Vaping, Alcohol Use & Other Risky Youth Behaviors | Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, FSAHM. She is a professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine and a developmental psychologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Halpern-Felsher is a world expert in adolescent decision-making and risk-taking behaviors.

welcome to the huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday [Music] life I’m Andrew huberman and I’m a professor of neurobiology and Opthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine my guest today is Dr Bonnie helper felsher Dr Bonnie helper felsher is a professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine a developmental psychologist by training Dr Halper felshire is a world expert in the risk behaviors that adolescents teens and young adults participate in today we discuss nicotine use both by way of smoking as well as vaping and ecigarette use we also discuss cannabis and some of the correlative as well as possibly causal data linking cannabis use to psychosis in young adults and we discussed some of the other common risky behaviors that adolescence teens and young adults participate in including risky driving behavior alcohol consumption and risky sexual behavior we discussed the various factors that impact whether or not a young person will participate in Risky behaviors including the family and home as well as peer group and social media and as we discuss social media we get into a deep discussion about how marketing is combining with peer pressure in order to drive youth toward particular risky behaviors by the end of today’s conversation you will have learned from Dr Halper felshire the latest research on risk-taking behavior in adolescence teens and young adults and what we can each and all do to ensure that they either avoid these behaviors or if they are already engaging in these behaviors that we can mitigate some of the potential harms and potentially get them to eliminate these behaviors toward having a life of enhanced mental and physical health before we begin I’d like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford it is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to Consumer information about science and science related 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com huberman to try a free sample pack again that’s drink element. com huberman and now for my discussion with Dr Bonnie helper felshire Dr Helper felshire welcome thank you so much for having me we’re going to talk about a very important and sometimes troubling period of life not always troubling but I think for everyone adolescence and the teen years youth essentially is a tricky landscape yes it is it can be yeah as our brain and bodies mature we have more autonomy in where we take them but that means also more exposure to the ideas suggestions actions pure pressure of others and um that’s sometimes where the the problems arise and who knows probably also where the solutions come from too from time to time but I think as conscientious people um who mind the well-being of others of our species we’d all like to know sort of like what are the key features that Mark this stage of development maybe we’ll just start off by talking about this through the lens of um your expertise as a developmental psychologist you know what is adolescence in the teen years like what’s going on um what sorts of things are being worked out psychologically um that we might not be aware of and then we can talk about some of the common pitfalls and the risk-taking Behavior everything from smoking vaping drug use um sexual behavior uh addictive behaviors as it relates to social media bullying risky driving there’s so much there but uh maybe we could just look at this stage of Youth through the lens of a developmental psychologist and share with us anything you feel is worth worth knowing sure so first of all ages adolescence uh can be anywhere from start starti