In his short story, The Girl Next Door, essayist and comedian, David Sedaris writes, “In the coming days, I ran the conversation over and over in my mind, thinking of all the fierce and sensible things I should have said.” To some extent, each of us are trapped in our own mind’s echo chamber like David Sedaris describes and if kept unchecked, listening to the unfiltered stream of thoughts can feel like we’re losing control. The neuroscience of self-talk can provide valuable insights to shift our perspective to step outside our heads and step into the world and manage life.

On this episode, the world's leading expert on controlling the conscious mind, award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, and the director of the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory, Ethan Kross, PhD, discusses what exactly is mental chatter and how we can reshape the voice inside of us to gain a sense of control over our mind and our life.

About Ethan Kross, PhD
Ethan Kross, PhD, is one of the world's leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR's Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at Columbia University.

Book: Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It

Helpful Articles:

• Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-stop-the-negative-chatter-in-your-head-11609876801

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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