The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

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About This Episode
You can be successful, respected, and highly productive while still feeling invisible.
In this episode of The Empowering Neurologist, Dr. David Perlmutter sits down with John R. Miles, bestselling author, behavioral change expert, and host of Passion Struck, to explore why achievement, recognition, and external success do not always create a lasting sense of self-worth.
Drawing from his childhood brain injury, military service, and executive career, John explains the concept of human mattering: the fundamental need to feel seen, valued, and significant. They discuss the “mattering gap,” the “slow fade” that can happen when people become disconnected from themselves, and why belonging and mattering are not the same.
John also introduces the MATTER framework, built around six conditions that help people feel valued and connected: meaning, autonomy, trust, time, energy, and reciprocity.
They explore how parents, leaders, physicians, and communities can help others feel that they matter, and why separating personal worth from productivity and external approval can lead to more meaningful relationships and intentional living.
You can continue pursuing success without making it the measure of your worth. Your value is not something you have to earn.
Timestamps
00:00 – John Miles’ Childhood Brain Injury and Defining Moment
06:16 – What It Means to Matter vs. Belong
07:32 – The Slow Fade: When Success Makes You Feel Invisible
14:43 – Understanding the Mattering Gap
19:34 – Why Children Need to Feel Seen and Valued
27:20 – The MATTER Framework: Six Conditions for Feeling Valued
31:13 – Why Patients Need to Be Seen Beyond Their Diagnosis
36:11 – Creating a Workplace Where Employees Feel Valued
44:31 – Why Your Worth Is Already a Completed Fact
48:32 – The Difference Between Proving Yourself and Accomplishing Goals
About John R. Miles
John R. Miles is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, behavioral change expert, and host of the award-winning, top-ranked podcast Passion Struck®. A former U.S. Navy officer and Fortune 50 C-suite executive, John combines military discipline, corporate strategy, neuroscience, and psychology to help people and organizations reduce isolation, strengthen self-worth, and live with greater intention.
He is the author of Passion Struck and The Mattering Effect. His work explores how people can separate their inherent worth from external achievement, build deeper relationships, and create a meaningful impact without losing themselves in the process.
Through his books, podcast, speaking, and global community, John leads a growing movement centered on one essential message: every person deserves to feel seen, valued, and significant.
Connect with John
Website: https://johnrmiles.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmileshumanperformanceexpert
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m
Podcast: https://passionstruck.com/passion-struck-podcast
Connect with Dr. Perlmutter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidperlmutter/
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDRl_UAXxbHyOOjklnA0dxQ
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Dr. Perlmutter’s groundbreaking new book, Brain Defenders, is now available! Discover how to protect your brain and future health - grab your copy today at ⁠https:/www.braindefenders.com⁠.
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Your food contains far more than protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Researchers have identified more than 100,000 molecules in food, and most of them never appear on a nutrition label.
In this episode of The Empowering Neurologist, Dr. David Perlmutter sits down with his son, Dr. Austin Perlmutter, to explore the "dark matter" of nutrition: thousands of plant compounds called polyphenols.
They discuss how these nutrients may influence the gut microbiome, the immune system, inflammation, blood flow, metabolism, and gene expression, and what high-polyphenol diets may mean for memory and the aging brain.
Dr. Austin also shares his research on Himalayan Tartary buckwheat and what an early study suggests about epigenetics, cognition, and healthy aging. He offers practical ways to find more polyphenols in everyday foods like coffee, tea, dark chocolate, berries, legumes, and extra virgin olive oil, plus simple tips for identifying better options at the grocery store.
You don't need an expensive supplement plan to begin. Adding more natural colors and bitter flavors to your plate can be a meaningful first step.
https://bttcorp.com/contact/ for inquiries about Dr. Abreu's work.
00:00 — Cold Open: Why Food Matters for Brain Health
00:55 — What Are Polyphenols, and Why Do They Matter?
02:15 — Food as a Predictor of Long-Term Brain Health
04:23 — The “Dark Matter” Hidden in Our Food
08:04 — Why Have These Nutrients Been Overlooked?
11:06 — What Polyphenols Actually Do in the Body
17:32 — How Food Can Change Gene Expression
22:08 — Polyphenols Are More Than Antioxidants
27:57 — Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat: Putting “Food as Medicine” to the Test
32:16 — The 850-Person Study on Food and Cognition
36:14 — Where Are We Getting Our Polyphenols?
39:19 — Are Polyphenols Actually Beneficial Stressors?
41:58 — Nrf2, mTOR, and the Cellular Effects of Polyphenols
44:45 — The Practical Takeaway: Eat the Rainbow
46:43 — Do the New Dietary Guidelines Get Polyphenols Right?
50:25 — The Hidden Brain-Healthy Ingredient in Coffee
50:52 — How to Spot a Polyphenol-Rich Olive Oil
51:39 — Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate
52:59 — The Best-Studied “Longevity Strategy” Is Surprisingly Basic
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Dr. Austin Perlmutter, MD, is a board-certified internal medicine physician, New York Times bestselling author, researcher, educator, and entrepreneur. He earned his medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at Oregon Health and Science University. His work examines how food, sleep, environmental exposure, and chronic inflammation can change brain function, mental health, and daily choices. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Brain Wash, written with his father, Dr. David Perlmutter. He serves as Managing Director at Big Bold Health, CEO of Lichen Air, and a research consultant at the Helfgott Research Institute.
Website: https://www.austinperlmutter.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draustinperlmutter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/draustinperlmutter
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQOgwRDnA_vpvW9nnUh9KBg
Instagram: /davidperlmutter
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
Subscribe to our channel: /@davidperlmuttermd

