Podcast HackDiary of a Teenage BrainBy Unexplainable , Julia Longoria, Byrd Pinkerton, Raul Gonzalez Jr., Alison Barth, Saket Navlakha
In a Nutshell
In this December 2025 episode of the Unexplainable podcast, hosts Julia Longoria and Byrd Pinkerton meet with experts in psychology and neuroscience to discuss the teenage brain.
Favorite Quote
The idea that there has been this enormous science experiment running for a decade … to figure out what's going on inside teens' heads? It was kind of amazing to me. I feel like people have been trying to figure out teens for a long time … with limited success.
Byrd Pinkerton
Introduction
Why do teenagers think and act the way they do? To answer this question, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a decade-long research program, known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
Looking at nearly 12,000 teens across the U.S., the study's goal was to better understand risk factors for substance abuse, but the research has since expanded to investigate adolescent brain development in general.
Vox's Unexplainable is a weekly podcast aimed at unraveling science mysteries.
In this two-part episode from December 2025, hosts Julia Longoria and Byrd Pinkerton meet with the head of the Florida site for the ABCD study, Raul Gonzalez Jr., neuroscientist Alison Barth, and computer scientist Saket Navlakha to better understand the teenage brain.
Here are the 3 key insights from this Hack
- 1.The ABCD study has followed the same cohort of kids for a decade
- 2.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat, leo ut.
- 3.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat, leo ut.
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