Dopamine Nation
Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Dr. Anna Lembke
INSTANT
This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, g...
The book was repeatedly highlighted by Andrew Huberman, with occasional endorsement from guests like Martha Beck, as a crucial resource for understanding dopamine's role in addiction and the pleasure‑pain balance in today’s dopamine‑rich world. He pointed out that it provided clear, science‑based explanations and engaging patient stories that made the material accessible to both professionals and the general public. Across episodes covering topics from sugar and alcohol to social media and cold exposure, it was consistently recommended for anyone interested in motivation, addiction, or mental health.
Highly Recommended
Episode: AMA #18: Cold Therapy Advice, Skin Health Tips, Mo...
Dr. Lembke, the director of the Dual Diagnosis Addiction Clinic at Stanford, wrote a book about the underlying biological mechanisms of addiction. This book was recommended for its insights into dopamine and its role in addiction, as well as its approach to treatment.
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Also Anna's book, Dopamine Nation is a wonderful one.
It will allow you to see and understand that these are brain mechanisms that are at play.
These are not, it's not a lack of willpower. It's a disruption in neurochemical circuit regulation.
Episode: Dr. Martha Beck: Accessing Your Best Self With Min...
The book by Anna Lemke, which discusses dopamine, addiction and its effects on the brain was mentioned by Andrew Huberman.
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And one of the things that I love so much about Anna's message, she wrote the book Dopamine Nation.
Oh, I love that book.
Yeah, wonderful book.
Episode: How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health
The book "Dopamine Nation" by Anna Lembke was mentioned in relation to addictive behaviors and how people become habituated to certain activities, such as scrolling social media or consuming pornography, and lose touch with the pleasure of those activities. This was mentioned as an analogy to the effects of addictive foods.
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It's not this like an anilemmke when she came on the podcast, author of dopamine nation and obviously had a dual diagnosis addiction clinic. The Stanford talked about, you know, these consumptive behaviors where people are scrolling social media or consuming porn or consuming drugs or alcohol in a way that like they're not in touch with the pleasure of the substance or behavior anymore.
Episode: Leverage Dopamine to Overcome Procrastination & Op...
It was highly recommended for its insightful exploration into dopamine and its role in various types of addiction, beyond just substance abuse.
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excellent book by the way highly recommended if you haven't read it already it's a fascinating exploration into dopamine as it relates to addiction not just drug addiction but other types of addiction again the name of that book is dopamine nation will provide a link to it in the show no captions.
Episode: AMA #5: Intrusive Thoughts, CGMs, Behavioral Chang...
It was discussed as an important read for everyone, particularly regarding modern life's dopamine-rich environment and its potential to lead to depletion and issues like depression and addiction.
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Dr. Anna Lemke is the author of this incredible book, Dopamine Nation that I think everybody should read.
I do believe everyone should read that book so important for the addict and non addict alike because it deals with basically the state of our life nowadays we're living in this dopamine rich world where we can quickly become dopamine depleted which is terrible leads to depression in addition to things like addiction and some folks etc.
Episode: AMA #4: Maintain Motivation, Improve REM Sleep, Se...
It was discussed in relation to addiction and how large dopamine peaks can lead to a lower baseline, requiring more effort to replenish.
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what happens is after those big peaks in dopamine the reservoir the baseline in dopamine drops below its initial level so it's as if the reservoir got deeper and it's emptier and it takes much much longer to fill
Episode: Science-Based Tools for Increasing Happiness
Dr. Analemki's book, "Dopamine Nation", was recommended for its clear and informative content on the topic of dopamine and addiction.
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If you're interested in dopamine and addiction in particular that's a wonderful clear and extremely informative read.
Episode: LIVE EVENT Q&A: Dr. Andrew Huberman Question & Ans...
It was mentioned in relation to cold water therapy, and how it has helped some patients in recovery from addiction and depression.
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my colleague at Stanford doctor on a limkey who's ahead of our dual diagnosis addiction clinic has talked about in her amazing book dopamine nation about patients of hers that have really helped themselves along and out of the more depressive phases of working through addiction and in just depression in general through directed cold water therapy.