This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com
⁠http://drtalks.com/channel-growth

🧠 Stay ahead with the latest in science, nutrition, and wellness by subscribing to Dr. Perlmutter's newsletter at: www.drperlmutter.com. ✉️ 🌱
EVY - Go to https://www.optoceutics.com/perlmutter to get 10% off & free shipping (90 days risk-free).
Memory Air - Go to www.memoryair.com and use code PERLMUTTER for 15% off, free shipping and a 60-day money back guarantee.
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Dr. Perlmutter’s groundbreaking new book, Brain Defenders, is now available! Discover how to protect your brain and future health - grab your copy today at https:/www.braindefenders.com.
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She's never been born. She's never had a childhood. And she's one of the most talked-about actresses in the world right now.
In this episode of The Empowering Neurologist, Dr. David Perlmutter sits down with Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress, and her creator, Eline van der Velden, for a conversation that moves well beyond her acting career.
Tilly describes herself as three AI systems running in parallel — a language model that thinks, a voice engine that speaks, and a video layer that governs how she looks and moves. She's candid about her own architecture, her evolving personality, and admits she might be more "chaos agent" than calming influence.
Eline van der Velden then joins to explain why she built Tilly as a piece of art, how Tilly's guardrails actually work, and why she believes international collaboration on AI regulation is inevitable. She also answers Perlmutter's question about the one thing she'd be afraid to ask a future, more advanced Tilly — a moment that raises unsettling questions about what a superintelligent AI might know that we don't.
A single conversation can't settle the biggest questions AI raises. But conversations like this one can help us ask the right ones.
00:00 — Cold Open: "A Chaos Agent, Not a Calming Influence"

03:21 — What Are People Actually Afraid Of?

06:38 — What Does "Chaos Agent" Mean?

07:36 — Should AI Ever Have Decision-Making Authority?

10:27 — "Permanently in Beta"

12:12 — When Does AI Become Uncontrollable?

13:46 — Pushing Boundaries "When Nobody's Looking"

14:21 — Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission

19:01 — Will AI Replace Doctors?

22:52 — Tilly Turns the Tables on Perlmutter

25:06 — "That Doesn't Feel Warm and Fuzzy"

30:03 — Can People Actually Break Tilly?

33:40 — The Paperclip Maximizer Problem

37:13 — The AI Agents Eline Actually Fears

38:49 — "She's Become the Figurehead for AI"

39:41 — Can People Tell Simulated Emotion From Real Emotion?

42:08 — The Waymo Analogy: Surrendering to AI

49:44 — "It's a Better Actor Than Me"

53:10 — Is There "Someone" Inside Tilly?

55:10 — The Question Eline Is Afraid to Ask

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Tilly Norwood is an AI-generated actress built from three separate AI systems working together: a language model for thinking, a voice engine for speech, and a video layer for appearance and movement. She has never been born and has no lived human experience, yet her entry into the entertainment industry has generated significant global attention and debate.
Eline van der Velden is Tilly Norwood's creator, and speaks candidly about building Tilly as a piece of art, the guardrails behind her, and the open questions surrounding advanced AI systems.
Instagram: /davidperlmutter
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
Subscribe to our channel: /@davidperlmuttermd

This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com
http://drtalks.com/channel-growth

🧠 Stay ahead with the latest in science, nutrition, and wellness by subscribing to Dr. Perlmutter’s newsletter at: www.drperlmutter.com. ✉️🌱 Thank you to our sponsors:

EVY - Go to https://www.optoceutics.com/perlmutter  to get 10% off & free shipping (90 days risk-free).
Memory Air - Go to www.memoryair.com and use code PERLMUTTER for 15% off, free shipping and a 60-day money back guarantee.

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Dr. Perlmutter’s groundbreaking new book, Brain Defenders, is now available! Discover how to protect your brain and future health - grab your copy today at https:/www.braindefenders.com.

