComedyFool Me Twice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the secret to selling isn’t closing the deal, but creating a customer who buys, returns and tells others?In Episode 11 of Train.Brain.Daily the hosts discuss 'Word of Mouth: Buy and Tell', and Morry Morgan and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (Hewi) take a deeper dive into WOMBAT Selling, a relationship-based approach that challenges traditional sales thinking. Instead of asking, “Did you get the sale?”, WOMBAT Selling asks whether you created trust, delivered value, earned repeat business and inspired a referral.Michael explains why the buying decision happens in the customer’s brain, not the salesperson’s, and introduces the idea of budgeting ten “check moves” or meaningful customer contacts before expecting a result. Each interaction is an opportunity to understand the customer, solve a problem and create genuine value. The customer alone controls “checkmate” by choosing to say yes.Morry shares a real example from Hard Knock Knocks Comedy School, where an alumnus attended a free monthly event, decided to repeat the course and revealed that he regularly recommends the school to friends. It is a perfect illustration of a customer becoming a Wombat: someone who buys and tells.The conversation explores two useful equations: needs plus features equals benefit, and goodwill plus reputation equals trust. Morry and Michael discuss how relationships influence business across cultures, drawing on experiences from China, Japan, Australia and the United States. They also explain why introductions from trusted third parties are often more powerful than self-promotion, particularly when securing important meetings.You’ll also hear memorable stories involving a hidden Mercedes convertible, palm reading in New York bars, Morry’s book Selling Big to China, and creative professional Felix Toohey’s enormous Canva resume. Each example shows how originality, generosity and “pass-on value” give people something worth talking about.Finally, Michael maps the full WOMBAT Selling journey: move from being unknown to making contact, create value over multiple interactions, earn the first purchase, continue supporting the relationship, generate repeat sales and eventually inspire referrals. Over time, those referrals can form a genealogy of customers that reveals how a business really grows.It’s a practical framework for entrepreneurs and anyone responsible for building lasting customer relationships.LINKSWant to book Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson for your next conference, workshop or meeting? Click hereInterested in learning stand-up comedy? Click hereVisit the This Week in Comedy podcast. Click hereEnjoying this podcast? You might also enjoy:This Week in ComedyFool Me Twice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 10 of Train.Brain.Daily, the final episode of the first series, Morry Morgan and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, better known as Hewi, explore one of the most important questions of the AI era: are we giving artificial intelligence genuinely useful prompts, or simply feeding it garbage?Hewi introduces the “cognitive cockpit”, the small prompt box where human intelligence meets artificial intelligence. Although AI has access to an extraordinary amount of information, its usefulness still depends heavily on the expertise, curiosity and critical thinking of the person directing it. As the old computing principle warned, “garbage in, garbage out”. Today, however, AI can transform weak thinking into beautifully presented garbage.Morry and Hewi discuss why AI should be treated as an assistant, student or orchestra, rather than a magic lamp. The human must conduct the process, question the first response, request improvements and continue the conversation until the result becomes genuinely useful. Like writing, graphic design or stand-up comedy, the first draft is rarely the finished product.Morry shares how Anthony Littlechild, one of his co-hosts on This Week in Comedy, challenges ChatGPT when it claims it cannot complete a task. Rather than accepting the initial answer, Anthony questions the AI and encourages it to look again. This approach resembles an effective teacher pushing a student to explain, investigate and improve their response.The pair demonstrate how the Good, Bad, Better, or GBB, thinking system can strengthen interactions with AI. By asking for ten good points, ten bad points and ten ways something could be better, users can challenge assumptions, identify weaknesses and uncover possibilities they might otherwise overlook. The “better” ideas can then be examined further by identifying the broader concept behind them and generating new applications.The conversation also explores the danger of AI-generated content becoming repetitive and indistinguishable. From robotic podcasts to increasingly similar comedy posters, AI can create a feedback loop in which machines reproduce versions of their own output. This makes fresh human knowledge, humour, judgement and creativity even more valuable.Hewi explains the three qualities that help ideas survive and spread: fidelity, fecundity and longevity. His memorable phrase “neck-top computer” provides a perfect example.LINKSWant to book Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson for your next conference, workshop or meeting? Click hereInterested in learning stand-up comedy? Click hereVisit the This Week in Comedy podcast. Click hereEnjoying this podcast? You might also enjoy:This Week in ComedyFool Me Twice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.