This week on Thriving Minds, I’m joined by Associate Professor Tara Walker, Senior Research Associate at the Queensland Brain Institute (UQ) — and co-host of the trail running podcast Trail Tales with Tara and Bryce.

Tara and I are both neuroscientists, and we both love running. In this episode we explore the science and the joy of trail running — what it does for brain health, mental health, confidence, and connection. We talk about why running on trails feels so different to road running, how being in nature changes the experience, and why community is often the missing ingredient for people who think “I’m not a runner.”

We also dive into Tara’s research program investigating how lifestyle interventions like exercise and diet support brain health, including what we’re learning about hippocampal neurogenesis, exercise-related blood factors (exokines), and the emerging idea of exercise mimetics — ways to mimic some of the benefits of exercise for people who can’t run.

Along the way, Tara shares her personal trail-running journey — from her first 10–12km trail race to ultras and 100km events, and the mindset and training strategies that make endurance possible. We also discuss injuries, why trail running is booming, and how moving outdoors can help us feel more regulated, less stressed, and more connected.

If you’ve ever felt disconnected, stuck at a desk, or unsure how to start moving again, this is a practical and hopeful conversation — grounded in real neuroscience and real life.

Listen now — and if you’re in Brisbane, you might even want to join a community run (koalas included).

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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

What happens when we mistake compliance for strength?

In this episode of Thriving Minds, Professor Selena Bartlett explores a powerful and confronting conversation with a man who was proud of the physical punishment he received as a child. He believed it made him disciplined. He believed it taught him consequences. He believed it made him better.

But beneath that story lies a deeper question: when does discipline build character, and when does it condition helplessness?

Drawing on neuroscience, behavioural science, and parallels from the multi-billion-dollar horse industry, Selena unpacks the psychology of learned helplessness — the state that occurs when repeated stress teaches a nervous system that effort does not change outcomes. A quiet being is not always a regulated being. Sometimes it is a shut-down one.

From parenting to leadership, from classrooms shaped by industrial efficiency to the rise of AI-driven optimisation, this episode challenges us to rethink control, compliance, and the architecture of agency.

True resilience is not built through fear. It is built through co-regulation, relationship, and adults who can pause rather than react.

If we want thriving minds, communities, and countries, we must ask ourselves:

Are we building agency — or perfecting compliance?

#ThrivingMinds
#LearnedHelplessness
#IntergenerationalTrauma
#AgencyMatters
#Neuroscience
#Parenting
#Leadership
#Resilience
#EmotionalRegulation
#CoRegulation
#HumanDevelopment
#BeyondCompliance
#DontBreakTheirSpirit

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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

In this episode of Thriving Minds, Professor Selena Bartlett is joined by Ellie Murphy, founder of Storitiv, to explore why authenticity is becoming one of the most important human skills in an AI-mediated world.

As technology makes it easier than ever to generate polished language, profiles, and narratives, many people are sensing a growing gap between how they present themselves and what feels true underneath. This conversation examines why that gap matters, how humans are wired to detect authenticity, and why trust, consistency, and follow-through remain central to meaningful work and relationships.

Drawing on neuroscience, evolutionary insight, and lived experience, Selena and Ellie discuss authenticity not as branding or performance, but as alignment. They explore why oversharing isn’t the same as honesty, how misalignment shows up in the nervous system, and why trust is a key driver of productivity, speed, and psychological safety at work.

This episode is for anyone who feels that the story they’re telling no longer quite fits, and who is navigating leadership, identity, or connection in a world where words are easy to polish, but truth is still felt.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why humans are built to detect authenticity
• The neuroscience of trust, predictability, and alignment
• How AI changes storytelling and perception
• Why trust accelerates work and strengthens relationships
• What it means to align truth and presentation in modern life

🎧 Thriving Minds explores brain health, human connection, and what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Support the show

Subscribe and support the podcast at
https://www.buzzsprout.com/367319/supporters/new
Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com