Whitney Cummings: Neurology and Mind over Matter | AI Podcast Clips

You’ve done actually quite, done a lot of thinking and talking about neurology and justkind of look at human behavior through the lens of looking at how actually chemicallyour brain works.So what, first of all, why did you connect with that idea and what have you, how hasyour view of the world changed by considering the brain is just a machine?

You know, I know it probably sounds really nihilistic, but for me, it’s very liberating to know a lot about neurochemicals because you don’t have to. It’s like the same thing with like, like critics, like critical reviews. If you believe the good, you have to believe the bad kind of thing. Like, you know, if you believe that your bad choices were because of your moral integrity or whatever, you have to believe your good ones.I just think there’s something really liberating and going like, oh, that was just adrenaline.I just said that thing because I was adrenalized and I was scared and my amygdala was activated.And that’s why I said you’re an asshole and get out. And that’s, you know, I think I just thinkit’s important to delineate what’s nature and what’s nurture. What is your choice and what is

just your brain trying to keep you safe? I think we forget that even though we have security systemsand homes and locks on our doors, that our brain, for the most part, is just trying to keep us safeall the time. It’s why we hold grudges. It’s why we get angry. It’s why we get road rage. It’s whywe do a lot of things. And it’s also when I started learning about neurology, I started having so muchmore compassion for other people. You know, if someone yelled at me being like, fuck you on the

road, I’d be like, okay, he’s producing adrenaline right now because we’re all going 65 miles an hourand our brains aren’t really designed for this type of stress. And he’s scared. He was scared,you know, so that really helped me to have more love for people and my everyday life instead ofbeing in fight or flight mode. But the, I think more interesting answer to your question is thatI’ve had migraines my whole life. Like I’ve suffered with really intense migraines, ocular

migraines, ones where my arm would go numb. And I just started having to go to so many doctors tolearn about it. And I started, you know, learning that we don’t really know that much. We know a lot,but it’s wild to go into one of the best neurologists in the world. Who’s like, yeah,we don’t know. We don’t know. And that fascinated me. It’s like one of the worst pains you canprobably have all that stuff. And we don’t know the source. We don’t know the source. And there

is something really fascinating about when your left arm starts going numb and you start not beingable to see out of the left side of both your eyes. And I remember when the migraines get reallybad, it’s like a mini stroke almost. And you’re able to see words on a page, but I can’t readthem. They just look like symbols to me. So there’s something just really fascinating to meabout your brain just being able to stop functioning. And I so I just wanted to learn

about it, study about it. I did all these weird alternative treatments, I got this piercing inhere that actually works, I’ve tried everything. And then both my parents had strokes. So when bothof my parents had strokes, I became sort of the person who had to decide what was going to happenwith their recovery, which is just a wild thing to have to deal with it. You know, 28 years old,um, when it happened. And I started spending basically all day, every day in ICUs with

neurologists learning about what happened to my dad’s brain and why he can’t move his left arm,but he can move his right leg, but he can’t see out of the, you know, and then my mom had anotherstroke, um, in a different part of the brain. So I started having to learn what parts of the braindid what, and so that I wouldn’t take the behavior so personally. And so that I would be able tomanage my expectations in terms of their recovery. So my mom, because it affected a lot of her

frontal lobe changed a lot as a person. She was way more emotional. She was way more micromanaged.She was forgetting certain things. So it broke my heart less when I was able to know, oh yeah,well the stroke hit this part of the brain and that’s the one that’s responsible for short-termmemory and that’s responsible for long-term memory, da da da. And then my brother just gotsomething called viral encephalitis, which is an infection inside the brain. So it was kind of wild

that I was able to go, oh, I know exactly what’s happening here. And I know, you know, so, um,So that allows you to have some more compassion for the struggles that people have.But does it take away some of the magic from some of the more positive experiences of life?Sometimes.Sometimes.

And I don’t, I don’t, I’m such a control addict that, you know, I think our biggest, someone like me, my biggest dream is to know why someone’s doing it.That’s what stand-up is.It’s just trying to figure out why, or that’s what writing is.That’s what acting is.That’s what performing is.

It’s trying to figure out why someone would do something.As an actor, you get a piece of material and you go, this person, why would he say that?Why would she pick up that cup?Why would she walk over here?It’s really why, why, why, why.

So I think neurology is, if you’re trying to figure out human motives and why peopledo what they do, it’d be crazy not to understand how neurochemicals motivate us.I also have a lot of addiction in my family and hardcore drug addiction and mental illness.And in order to cope with it, you really have to understand it.borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. So I have a lot of people I

love that suffer from drug addiction and alcoholism. And the first thing they started teaching you isit’s not a choice. These people’s dopamine receptors don’t hold dopamine the same wayyours do. Their frontal lobe is underdeveloped. And that really helped me to navigate dealing,loving people that were addicted to substances. I want to be careful with this question, butHow much money do you have?

How much can I borrow $10?Okay.No, is how much control, how much despite the chemical imbalances or the biologicallimitations that each of our individual brains have, how much mind over matter is there?so through things and i’ve i’ve known people with with uh clinical depression and so it’s it’s always

a touchy subject to say how much they can really help it very uh what can you yeah what what canbecause you you’ve you’ve talked about codependency you’ve talked about issues that you’re struggledthrough and nevertheless you choose to take a journey of healing and so on so that’s your choiceThat’s your actions. So how much can you do to help fight the limitations of the neurochemicalsin your brain? That’s such an interesting question. I don’t think I’m at all qualified

to answer, but I’ll say what I do know. And really quick, just the definition of codependency. Ithink a lot of people think of codependency as like two people that can’t stop hanging out,you know, or like, you know, that’s not totally off. But I think for the most part,my favorite definition of codependency is the inability to tolerate the discomfort of others.You grow up in an alcoholic home.

You grow up around mental illness.You grow up in chaos.You have a parent that’s a narcissist.You basically are wired to just people please, worry about others, be perfect, walk on eggshells,shape shift to accommodate other people.

So codependence is a very active wiring issue that doesn’t just affect your romantic relationships.It affects you being a boss.It affects you in the world.online, you know, you get one negative comment and it throws you for two weeks. You know,it also is linked to eating disorders and other kinds of addiction. So it’s a very big thing.

And I think a lot of people sometimes only