{"id":190156,"date":"2025-07-09T14:25:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T19:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=190156"},"modified":"2026-09-06T17:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:02:20","slug":"taming-molecule-of-more-dopamine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/taming-molecule-of-more-dopamine\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,075: Tame the Dopamine Drive \u2014 How to Stop Chasing and Start Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present. Except for one: dopamine<\/span>. Dopamine<\/span> is the one neurochemical that looks to the future. It anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it.<\/p>\n

\n

That can be a good thing \u2014 dopamine<\/span> is one powerful motivator \u2014 but it also has its downsides. Here to help us understand how the most important chemical in the brain works and how to deal with its pitfalls is Michael Long. Michael is a trained physicist turned writer whose latest book is Taming the<\/em> Molecule of More<\/i><\/a>. Mike and I discuss how dopamine<\/span>, for better and worse, makes you want what you don’t have. He shares what causes low dopamine<\/span> activity, how to know if you’re experiencing it, and what increases dopamine<\/span>. We then talk about how to deal with the consequences of dopamine<\/span> in some of the scenarios in which it plays a role \u2014 like losing the spark in a relationship and getting stuck in a smartphone scroll habit \u2014 and why so much of taming dopamine<\/span> comes down to living in the here and now. We end our conversation with why The Great Gatsby<\/i> is really a novel about dopamine<\/span> and the fundamental answer to not letting the dopamine<\/span> chase lead you around.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present. Except for one: dopamine. Dopamine is the one neurochemical that looks to the future. It anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it. That can be a good thing \u2014 dopamine is one powerful motivator \u2014 but it also has its downsides. Here to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1075-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1075-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1075-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1075-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1075-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #1,075: Tame the Dopamine Drive \u2014 How to Stop Chasing and Start Living | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,075: Tame the Dopamine Drive \u2014 How to Stop Chasing and Start Living | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present. Except for one: dopamine. Dopamine is the one neurochemical that looks to the future. It anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it. That can be a good thing \u2014 dopamine is one powerful motivator \u2014 but it also has its downsides. 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