Debunking the Dopamine Myths

on the Nicolas Procel Podcast

Sunset in Bequia Island. Photo by the author.

Dopamine is a very popular neurotransmitter these days.

People who probably don’t even know what a neurotransmitter is talk constantly of dopamine boosts, dopamine highs and dopamine fasting. They have heard that dopamine is the stuff that produces pleasure in the brain, that you feel energetic because you have a lot of dopamine, or that experiencing too much pleasure empties the brain of that precious dopamine.

All of which is complete bullshit.

The problem is that neuroscientists who should know better, like Andrew Huberman and Anna Lembke, both professors at Stanford University, broadcast these myths in books like Dopamine Nation and the popular Huberman Podcast. The problem is this is driving a new wave of puritanism because, you know, too much sex or too much fun depletes the brain of dopamine and leaves you a suffering, powerless and addicted wreck.

I started debunking these dopamine myths in an article that I published on my website Sex, Science & Spirit (también en español), on Substack, on Medium, and on Fetlife.

However, while reading The Science of Orgasm, a wonderful book about the neuroscience of sex, I realized that there is much more to dopamine than what I explained in that article. Dopamine is involved in sex, after all, but not the way that Huberman and Lembke say it is. I started pulling papers from PubMed and collecting them in my EndNote database. Soon, I fell down a rabbit hole. I started writing a new article but, when it reached 25 pages and 10,000 words, I realized that nobody would read such a lengthy compendium of thick neuroscience. I would have to turn it into a series of articles or maybe a book.

That was when Nicolas Procel contacted me, asking if I would like to participate in his podcast talking about dopamine. I immediately accepted. The ideas were fresh in my brain, and talking about them would help me focus on something that people would understand.

Nicolas Procel turned out to be a super-smart 19-year-old with a deep understanding of neuroscience and amazing podcasting skills. We talked for two hours, exploring the information I had gathered about dopamine and ending with some profound philosophical reflections about the meaning of pleasure and the way to live a good life.  

If you are interested in this subject, you won’t regret listening to this episode.

Here is the link to it on Spotify, although you can probably find it on other podcasting platforms:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/12fV33JF4E1vkau6WDodJC?si=c360b5b29a7242f0

Please let me know what you think in the comments. Is it easy to understand? Did it answer your questions? Is there anything you disagree with?