Boost Attention & Memory with Science-Based Tools | Dr. Wendy Suzuki

(uptempo music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, my guest is Dr. Wendy Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University and one of the leading researchers in the area of learning and memory. Her laboratory has contributed fundamental textbook understanding of how brain areas such as the hippocampus, which you will learn about today, how the hippocampus and related brain circuits allow us to take certain experiences and commit them to memory so that we can use that information in the future. Dr. Suzuki is also an expert public educator in the realm of science. A few years back, she had a TED Talk that essentially went viral, if you haven't seen it already, you should absolutely check it out, in which she describes her experience using exercise as a way to enhance learning and memory, and on the basis of that personal experience, she reshaped her laboratory to explore how things like meditation, exercise, and other things that we can do with our physiology and our psychology can allow us to learn faster, to commit things to memory longer, and indeed, to reshape our cognitive performance in a variety of settings. As such, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Suzuki is now not only running a laboratory at New York University, but she is the incoming Dean of Arts and Science at New York University, and, of course, she was selected for that role for her many talents, but one of the important aspects of her program, she tells me, is going to be to incorporate the incredible power of exercise, meditation, and other behavioral practices for enhancing learning, for improving stress management, and other things to optimize student performance. Today, you are going to get access to much of that information so that you can apply those tools in your daily life as well. Dr. Suzuki is also an author of several important books. The most recent one is entitled Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, and a previous book entitled Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better, and while that is admittedly a very pop science-type title, I will remind you that she is one of the preeminent memory researchers in the world and has been for quite a while. So, the information that you'll glean from those books is both rich in depth and breadth and is highly applicable. By the end of today's discussion, you will have learned from Dr. Suzuki a large amount of knowledge about how memories are formed, how they are lost, and you will have a much larger kit of tools to apply for your efforts to learn better, to remember better, and to apply that information in the ways that best serve you. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin, mineral, probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it meets all my foundational vitamin, mineral, and probiotic needs. In fact, whenever people ask me if I were to only take one supplement, which supplement should I take, I tell them Athletic Greens for the simple reason that it covers your base of vitamins, minerals, and probiotics. It also has important adaptogens, digestive enzymes for gut health. All this is very important because we now know that gut health and the so-called gut-brain axis is very important for things like mood and brain function, and also contributes to immune system function. Athletic Greens, you're covering all those bases, and of course, you need to eat a nutrition and healthy diet that's right for you, but by taking Athletic Greens once or twice a day, you can be sure that there are going to be no gaps or deficiencies in your vitamin, mineral, or probiotic needs. I mix mine with water and a little bit of lemon juice or lime juice, and I personally find it delicious. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2, both of which are also vital for immediate and long-term health. So once again, if you go to athleticgreens.com/huberman, you can get a special offer of five free travel packs to make it easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're in the car or otherwise traveling, plus they'll give you the year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you reach your health goals. I've long been a believer in getting regular blood work done for the simple reason that many of the factors that impact your immediate and long-term health can only be analyzed from a quality blood test. And nowadays, with the advent of modern DNA tests, you can also get insight into, for instance, what your biological age is and compare that to your chronological age, and of course, your biological age is the, the number that really matters. With InsideTracker, there's a distinct advantage, and the advantage is that while there are many blood tests and DNA tests out there, InsideTracker's blood and DNA tests come also with a platform, meaning a website platform, that allows you to see exactly what you could or should do in order to adjust the numbers on things like hormone levels, metabolic factors, and lipids, and so on. It's a little pop-up window that points to nutritional supplementation and behavioral regimens that you can take in order to put those numbers in the ranges that are optimal for you. If you'd like to try InsideTracker, you can visit insidetracker.com/huberman to get 20% off any of InsideTracker's plans. That's insidetracker.com/huberman to get 20% off. Today's episode is also brought to us by Blinkist. Blinkist is an app that has thousands of nonfiction books, each condensed down to just 15 minutes of key takeaways for those books. I love reading books from front to back. I like the actual physical book, I'm sort of old-fashioned in that way, and I do also listen to audiobooks. It's very rare that I don't.... finish a book that I've started. Nonetheless, I like to revisit some of my favorite books. I also like to write down key takeaways from those books, sometimes even before I listen to the full-length book. So I don't mind spoiling the, the takeaways because when I read nonfiction, generally I'm trying to extract the most valuable knowledge from them. So I'll often listen to a Blinkist 15-minute version, then the full-length book, or sometimes the full-length book and then the Blinkist 15-minute version. Either way, Blinkist is a great way to get through any book and to extract the best from those books. I've used it for, for instance, Matt Walker's Why We Sleep, an excellent book on why we sleep, as well as Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Body, uh, Nassim Talle's The Black Swan, and so on and so on. With Blinkist, you get unlimited access to read or listen to a massive library of nonfiction books. It really is a treasure trove of information. Right now, Blinkist has a special offer just for Huberman Lab Podcast listeners. If you go to blinkist.com/huberman, you can get a free seven-day trial and 25% off a Blinkist premium membership. Once again, go to blinkist.com/huberman to get a seven-day free trial and 25% off. And now for my discussion with Dr. Wendy Suzuki. Wendy, great to see you again and to have you here. It's been a little while.