Building Your Best Brain
A podcast and free resource for anyone curious about neuroscience, cognitive health, and tools that actually work—straight from someone who’s in the lab and understands the human brain.
LISTEN TO THE LATEST EPISODE
LISTEN TO THE LATEST EPISODE
All episodes
Ep 36 - The Inside-Out Brain: How Your Inner World Shapes Your Outer World
Welcome back to the Build Your Best Brain podcast — the place where we explore neuroscience and how to apply it to everyday life so you can build a healthier, happier, and more resilient brain. This month, we’re diving into a concept that genuinely changed my life once I understood the science behind it and learned how to practice it daily. It’s the idea of the inside-out world —
Ep 35 - The Hidden Filter in Your Brain That Shapes Your Life with Dr. Lisa Riegel
Welcome back to the Building Your Best Brain podcast — and to a special episode where we have the lovely Lisa Riegel who comes to use with tons of knowledge and experience when it comes to perceptions in our brain! Lisa has a PhD in Education Policy and Leadership and has worked with kids all the way to CEOs. She brings the brain science behind why our perceptions impact our stress response and our quality of life.
Ep 34 - Fear Isn’t the Problem — Your Brain’s Interpretation Is
Welcome back to the Build Your Best Brain podcast — and to our final chapter (for now) on a very timely topic: fear and your brain. We are getting deep into the science ; How you interpret your fear sends different signals to your brain. How this impacts the brain and our stress longterm. What is looks like when we change our interpretation.
Ep 33 - How Your Brain Turns Avoided Fear Into a Bigger Threat
Welcome back to the Build Your Best Brain podcast — and to a new chapter of the show, where we’re diving into a timely and powerful topic: fear and your brain. This episode isn’t here to scare you — it’s here to empower you. We are getting deep into why avoiding your fears actually causes them to take up MORE space in your brain.
Ep 32 - Sneaky Ways Fear Is Running Your Brain
Welcome back to the Build Your Best Brain podcast — and to a new chapter of the show, where we’re diving into a timely and powerful topic: fear and your brain. This episode isn’t here to scare you — it’s here to empower you. For a long time, I struggled to shift some of my most stubborn fear circuits. Not because I didn’t understand them. Not because I lacked the tools. But because I didn’t realize how many subtle, sneaky ways my fears were being activated every single day — without my awareness.
Ep 31 - How Fear Hijacks Your Attention (and How to Take It Back)
Welcome to the Build Your Best Brain podcast — and to a new chapter of the show where we’re diving into a very timely topic: fear. Before you worry — this episode is not here to scare you. It’s here to inform, educate, and ultimately empower you. We’ll explore fear on multiple levels, starting with how fear impacts — and often hijacks — our attention.
Ep 30 - Rewiring Reward: The Neuroscience of Supporting Your Dreams
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast — and the very first episode of 2026. Recently, I shared that 2026 is the year I’m intentionally rewarding my brain to build the circuits that support my dreams. And while that might make logical (even scientific) sense… how do you actually begin doing that? The good news: it’s probably not as complicated as you think. You’ve likely experienced versions of this already.
Ep 29 - The Hidden Brain Mistakes That Make Goals Feel Exhausting
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! As we close out the final days of 2025, today’s episode dives into the neuroscience behind how to actually enjoy the journey toward your goals—not just push through it. So many of us struggle to stay motivated and consistent. Not because we lack discipline or desire, but because of how our goals are set up and because no one ever taught us how the brain really works in the process.
Ep 28 - Your Brain Doesn’t Like Your Goals
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast! I’m so happy you’re here—learning how to rewire your brain for resilience and feel empowered by your own biology. As someone who loves a good goal (finishing my PhD and building a business over here 🙋♀️), I realized something was missing from traditional goal setting. Most approaches don’t actually help your brain build the circuits needed to support goals from a productive, sustainable, and regulated place.