Episode: What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health
Dr. Lemke, a medical doctor, wrote the book Dopamine Nation and talked about the pleasure-pain balance associated with alcohol, which is relevant to tolerance and how people might drink more to try and regain the initial feel-good effect.
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We're all experts in addiction and she talked about this pleasure pain balance that extends beyond alcohol to things like sex and gambling and to other behaviors that can potentially become addictive but certainly includes alcohol so tolerance it seems is a process in which people are ingesting more and more alcohol as an attempt to get that feeling of well being back.
Episode: Optimize & Control Your Brain Chemistry to Improve...
It is about dopamine and its uses both healthy and its perils in things like addiction. It describes a patient of hers who used deliberate cold exposure to try and maintain dopamine levels while coming off of drugs that were increasing dopamine so potently that they were putting him down the path of addiction.
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she is an amazing book called dopamine nation all about dopamine and both its uses healthy and its perils in things like addiction
and she describes a patient of hers that used deliberate cold exposure to try and maintain dopamine levels while coming off of drugs that were increasing dopamine so politely that they were putting him down the path of addiction
Episode: The Science & Health Benefits of Deliberate Heat E...
It was highly recommended by Andrew Huberman for its in-depth explanation of the dopamine system and the pleasure-pain balance within it, particularly as it relates to addiction.
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Excellent book, I recommend to all people, addicts or not.
Episode: Using Deliberate Cold Exposure for Health and Perf...
The author's book was mentioned as a resource for information about dopamine, addiction and the use of dopamine from cold water exposure.
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One of our previous guests, Dr. Anna Lemke, who's a medical doctor at Stanford University School of Medicine, she's a close colleague of mine, described the use of dopamine in her book Dopamine Nation, an incredible book about addiction and dopamine I should mention, and the use of dopamine elicited by cold water exposure by one of her patients.
Episode: Controlling Sugar Cravings & Metabolism with Scien...
Dr. Lembke, an expert on addiction and dopamine pathways, was referenced in the context of the pleasure-pain balance that exists within dopamine circuits. This book is strongly recommended for understanding motivated behaviors and how to channel behaviors in life towards healthy motivation.
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Nobody has dopamine circuits that allow them to escape this pleasure-pain balance.
the dopamine circuits of the brain have what we call a pleasure-pain balance and there I'm paraphrasing what Dr. Analemke has said and has written about in her beautiful book dopamine nation if you haven't read that book I highly recommend it whether or not you have issues with addiction or you know people that do or you don't it's an incredibly important read especially if you're interested in understanding motivated behaviors and ways to channel your behaviors in life toward healthy motivated behaviors and make sure that you avoid some of the common pitfalls that people fall into not just addiction but things like over use of social media or wasting time in general it's a phenomenal book.
Episode: Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus &...
Dr. Anna Lemke, head of the addiction dual diagnosis clinic at Stanford, wrote a book called "Dopamine Nation" about finding balance in the age of indulgence. This book discusses dopamine schedules and the relationship between dopamine peaks and baselines.
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She's head of the addiction dual diagnosis clinic at Stanford has a amazing book dopamine nation finding balance in the age of indulgence if you haven't read the book i highly encourage you to check it out it's fantastic
In Dr. Lemke's book and when she was on the Hibberman Lab podcast another podcast she's talked about this pleasure pain and balance that when we seek something that we really like or we indulge in it like eating a little piece of chocolate if we really like chocolate there's some pleasure but then there's a little bit of pain that exceeds the amount of pleasure and it's subtle and we experience it as wanting more of that thing okay so there's a pleasure pain balance and i'm telling you that the pleasure and the pain are governed by dopamine to some extent
Episode: Dr. Anna Lembke: Understanding & Treating Addictio...
The book explains how our chronic exposure to substances or behaviors that release dopamine can change our baseline levels and lead to a dopamine deficit state, which is akin to clinical depression. The book also discusses how to treat various types of addiction and regain balance in our lives.
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The book comes out August 24th and is an absolutely fascinating read into addiction and ways to treat various types of addiction.
I've read the book, Cover to Cover, and all I'll tell you is that at the very first chapter and throughout, you are going to be absolutely blown away.
The stories about her patients are extremely engaging.
