Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116, with best-selling author Dr. John Ratey , who is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, and 11 books published in 17 languages, including the groundbreaking ADHD “Driven to Distraction” series with Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell, MD. With the publication of "Spark:The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain", Dr. Ratey has established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection. His most recent book, “Go Wild”, explores how we can achieve optimal physical and mental health by getting in touch with our caveman roots, and how we can “re-wild” our lives. Dr. Ratey lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles.
Learn more about John J Ratey here www.johnratey.com/
Learn more about The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast here www.achieveit3... #exercise #brainhealth
Hello and Welcome back! I’m Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with learning the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports and the workplace, for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast for some time, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with putting our brain health first. We’ve mentioned that daily exercise is one of the top 5 health staples that’s a known brain-health and Alzheimer’s prevention strategy, from our episode #87 helping us to take our results, productivity and health to these higher levels.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to have come across our guest today, from a referral from someone who was interviewing me a couple of weeks ago. I always participate in Anna Alba’s “Thriving Parents, Happy Student ” Summit, and this year, she asked me “have you read Dr. Ratey’s book called Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” and I had not. After I had read just the first few pages of his book, I learned about a school in Chicago, called Naperville , that provides a powerful case study on how aerobic activity can transform not only the body, but also the mind. I started making connections between the direction our podcast took last year with Dr. David Perlmutter’s Science of Prevention Series from episode #87 where exercise was listed as a top 5 health staple and Alzheimer’s prevention strategy, and now there was a book all about how this one school was using exercise to transform their student’s academic performance. It took me back to my early days as an educator, and when I used exercise to calm down my students who were labelled behavioral. I was probably onto something back then, without even knowing it.
After I learned about the study and research from Naperville, I asked Greg Wolcott, the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning from episode #64 and one of our first episodes #7, if he had heard of this school and the research and he had. He let me know that Naperville is about 20 minutes from him and he said “I have based interventions with several schools off the research and found MTSS interventions to have the strongest effect after PE.”
I emailed Dr. Ratey immediately (it was late in the evening) and asked if he would come on the podcast as a guest, and he responded right away and agreed to set up our interview. His book Spark was about cementing the idea that “exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health. It is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems.” I couldn’t have been more excited about speaking with him.
Well, I could, and I was! When I began reading his most recent book, Go Wild: Eat fat, Run Free, Be Social, and Follow Evolution’s Other Rules for Total Health and Well-Being I almost dropped my phone when I read the last page of his Foreword, when I learned that it was written by Dr. David Perlmutter , whose Alzheimer’s The Science of Prevention Series inspired our podcast to take a turn towards health and wellness last summer.
Let’s hear from Dr. Ratey!