Hacking the Head & the Heart with Leah Lagos, PhD.

About This Episode

Can we hack our bodies and our minds? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice talk about how to optimize human performance with performance and sport psychologist Leah Lagos, PhD. 

What do Olympic athletes, Wall Street brokers, and cosmonauts have in common? Dr. Lagos breaks down how the brain and heart are connected in our stress response and how this factors into performance. Ever choked during a big game or an important meeting? We explore how choking is related to heart rate variability biofeedback and how the heart connects to the rest of our nervous system. Is there such a thing as psyching yourself out? Discover why keeping your cool has more to do with physiology than psychology. 

What’s resonance frequency? We discuss the physics concept of frequency and its role within our own bodies. How does resonance frequency and heart rate variability vary across people? Do some people feel more than others? If physiology dictates our performance, how do we control it? Find out how heart rate variability is used to treat concussions and other traumas– and how it can affect our biases.

Does controlling your stress response during performance take away the high? Would we be willing to lose that? How is resonance frequency and controlling our breathing and our heart rate different than meditation? We also explore how the trauma and stress of the pandemic has impacted our physiology and what we can all do about it. All that and more on another episode of StarTalk! 

Thanks to our Patrons Eugenio Barrera, David J Rechtman, Umran Koca, Roy Nyaboga, Chris Merritt, GetPLayeD, Jacob Montgomery for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free.

About the prints that flank Neil in this video:

“Black Swan” & “White Swan” limited edition serigraph prints by Coast Salish artist Jane Kwatleematt Marston. For more information about this artist and her work, visit Inuit Gallery of Vancouver.