It brings forward the real struggle of addiction and the incredible, I think it's fair to say heroic battles that people fight in order to get through addictions of various kinds.
All of that is woven through with story, with science and ways that make it very accessible to anyone whether or not you have a science background or not.
Episode: Overcoming Guilt & Building Tenacity in Kids & Adu...
The book was cited as evidence that humans now have more free time across socioeconomic groups, linking this to increased dopaminedriven instant gratification and its impact on frustration tolerance.
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my colleague Anna Lemke wrote Dopamine Nation cited some data that humans have more free time now across socioeconomic groups, more free time now ... and it's not just the texts that we're getting but the number of tethers is just astonishing.
Episode: How to Overcome Addiction to Substances or Behavio...
Dopamine Nation was cited as a recent book that examines modern addiction through the lens of dopamine and its impact on behavior.
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I gave them Ana's book, Dopamine Nation, and obviously really hard work on their part is what made the change happen.
It was mentioned as a recent book by a Stanford psychiatry professor discussing addictions to activities like video games and gambling, with parallels drawn to the addictive nature of political media consumption.
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There's a really great psychiatry professor at Stanford Medical School named Anna Lemke, who has a big new book out about dopamine.
— Episode: 478. How Can We Break Our Addiction to C...
Episode: 478. How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt?
It was mentioned as a recent book by a Stanford psychiatry professor discussing addictions to activities like video games and gambling, with parallels drawn to the addictive nature of political media consumption.
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There's a really great psychiatry professor at Stanford Medical School named Anna Lemke, who has a big new book out about dopamine.
The host introduced the author as the writer of the book, noting her expertise on addiction and brain chemistry. In each episode, they highlighted that the psychiatrist’s work explains how excessive dopamine contributes to rising mental‑health issues and the need for balance. The discussion framed the title as a relevant source for understanding modern indulgence, but no explicit endorsement was given.
Episode: The Path to Enough
The host noted that Anna Lembke is the author of Dopamine Nation, a book about finding balance in an age of indulgence.
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She's the author of Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
Episode: The Paradox of Pleasure
Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and researcher in the behavioral sciences at Stanford University, is the author of *Dopamine Nation*. She believes that the increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide are due to our brains being overloaded with dopamine and our bodies' attempt to compensate for too much pleasure.
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Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist and researcher in the behavioral sciences at Stanford University. She's the author of *Dopamine Nation*, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
You're listening to Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist and researcher in the behavioral sciences at Stanford University. She's the author of *Dopamine Nation*, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
Episode: The Paradox of Pleasure
The host introduced Anna Lembke as the author of *Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence*, highlighting her expertise on addiction and brain chemistry.
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She's the author of Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
The book, written by Anna Lemke, was highlighted as a valuable resource in understanding the role of dopamine in addiction, including its potential impact on various aspects of life, especially addictive behaviours.
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She wrote Dopamine Nation, incredible book about dopamine in the context of addiction, but all kinds of addiction.
— Episode: Andrew Huberman ON: Learning Effectively...
Episode: Andrew Huberman ON: Learning Effectively & How to...
The book, written by Anna Lemke, was highlighted as a valuable resource in understanding the role of dopamine in addiction, including its potential impact on various aspects of life, especially addictive behaviours.
"
She wrote Dopamine Nation, incredible book about dopamine in the context of addiction, but all kinds of addiction.
Episode: Andrew Huberman ON: Learning Effectively & How to...
Andrew Huberman mentioned this book, written by his colleague at Stanford, exploring dopamine in the context of addiction, including dopamine fasts as a potential tool for resetting the dopamine system.
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She wrote Dopamine Nation, incredible book about dopamine in the context of addiction, but all kinds of addiction.
It discusses the addictive nature of dopamine and its impact on various behaviors, including social media addiction, gambling addiction, and even vampire novels.
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There's a great book called dopamine nation by Awesome and I love this idea that The way the dopamine system works is that you can get addicted to anything whether it's chocolate cake or heroin or the...
— Episode: #818 - Andrew Wilkinson - How To Stop Fe...
Episode: #818 - Andrew Wilkinson - How To Stop Feeling Like...
