79: Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, On Anxiety, Multitasking & Video Games As Medicine

Adam Gazzaley is an M.D. and a Ph.D., meaning he's a neurologist and a neuroscientist. If your first thought is "Wow, that must have been a lot of school"—you're not alone. He has studied the brain for decades, specifically researching the connection between technology and anxiety, depression, ADHD, and dementia. His book, The Distracted Mind, and his viral article, "The Cognition Crisis," explore how technology can both cause the problem and be a solution.

In this episode of the mbg podcast, I sat down with Dr. Gazzaley to talk about just how vulnerable the human brain—especially a young human brain—is to distraction, multitasking, and "interference." We have a crisis on our hands in the form of technology changing how we think and feel, and Dr. Gazzaley believes that until we tackle this challenge, we won't be able to tackle other major challenges facing our world, like climate change.

So what's the solution? We have to be better at managing technology at the level we have it and prepare for the future. Early in the development of new products and solutions, part of the conversation should be, Will this hurt people? The other part of the solution is to take control of technology and not let it control you. Listen to this week's podcast to figure out how Dr. Gazzaley is taking back control using video games.

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