Today I have a joyful conversation with Loretta Graziano Breuning, Ph.D. Loretta is the founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, professor emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay, and host of The Happy Brain Podcast. She’s authored several books including of Habits of a Happy Brain, The Science of Positivity, and I, Mammal. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French and Turkish. Her work has been featured on Forbes, NPR, Fox, the Wall Street Journal, NBC, Psychology Today, Cosmopolitan, Inc, Men’s Health, Fast Company, Dr. Oz and Real Simple.

Loretta graduated from Cornell and holds a Ph.D. from Tufts in multidisciplinary social science. After graduation, she spent a year in Africa as United Nations Volunteer. She’s currently a docent at the Oakland Zoo, where she gives tours on mammalian behavior. Here lectures have been heard all over the world and she has helped thousands of people rewire themselves for more happy chemicals. For more information and free resources, you can visit her at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

In today’s conversation we’ll discuss:

The four happy chemicals – Serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphin
What does it take to train your brain to trigger and boost your happy chemicals?
What makes it so easy for people to bond around anger and enmity?
Why we can’t stop checking our phones, and what technology addiction is doing to our brains?
Whether men and women have different levels of happy chemicals, and why we might assume this?
What chemicals are associated with nostalgia?

LINKS & RESOURCES:

Follow Loretta at her website: Innermammalinstitute.org

Read Loretta's latest book Habits of a Happy Brain:
http://bit.ly/HappyBrainHabits

BOOKS FROM EPISODE:

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: http://bit.ly/ReadFlowPsych

The Science of Positivity by Loretta Breuning: http://bit.ly/LBBook2

You’re The Only One I Can Tell by Deborah Tannen: http://bit.ly/DeborahTannenYTOOICT

Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer: http://bit.ly/ProustWasA

Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal (Loretta’s choice for a book that’s impacted the way she thinks): http://bit.ly/ChimpanzeePolitics

Would you like to see my book recommendations? Join my private reading list.

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