It discusses the addictive nature of dopamine and its impact on various behaviors, including social media addiction, gambling addiction, and even vampire novels.
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There's a great book called dopamine nation by Awesome and I love this idea that The way the dopamine system works is that you can get addicted to anything whether it's chocolate cake or heroin or the example She gives in the book is vampire novels, and I think if you're a anxious person it's very easy to go down the rabbit hole and get hooked into anything and For me, it's like health podcasts. If I don't restrict my access to health podcasts I will start beating myself up every single day that I'm not doing my vo2 max training and I'm not taking self I did my Norwegian 4x4 this morning exactly right? There's always something
Episode: #936 - Alex Hutchinson - How To Rewire Your Brain...
The book was described as a compelling exploration of how dopamine drives addictive behaviors and how it can lead to a variety of compulsive habits.
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You know, there's a really interesting book by Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation, which really gets into the addictive elements of dopamine.
And I think at least Anna Lembke makes a pretty compelling case that this is really a case of being addicted to dopamine.
The book was highlighted as essential reading for understanding dopamine overabundance and addiction, with the host calling it iconic and recommending its companion workbook. Andrew Huberman also cited it as a valuable resource for explaining dopamine peaks and troughs and their impact on mood. Both speakers praised its nuanced, empathetic approach and presented it as a key solution for those feeling trapped by dopamine-driven behaviors.
Highly Recommended
Episode: Andrew Huberman: You Must Control Your Dopamine! T...
Huberman cited Anna Lemke's book, "Dopamine Nation," as a helpful resource for understanding dopamine dynamics and the effects of dopamine peaks and troughs on mood and behavior. He referenced her work in explaining the concept of a "seesaw" effect with dopamine.
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So my colleague at Stanford, Dr. Anna Lemke, who runs our dual diagnosis addiction clinic and wrote the wonderful book Dopamine Nation, described this best.
That trough is a state that can last a long time. And it's how long it's proportional to how high that peak in dopamine was. Not how long, but how high that peak in dopamine was. And when you're in that trough, that dopamine depleted state, typically what people do is they try and go out. Or access things that are going to reactivate the dopamine circuitry. And all it does is drive them further and further and longer and longer into that trough.
Episode: Dopamine Expert: Short Form Videos Are Frying! Peo...
The host highlighted that Dr. Lembke authored this iconic book about dopamine, describing it as essential reading for understanding overabundance and addiction.
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You wrote this iconic book about this word dopamine. Why does it matter so much?
Your book is the book to read, and your workbook as well is critical to read alongside it.
These books provide a really, I'd say, nuanced, empathetic, and shameavoiding set of ideas and solutions to some of the things that hold us hostage in our lives.
The book was cited by Carter Sherman as the source of the data underpinning their discussion on the sex recession, and Doctor Mike later praised it as an enjoyable and informative read about dopamine's role. Both hosts highlighted its insightful analysis of dopamine and modern indulgence. The consensus was that it offered valuable perspective for listeners.
Highly Recommended
Episode: Carter Sherman (on the sex recession)
The same segment also mentioned Anna Lembke's Dopamine Nation as a source of the data they were discussing.
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This does actually make sense because I think we have this idea that ... This is an unfortunate bit of data I read in I think the Molecule of More or Dopamine Nation by Anna Lemke.
Episode: Doctor Mike
They referenced the book as a good read about dopamine and its effects, expressing that it was enjoyable and informative.
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Did you read Dopamine Nation by Anolemki? Oh, God. It was good. I think you would really like it.
I read Dopamine Nation and thought it was really good. It gave a lot of insight into dopamine's role.
Episode: Chris Pine
One participant asked the other if they had read the book, indicating it's a known title about psychology and addiction.
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Did you read Dopamine Nation by chance? It sounds like you really have knowledge of that.
In the episode the hosts noted that they had just begun reading the book and that its focus on creating balance and examining dopamine-driven addictions resonated with their own habits around phone and news consumption. They discussed how the title highlighted the ways media and technology keep users hooked, prompting reflection on personal and societal indulgence. The conversation was exploratory and positive, but stopped short of a formal endorsement.
