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As promised, here's a quick follow-up to my conversation with Dr. Jud Brewer. We got so caught up in the core science and models of self-control and anxiety that we completely forgot to talk about what he actually came on to share: his new nonprofit, Mindshift Recovery!

So we hopped back the mic on to cover the details—their courses and group models, of course, but also more about how he puts into practice his core approach to working with habitual, addictive behavior. We also dive a bit more into his model of how awareness (not willpower) creates lasting change. It's fascinating work that's worth knowing about, and perhaps trying, if you're interested in how contemplative approaches can be applied to addiction recovery.

Finally, we close with a bonus meditation: an inquiry into the nature of craving itself.

For a short episode, it's surprisingly rich. The meditation alone is worth the listen.

As always, let me know what you think!

Check out my Substack posts for more links to Jud's work and our previous conversation.

Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my own free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

What if self itself is a habit? In this episode, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Jud Brewer explores how struggles like addiction, anxiety, and even identity can be understood as habit loops shaped by reward and reinforcement. Drawing from neuroscience, contemplative practice, and clinical work, Jud offers a practical approach to unwinding those loops and reducing suffering.

Jud is a colleague I deeply respect: someone who’s helped me quite a lot to better understand contemplative science within the framework of addiction medicine. We don’t agree about everything, as you’ll hear in this conversation, but overall, I look up to him as a kindred spirit and as someone who’s sincerely committed to reducing the suffering of addiction with rigor and integrity.

In this episode, Jud builds on that framework to further discuss how explain how awareness rather than willpower is the key to enduring change. We discuss how habits form, why “selfing” can become addictive, and how to actually practice letting go. We take on big questions about agency and choice, challenge common models of addiction, and explore how those topics inform an exploration of what it means to flourish.

Jud Brewer, MD, PhD (“Dr. Jud”), is a New York Times best-selling author and a leading authority on habit change and the science of self-mastery. With over 25 years of mindfulness training combined with scientific research, he serves as the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and as a professor at Brown University. Jud has developed innovative mindfulness programs—both in-person and app-based—for smoking cessation, emotional eating, and anxiety. He has trained U.S. Olympic athletes, coaches, and foreign government ministers. His work has been featured on “60 Minutes,” TED, The New York Times, and more. He also co-founded Mindshift Recovery, a nonprofit aiding those suffering from addiction, and College Journey.AI, which helps high school students navigate the stress of college applications. He is the author of The Craving Mind (Yale University Press, 2017), the New York Times bestseller Unwinding Anxiety (Avery/Penguin Random House, 2021), and The Hunger Habit (Avery/Penguin Random House, 2024). For more information, visit www.drjud.com.

Check out my Substack posts for more links to Jud's work and our previous conversation.

Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my own free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

Nearly two decades ago, Owen Flanagan stood before the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, ready to open up about something uncharacteristically personal. Unlike his typical scholarly talks on consciousness and philosophy of mind, he was about to tell the distinguished group about his lived experience with addiction and recovery. He wanted to describe what it was like to exist as the “sick hollow vessel” he had become, and how he barely survived.

Today, sober for 18 years, and an internationally acclaimed philosopher, Owen has become one of our leading voices on the philosophy of addiction. He has an important new book out: "What Is It Like to Be an Addict?"—sharing the title of that groundbreaking 2008 presentation where he first publicly disclosed his addiction history.

I’ve been reading Owen’s work since my days as an undergrad, when a research tech in my lab thrust one of his books in my hands and implored me to read him, and it’s been such a pleasure to connect with Owen about his work on addiction. This is a great book: he combines personal reflections with his philosophical expertise to propose a new, integrated model for understanding substance addiction. Drawing on his deep knowledge of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, he challenges oversimplified addiction narratives and offers what he calls an "ecumenical" approach—arguing that substance addictions are far more heterogeneous than we often recognize, with diverse causes, neural profiles, and lived experiences. His interdisciplinary work across neuroscience and philosophy perfectly positions him to explain these nuanced issues.

In this conversation, we explore the spectrum of "powerlessness" in addiction and the finer points of self-control, especially problems with traditional explanations of willpower. Owen critiques the usual stories about dopamine's role in addiction, especially the way mainstream scientists have sacrificed their intellectual integrity to present an oversimplified story about how the dopamine system works. We also discuss behavioral additions like sex, shopping, and video games, considering how their validity is assessed in light of those considerations about neurobiology. From Owen’s perspective as an ethicist, he considers how to connect morality and virtue to addiction recovery without reinforcing stigma. And throughout, we talk about his own recovery process, including how it evolved over time and what he’s working on today.

Check out my Substack posts for more links to Owen's work and our previous conversation.

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