So Many Cravings, So Few Rewards: Understanding How Dopamine Works

Science writer Michaeleen Doucleff was sitting on a beautiful beach with her daughter, who was building a sandcastle. With a perfect blue sky overhead, and waves rolling onto shore, Doucleff should have felt happy, and at peace. Instead, she was agitated. Restless. She kept reaching for her phone, checking it again and again. She was finding no relief, no joy in tapping on the different apps, and yet she couldn’t stop. Why was she doing this, she wondered? She had felt similar urges around food lately, especially snack foods. All of this sent her on a quest to understand her never-ending cravings and led her to a deep dive into dopamine. The neurotransmitter has long been heralded as our brains’ “pleasure chemical,” but in reality, Doucleff learned, it is more closely linked to motivation and desire than to reward.

On this episode, we talk with Doucleff about her new book, “Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods.” We’ll explore what scientists have learned about dopamine, how corporations have used that knowledge to hijack our brains, and how to escape the vicious cycle of chasing after pleasure.