Episode: Pretty Little Episode #61
They had just started reading Dopamine Nation, noting its cover offered advice on creating balance and that its exploration of addiction and dopamine resonated with their own phone and news consumption habits.
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It's interesting that you said this because I just started reading the book Dopamine Nation.
I have that on my shelf and I'm too addicted to my phone to open it. Oh, it's really interesting because it's not just phone... I just on the cover, it says, you know, how to create balance or whatever in your life.
It basically gets into the world more so of addiction and which I didn't realize. I know it well. I know it, man. But yeah, I was curious about the life balance, but I guess that makes a lot of sense that it's people's addictions that kind of get in the way.
And that's what this book got me thinking about is like, I don't want to, that's, you know, news is there to inform you, but it's also a business where they're trying to just keep you sucked in. And I feel like a fool because it's working and I don't like that feeling.
I was reading very interesting things and I was curious if you had read it when you, because you were talking about dopamine before we got on.
Anna Lembke's book explores the modern phenomenon of addiction, specifically how technology and social media are impacting our dopamine pathways.
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Chief of Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University, author of Drug Dealer MD, and also Dopamine Nation. May I introduce Anna Lemke.
— Episode: This Is Your Brain on Social Media with...
Episode: This Is Your Brain on Social Media with Anna Lembk...
Anna Lembke's book explores the modern phenomenon of addiction, specifically how technology and social media are impacting our dopamine pathways.
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Chief of Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University, author of Drug Dealer MD, and also Dopamine Nation. May I introduce Anna Lemke.
Dopamine Nation focuses very much on what we as individuals and we as families can do.
The first is Johns Hopkins University Press and the Dopamine Nation is published by Dutton Penguin Random House.
It was mentioned as a helpful book for understanding the addictive nature of processed foods and how to detox from them, requiring about 30 days to complete.
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And this is where a PhD like Dr. Annelemki who specializes in understanding the dopamine addiction, right? She has a fantastic book called Dopamine Nation.
— Episode: Extra: Jillian Michaels On Weight Loss D...
Episode: Extra: Jillian Michaels On Weight Loss Drugs And A...
It was mentioned as a helpful book for understanding the addictive nature of processed foods and how to detox from them, requiring about 30 days to complete.
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And this is where a PhD like Dr. Annelemki who specializes in understanding the dopamine addiction, right? She has a fantastic book called Dopamine Nation.
The host recommended this book by Anna Lemke, director of addiction studies at Stanford, to provide practical tools for managing addictive behaviors and related challenges.
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I want you to check out a book. It's called Dopamine Nation by Anna Lemke, L-E-M-B-K-E. She's the director of addiction studies at Stanford Medical School.
— Episode: I Can’t Stop Smoking Weed
Episode: I Can’t Stop Smoking Weed
The host recommended this book by Anna Lemke, director of addiction studies at Stanford, to provide practical tools for managing addictive behaviors and related challenges.
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I want you to check out a book. It's called Dopamine Nation by Anna Lemke, L-E-M-B-K-E. She's the director of addiction studies at Stanford Medical School.
It was described as the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the modern age, characterized as an age of indulgence where everything is at our fingertips, but with scary downsides. The book explains dopamine's role in our modern world and how it impacts addiction and mental health.
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She is the author of dopamine nation: finding balance in the age of indulgence and drug dealer MD
— Episode: the age of indulgence, a talk with dr. l...
Episode: the age of indulgence, a talk with dr. lembke [vid...
It was described as the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the modern age, characterized as an age of indulgence where everything is at our fingertips, but with scary downsides. The book explains dopamine's role in our modern world and how it impacts addiction and mental health.
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She is the author of dopamine nation: finding balance in the age of indulgence and drug dealer MD
She describes the time that we're living in now as the age of indulgence and I've never heard this time be characterized better it really is this age of indulgence where everything is at our fingertips in a way and that face value. It seems like an incredible amazing thing but there are a lot of scary downsides
Hearing those words reading those words for me just it was like the final piece in the puzzle sort of describing this unusual time that I used to say like oh, this is just the way that it is when I was a kid
What makes today so indulgent? Well, I mean if we go back to this ancient wiring where we release dopamine after we've done a whole heck of a lot of work to get things that are essential for our survival
