Ep. 44: The Brian's

Kick your shoes on the floor, leave your worries at my door. Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? For the next few minutes, let's take a break from the craziness of our world. Let's make this place, this moment, a refuge where we feel safe to laugh, smile, listen to great music, and learn. Let's come together to discover forgotten simple ways to change our world in 15 seconds or less a day, and in doing so, remind each other of what it means to be human. Welcome to Make Me Smile. I'm Mist, your host. I'm a singer-songwriter and not a health professional. But like you, I want to be a part of something bigger and better. Let's build a family and a vision of the future that looks happier, more fulfilling, and more meaningful. Let's learn to smile again. Yesterday, my daughter and I started talking about the human brain and memory, and this is the story that came out. We call it The Brian's Story. What if each of our thoughts and memories, funny, sad, good, bad, embarrassing, empowering, depressing, were miniature creatures inside our head. And what if they were all named Brian? We could have Brian 426, who has the memory of when Mrs. Pritchett, our fourth grade teacher, had toilet paper stuck in her pants all day and no one told her. That memory is always a good one to lift our spirits on a gloomy day. or Brian 4 who has the memory of seeing our mother's face for the first time. Brian 4 may be so buried in the millions of other Bryans that we haven't seen him, well, since he was created. But we know for a fact that he exists because we still love our mom. Brian 6,245 was just called up yesterday. It was when your spouse reminded you that indeed, in 1999, you went to the store for potatoes and came back with a cake, a bag of cookies, popcorn, a used toaster, we still don't know why, and six jelly beans, but no potatoes. You have frequently forgotten about that memory, but Brian 6245 trudges back and forth from his lazy boy couch watching the Prince of Bel-Air reruns when your spouse forces you to remember. Then there are those sad or embarrassing Bryans. There is Brian 114 that was when you threw up all over Auntie Anne's new blue dress. Well, that is not exactly correct. Brian 114 is the memory of Auntie Anne telling you that you threw up on her blue dress, which she then showed you and all your friends a picture of. When that happened at two years old, you weren't embarrassed. But as an eight-year-old in front of your first crush, and when Auntie Anne proceeded to tell that story with glee, yeah, that was embarrassing. Losing your dog when you were 11 was terrible. Brian 311 has that memory. It is in a glass jar filled with black smoke. In fact, Brian 311 looks like he's always crying. The Bryans have feelings too. Strangely but not so uncommon, Brian 8712 disappeared yesterday, walking too many pests. You see, the Bryans live a life much like our own. They watch TV, albeit through memories and your eyes. They argue and burp and pass gas. We call those Brian farts. Eating ice cream can make the Bryans screw up their faces. You know what that feels like. Brain freezes make your face look weird too. So anyway, Brian 8712 liked pets. But as mentioned, the brain doesn't have pets. So the Bryans found these worm-like creatures that are more akin to parasites. And they take care of them. They are appropriately called pests. They feed them, walk them, talk to them. But if you put too many pests together, well, let's just say they take advantage of the numbers. And Brian 8712, well, he hasn't been seen since he took six of them for a walk in the amygdala. If you've ever wondered why your friend can't remember something that you remember very clearly, well, you can blame the past. The Bryans don't all get along. Just like us, they segregate themselves. No one likes to ruminate on bad thoughts or depressing memories. So those Bryans tend to live in the back of the brain where it is dark. Sometimes they develop abnormalities because of the shame they bear, which is really no fault of their own. But a shameful memory makes them feel really bad about themselves. And just like with us, it can lead to depression and unhealthy habits. So some Bryans who have those memories, well, they kind of like give up. Of course, when they're called upon, they have to appear to share their memory, but they do so reluctantly. And sometimes the memory becomes distorted and is even worse than it really was. That is why that first breakup still hurts. because Brian 1113 not only memorialized the rejection but imagined how that would devastate our entire life even though we were only 13 at the time. But not all bad memory Bryans want to be living in the shadows. Some really try to live a normal life. They even hide among the good memories. They bandage their wounds or pretend they aren't in pain. Brian 7981 was born when you were 14. He is the memory of your mom telling you how disappointed she was that you didn't get an A on your math test. But you pretended that didn't hurt as much as it did. You still do. Brian 7981 just keeps that pain locked up really well and he lives with many other Bryans in a block of happy memories about playing in the ocean and horses and such. It is only those times when he spontaneously tears up in public that everyone, anyone even notices. Other than those times, he is good, keeping that feeling repressed. At least so far. Brian's 7,982 is the moment after your mom told you she was disappointed in you. It is the memory of you walking stoically into your bedroom and falling apart The Bryans live in tight quarters Their entire world is about 7 inches by 8 inches and weighs