Join me for an enlightening conversation with Professor Bryan Denny, Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University and Director of the T-SCAN Lab. A leading researcher in affective neuroscience, his groundbreaking work uses neuroimaging and behavioral methods to understand how the brain and body shape our emotional experiences. His translational research focuses on developing emotional regulation interventions for clinical populations, family caregivers, and bereaved spouses.

We explore cognitive reappraisal and psychological distancing, why emotion regulation strategies work differently across people and situations, and what happens when these skills are trained. Professor Denny discusses applications in bereavement, borderline personality disorder, and Alzheimer's caregiving, along with research on emotion regulation during COVID-19 and healthy eating. We also examine how distancing can help manage overwhelming emotions, why reappraisal is not appropriate in every situation, and his advice for students pursuing psychology and neuroscience.

Join me as I speak with Professor Martin Monti, Professor of Psychology and Neurosurgery at UCLA and Area Chair of Cognitive Psychology. Professor Monti directs the Monti Lab, bridging psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center. His groundbreaking work uses advanced neuroimaging to explore two fundamental aspects of being human: the nature of consciousness and the relationship between language and thought.

We unpack the distinction between wakefulness and awareness in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Professor Monti details his famous fMRI tennis-imagery paradigm to detect hidden awareness, his lab's pioneering use of low-intensity focused ultrasound on the thalamus, and the potential of brain-computer interfaces for patient communication. We also examine the ethical challenges surrounding disorders of consciousness, what algebraic studies reveal about the relationship between language and cognition, and his advice for aspiring neuroscientists.

In this episode, I speak with Professor Matthew Goldrick, Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at Northwestern University. A leading researcher in the cognitive science of language, he combines behavioral, acoustic, and computational methods to explore speech and multilingual processing. Professor Goldrick is also the recipient of the 2026 Jeffrey L. Elman Prize for Scientific Achievement and Community Building from the Cognitive Science Society.

We explore how the mind transforms thoughts into speech and what speech errors reveal about language processing. Professor Goldrick explains how multiple languages interact in bilingual speakers, how cascading activation shapes speech, and how bilingualism affects pronunciation. We also discuss how speech may reveal motor dysfunction in people at risk for psychosis and his advice for aspiring cognitive scientists.