In this July 2023 episode of the Hidden Brain podcast, psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke explains the role of pain and pleasure in addiction and why almost everything is addictive in the modern age.

Drug abuse is often featured in films and TV because of the effect it has on human behavior. Popular culture, however, only shows us the romanticized, action-packed side of addiction.

In reality, addictive substances are all around us, and we often don't notice when a seemingly mundane habit starts to take over our lives.

Hosted by American journalist Shankar Vedantam, the Hidden Brain podcast uses storytelling to explain how our minds work and what unconscious patterns shape our everyday decisions and behaviors.

In this episode from July 2023, American psychiatrist and bestselling author Dr. Anna Lembke talks about the neurobiology of addiction and the role of dopamine in 21st-century culture.