about 3 pounds By contrast the earth weighs 13 septillion pounds That is 13 followed by 25 zeros. Yes, they have cramped quarters, but that helps them live a very connected life. There are over a hundred trillion connections between the Bryans. Just as a comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has around a hundred billion stars, so where the Bryans live is a thousand times more dense than the Milky Way, though it is in a space a few inches across instead of a hundred thousand light years. That explains why they're always seen around each other. Not only do the memories sometimes get mixed up, but sometimes two memories from different times and places get turned into one memory. When that happens, it is called a confabulation. So when Brian 174 and Brian 2004 have a bit of an accident and collide while going down their ferry slide, they become Brian 174-2004. They think they are carrying an authentic memory, but not so much as they're now a hybrid Brian. You've had that argument with a friend who remembers something distinctly different than you about a specific event. Perhaps you remember John being at your graduation, but all your classmates insist he wasn't there. This really isn't a big deal. In fact, it's kind of cool to have Brian 174 matched up with 2004. They really don't notice the difference unless someone tries to force them apart, like 45 classmates who remember something differently. When that happens, you might think it is painful. But it's not, because strangely, the Bryans can't feel pain. They remember it, but they can't feel it themselves. Which is kind of weird, especially when they need surgery, because they can be totally awake while someone is cutting and splicing and removing parts of their world. When this happens, it can cause disorientation to the Bryans. They can get dizzy, have small seizures, glitches if you will. They can send your arm or eye moving. Doctors have found that having the Bryans play music or sing during open brain surgery can help them figure out what areas they need to work on, which is kind of cool and kind of gross all at the same time. When the Bryans have a headache, it's not really coming from them as they can't feel pain, but they think they do. Think of it kind of like a sympathetic pain. You have a stomach ache, and your friend starts feeling ill too because they are watching you. When the surrounding tissues around the Bryans are hurt, the Bryans get sympathetic pain, so it feels like it's coming from inside your head, but it's really not. When you take a pain reliever, it makes the Bryans blind to the surrounding tissue. The pain reliever blocks the pain signals so that the Bryans feel better even though nothing really changed for them. Think of Brian's number 1000 to 1500 having a party when someone turns on a movie showing something really hot, like a volcano exploding. The Bryans start feeling really hot and they think they're going to faint, but it's not really happening to them. When the pain reliever takes effect, it is like someone pulled the cord to the movie and that group of partying Bryans suddenly feel better. The Bryans are amazingly efficient little guys. They are constantly moving and helping you with your memories and thoughts, both during waking hours and during sleep. They never go fully inactive. Yet despite this, they only burn about 20 watts of energy to stay working. That is the same as it takes to run a really really dim light bulb. The Bryans run the most efficient supercomputer in the universe. In contrast, it is estimated that Chattie PT consumes 40 million kilowatt hour a day to run. That is equivalent to about 228 million 20 watt light bulbs. And the Bryans produce no greenhouse gases, don't require power plants or batteries. They can operate on anything from a handful of almonds to a banana for hours and leave no lasting waste as a result of it. They are not just platinum LEED certified. They are off the scale in environmental friendliness. To some, the Bryans may seem crazy and haphazard. Their living quarters may be cramped and look like gray goop. but the architecture is par none. Nothing humans have made even comes close to the elegant and efficient design of the Bryans' world or themselves. And for the most part, they are still a mystery to all of us. We don't know exactly how or why they work, but we do know that without them, we would not exist. That all said, the Bryans do tend to be tardy. They constantly run late, kind of like one of those long-distance phone calls where there is a time lag and you constantly are talking when you should be listening. The Bryans see what your body experiences about a half second later. This is because it takes the Bryans a few milliseconds to process what you are seeing, feeling, hearing, and sensing. Then they need to interpret it based on present, past, and imagination to tell you what you are feeling or seeing. That mosquito that buzzed and landed on you might already be gone by the time you try to slap it, right? That is the Brian's lag time. If the Bryans let you see, hear, and feel everything instantly, it would be hard to understand. Since sound is slower than light, your eyes would see someone's lips move out of sync with what they are saying. Also, it is important for our understanding that the words that we are hearing be considered with the facial expressions and what is happening around you. If a person is yelling you to duck, having more information, even a bit delayed, is helpful to know whether that means there is a beach ball heading toward you or a bullet. The Bryans put together an edited movie in a half second so that you can be informed as accurately