Ep 27 – The Stress Circuit You’ve Never Heard Of (But It Runs Everything)
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast! I’m so happy you’re here — learning how to rewire your brain for resilience and feel empowered by your own biology. In this episode, we dive into the missing piece of stress regulation — the piece that helps your brain build positive momentum, instead of feeling like you're stuck in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. (You know… addressing one stress symptom only to have another pop up a few moments later.)
Ep 26 – Why Rewiring Your Brain Can Feel Worse Before It Feels Better
Welcome to Building Your Best Brain podcast! Today’s episode we dive into the science behind why when we try to make a change in our brain (example – regulate your stress, rewiring a limiting belief) that you may start to feel WORSE. If I knew this information 5 years ago it would have saved me so much time and energy! The stage that most people give up and think the tools aren’t working is usually when you brain is making massive change and you don’t even know it.
Ep 25 — The 6 Levels of Stress Regulation: A Neuroscientist’s Framework for Stress Management Mastery
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! In this episode, I’m sharing something brand new — a 6-level framework I developed to measure and improve stress regulation, based on neuroscience, behavior, and emotional awareness.
Ep 24 - From Thought Spiral to Stillness: The Neuroscience of Neutrality
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re diving into the neuroscience of thoughts — what actually happens in the brain when you get caught in a spiral, why your emotions can take over so quickly, and how to bring your brain back to balance.
Ep 23 - Words can be Your Wand or Your Sword - What is the Difference in Your Brain?
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting the science behind our WORDS when it comes to building circuits in our brain. A topic that has A LOT of nuance that is often not explained or overlooked. Once you get these subtle differences, you’ll see rather quickly how your brain shifts and changes in the direction you desire .
Ep 22 - How to Become a Mental Ninja - Mental Rest Explained in a Way You Never Have Heard Of Before
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting into a poorly understood and explained topic “Mental Rest”. Where I take both my knowledge in neuroscience, meditation and neuroplasticity to unpack what is truly is and why it is the key to happy and healthy brain. What it means to be well-rested mentally? What it looks like to not be mentally rested? How this impracts your brain and body long term? Three tools that help you integrate more mental rest today!
Ep 21 - Why Your Stress Tools Aren’t Working (And What Your Brain Actually Needs)
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain podcast! So excited to dive into something that I know a lot of us have experienced before, despite our best efforts … the stress relief tools EVERYONE raves about fail us. This short episode will help solve that problem, and lucky for you doesn’t require you to add any more tools or buy anything! In this episode we dive into 5 reasons why your brain may not be finding relief you hoped for and how to rewire for good.
Ep 20 - Chronic Stress & Your Brain - What I Wish Everyone Knew
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting cut through all of the lies and fluff and get down to business when it comes to what happens to your body and brain when it comes to chronic stress. What is a stressor and how does your brain and body respond? How does noradrenaline and cortisol act on the body? Why there really is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to stress? A few tools to begin to heal your brain and body from chronic stress.
Ep 18 – The Brain’s Secrets for Changing Old Memories
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting REAL about the power that lies within your skull—specifically, how you can literally change your memories using neuroscience. What it actually means when your brain brings up a memory. How to tap into neuroplasticity to rewire your brain’s circuits. Signs your memory is stuck in the amygdala—and how to release it. How to access deep subconscious memories and change them from within.
Ep17: Brain FUNdamentals - What I Wish Everyone Knew
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! This might just be my geekiest episode yet—and honestly, it’s long overdue. In this foundational episode, we’re diving into the basics of neuroscience—the tools I believe everyone should have in their mental toolbox to better understand what’s going on in their brain and body.
Ep 16 - Communication, Confidence & the Art of Celebrating with Dr. Claudia Belliveau, PhD
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! This episode features the incredible Dr. Claudia Belliveau—a neuroscientist, science communicator, and entrepreneur who’s passionate about making science accessible to everyone. Claudia earned her PhD in Neuroscience from McGill University and founded a scientific consulting company during her studies to bridge the gap between research and the public. Today, she’s a freelance science consultant, content creator, and small business owner, running an Instagram platform with 85K+ followers and crafting unique gifts for recent graduates.