as possible and without overloading or providing unnecessary information. The Bryans are a master at editing your perceptions into something that has actionable information. So duck could mean turning around and catching that beach ball or diving behind a concrete wall as a hail of bullets rained down. As any good movie director knows, It is in the edit room that the movie really gets made, and the Bryans do it brilliantly and quickly. Oh and you don need to pay them with anything but a bit of chocolate and some oatmeal now and then When the Bryans are working really hard they tend to huddle down Think of a football team before they run a critical play. You know that huddle the players do so they can all hear and understand the play correctly. Well, the Bryans do that too. If you, like my daughter was this morning are studying or learning something intense, the Bryans get together physically closer. I mean, they always like to be around each other. They do live in a world a few inches across with trillions of them, but when things get really intense, they not just sit beside each other, but on top of each other, kind of like a golden retriever puppy litter. This enables them to communicate quicker and make connections faster. It also allows them to get rid of unnecessary information, like trying to memorize that zero times one equals zero, and zero times two equals zero. Instead, they remember that zero times anything equals zero. They become more efficient by getting rid of unnecessary information to come to conclusions faster. That is the job of the Bryans, and they take it seriously when you need them to be serious. There is a common misconception about the Bryans, though, is that they can multitask. They are actually lousy at multitasking. It is true that the group that handles the default mode network can work on autopilot, like when you can't remember the last five minutes of driving, or when you were listening to that professor's lecture and you kept nodding your head in agreement, but you have no idea what he was talking about the entire hour you sat there. But when the majority of the Bryans are working on a conscious task, well, that is pretty much all they can do. So if you've just asked them to dig up your grandma's chocolate chip recipe while you are trying to text your boss about why you're late. It might come out like, Sorry boss, chips are trafficked up, so I better be later. That is not the Brian's fault. That is your fault for trying to get them to multitask when they're not good at that. They can switch really fast though, So sometimes you think you can get away with multitasking, like when you were mouthing to your kid to go get you a banana, then had to explain why you were giving the weird mad face to the IRS agent on your Zoom call. Or something we can all relate to, trying to text while someone is talking. Huh? Is the most common result of those attempts. and taking off whomever was pouring out their heart to you. It's not that the Bryans don't want to multitask. They would love to help you out. They just can't do it. When the Bryans look to relax, they love to listen to stories. Stories make them feel alive and make them happy and content because they are easily filed and stored around relevant materials. If, however, you give them an endless string of miscellaneous facts, then it makes them agitated and they find it hard to put the thoughts and memories in places where they can find them again because the connections to other thoughts and memories are thin and not well fleshed out. This is why memory experts encourage the use of memory castles or palaces to remember facts. So instead of trying to remember to purchase potatoes, coffee, steak, a towel, four cans of dog food, and some pasta, we could think of a story like a house with the door held open by a bag of potatoes. There is a cold cup of coffee that our spouse left on the hallway stand next to Ralph, your dog who's slobbering while standing next to his empty bowl because you forgot to buy dog food. When you go to grab a towel to clean up his mess, what you thought was a towel turns into a bunch of spaghetti. And it falls to the floor where the hungry dog eats it along with a stick. The Bryans love this story and find it much easier to file into past experiences and places. It entertains them just like it does with us. Probably because when we are entertained, the Bryans respond with a party. This is why TED Talks are more fun to listen to than a Professor Boredom speech filled with facts and figures delivered in a monotone. When the Bryans think of that memory palace next week, they can simply add or subtract from the story to make the list different or more varied. The dog may be contentedly sleeping because he has just eaten next to his empty water bowl because you need to buy bottled water. When you add on to memories, it is even easier for the Bryans to recall things because memories are reconstructions of what actually happened. They aren't a perfect video, but more like a reenactment of a play. That means that the embarrassing thing that happened to you when you were 8 with Auntie Anne can turn into a funny story by the time you're 45. This is also why eyewitnesses remember things differently. The Bryans in each person file and place memories according to their particular experiences, past, and imaginations. So a 1920 Ford truck in someone's memory may become a 1950 Chevrolet if the Bryans have never seen a 1920 Ford truck before. And that girl at the high school championship game that was so memorable to you may not be remembered at all by John because, well, all he cared about was the game and your team lost. He remembers the feeling and emotion of that day, maybe even the uniforms the team wore and the quarterback, but the girl who walked by, both of you, and smiled. He doesn't recall at all. His Bryans recorded the girl, but didn't connect it with anything important about that day. So, Brian 78951, which is responsible for that memory is frail, crippled, and asleep in the dark recesses of the brain where he spends his time twiddling his thumbs as he doesn't have many friends. And that is unusual because the Bryans love to party. They are happiest the more they are connected. When the Bryans feel rejection, Like when your best friend Paul told you he'd rather play with Mary than with you. Brian 71892 recorded that and lit up like a little red fireball. When that happened, it scared all the other Bryans around him so much that they will never forget that feeling. They don't like it. The Bryans may even prod you a little like they did when you were 17 and you wanted to ask Henry out on a date to remember Paul And that is when Brian 71892 whom you didn invite to your thoughts pops up and reminds you of what happened a decade ago However, when the Bryans meet someone or a group of people they like or feel like they belong to, they mellow out immediately. They want to lay around on loungers and just chill with white brim hats and virgin margaritas. I can hear you asking, why virgin margaritas? And the answer is simple. Brian 4111 remembers what your dad told you about drinking and driving, and you have to drive home in an hour. But in the meantime, you feel good and happy and like you belong. The Bryans are happy, and so are you, surrounded by people you feel connected to. The Bryans do get old, in reverse order of your age, where the oldest memory is of you at your youngest age. So it is very important they exercise regularly to keep up their speed and nimbleness. No matter their age, the Bryans are even able to learn new games, languages, interests. Not only can they, but they find it fun. Old dogs may not be able to learn new tricks, but an old or new Brian is more than willing to learn how to say where is the bathroom in Swahili. And in fact, they will probably get a kick out of it. When our bodies get old or sick and have strokes, keeping the Bryans learning and growing becomes even more important. In those situations, they can quickly get lazy and out of shape. Many studies have shown the benefits of keeping the Bryans growing and learning in order to hold off mental decline from diseases such as Alzheimer's. If you let the Bryans get lazy and lethargic, they don't like to exercise anymore and just lay around getting fat and eating bad food which contributes to bad behaviors. Bad Brian behaviors affect everything from memory to our physical health and mental well-being. We have to keep the Bryans active because that is where they are most happy. The Bryans only stop if we stop asking them to do things. They like to help, but if we never ask, they won't do it on their own. Lastly, the Bryans love being in love. When they feel in love or loved, their world literally lights up and they get very, very active. Love fills their world with oxytocin and endorphins, which make them hopeful and expectant of good things. They want to do more. They want to learn. They want to grow and help each other. As we experience love, the Bryans take note of the differences. Our crush on Philip and I feels quite different than kissing Joe when we were 20, and even more different than the day we married the love of our life. As we get older and our lives are filled with love more and more, Bryans are needed to keep track of all those amazing memories of places, people, and things we did. That fills our hearts and minds with imagination, possibility, and wonder. Love is the ultimate aphrodisiac and healer. It provides us purpose like nothing else. In their world, the Bryans who remember our work, our sports teams, the money in our bank accounts, and all those cool cars we drove pale in comparison to the Bryans who carry our memories of being loved and loving others. The Love Bryans are the rock stars of their world. They are looked up to, given the most prominent spots, and cuddled because, well, they are what we are inspired to be. Because we created them with love. Thank you for spending this time with me today. I hope you enjoyed this special journey. I have a new song I'd like to share. It is a demo and incomplete, but it's perfect to end with. It's called The Beat of Love. For our 15-second action this week, let's love our Bryans, our brain, because it is the most amazing creation in the universe. Thank you. I want to live inside the beat of love I want to feel the heat Make my heart feel alive again I want to feel the touch of your skin I want to see the sun rise Make my dreams come alive again Take my hand and we can dance upon the stars And let the moonlight shine upon our souls You can be the one I lost and will pretend to be the ones who found the beat of love. I want to live the rhythm of love, to see you in your heart, to feel it alive in my heart. I want to feel the light in your eyes. I want to see the sun in your eyes. I want to see my heart in my heart. Let me take you together with the stars La luna y su resplandor Puedo ser lo que buscaste la vida entera Y bailaremos el ritmo del amor Déjame llevarte junto a las estrellas Que nos guíe la luna y su resplandor Puedo ser lo que buscaste la vida entera And we'll play the rhythm of love The rhythm of love Take my hand and we can dance upon the stars And let the moon shine upon our souls You can be the one I must the world return to be the ones who found the pain of love.