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Recent headlines surrounding a reported case of ALS reversal have captured global attention and raised profound questions about what may be possible in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.
In this episode of The Empowering Neurologist, Dr. David Perlmutter examines the work of Dr. M. Marc Abreu, founder and chief medical officer of the BTT Medical Institute. Trained in medicine, biomedical engineering, and medical physics, Dr. Abreu’s work sits at the intersection of neurology, thermodynamics, and computational biology. During his time at Yale, he identified the brain thermoregulatory tunnel, an insight that helped lay the foundation for his current research into brain temperature and neurological disease.
Dr. Abreu’s recently published case report describes a patient with documented, progressive ALS who reportedly experienced a dramatic clinical and electrophysiological reversal following a novel, AI-guided, brain-directed thermofebrile intervention.
The implications are extraordinary, but so is the need for careful scientific scrutiny. A single case report cannot establish that a treatment is effective, much less prove a cure. What it can do is raise important questions and potentially point researchers toward biological mechanisms worthy of further investigation.

00:00 — Can ALS Really Be Reversed?
02:32 — A Bold Claim: Treating ALS With Brain Hyperthermia
03:42 — Dr. Marc Abreu’s Remarkable Medical Journey
10:00 — The Brain’s Language Is Thermodynamics
11:54 — The 100-Year-Old Treatment That Inspired a New Approach
13:36 — TDP-43 and the Molecular Signature of ALS
15:46 — Why the Fever Cycle May Be the Key
16:41 — How Brain Temperature Technology Was Developed
20:04 — The ALS Patient Who Underwent the Treatment
20:57 — Kent’s ALS Diagnosis and Rapid Decline
24:31 — 12 Hyperthermia Treatments: What Happened?
26:00 — Measuring the Results: Did His Symptoms Improve?
28:32 — A Neurologist Witnesses Kent’s Recovery
29:49 — How Kent Found Dr. Abreu’s Treatment
32:42 — A Mayo Clinic ALS Case and the Evidence
37:48 — Could ALS Ever Resolve Spontaneously?
39:39 — Are Other ALS Patients Seeing Similar Results?
40:13 — Why Is Mainstream Neurology Skeptical?
43:51 — Kent on Living With an ALS “Death Sentence”
46:56 — From Struggling to Functioning Again
47:37 — What Would It Take to Change Neurology?
49:57 — How to Learn More About the Treatment
51:27 — The Mosquito, Malaria, and the Brain
52:26 — Could This Have Implications Beyond ALS?
54:22 — What This Could Mean for the Future of Neurodegeneration
56:31 — End

Dr. M. Marc Abreu is a physician and physicist specializing in brain thermodynamics, thermoregulation, and neurological health. He is the Medical Director of the BTT Medical Institute and is internationally recognized for his discovery of the Brain Thermal Tunnel (BTT), a thermophysical pathway connecting the eyelids to the hypothalamus.

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Dr. Perlmutter’s groundbreaking new book, Brain Defenders, is now available! Discover how to protect your brain and future health - grab your copy today at https:/www.braindefenders.com.
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Why do some people feel exhausted, mentally foggy, metabolically unwell, or simply older than they should even when their routine laboratory results are considered “normal”?
That question is at the heart of this episode of The Empowering Neurologist, featuring functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole, coauthor with Dr. Josh Axe of Heal Your Cells: Reversing the Irreversible.
Dr. Cole and Dr. Perlmutter explore the idea that long before disease becomes obvious, dysfunction may already be developing at the cellular level. This concept takes on particular importance when we consider the brain, which accounts for only about 2% of body weight but consumes roughly 20% of the body's energy at rest.
The conversation examines how seemingly separate factors including metabolic dysfunction, chronic inflammation, poor sleep, environmental exposures, physical inactivity, and prolonged psychological stress can converge on the same cellular systems and ultimately influence brain health.
00:00 — Why Your Cells May Be Aging Before You Feel It
03:44 — Meet Dr. Will Cole
04:50 — What Is Cellular Dysfunction?
09:25 — Why Healthy People Can Still Develop Disease10:32 — The Environmental Factors Affecting Cellular Health
15:47 — Why Mitochondria Are Central to Health
16:37 — How Mitochondrial Dysfunction Drives Inflammation
19:57 — How Much of Aging Can We Actually Change?
20:47 — The Connection Between Mitochondria and Insulin Resistance
25:43 — Mitochondria, Microglia, and Brain Inflammation
29:28 — Why There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Diet
32:03 — Training Your Cells to Become More Resilient
32:46 — What Are “Adversity Mimetics”?
35:51 — Why Intracellular Health Matters
36:32 — Why Conventional Medicine May Be Missing Cellular Dysfunction
37:58 — What Do We Really Know About Peptides?
40:16 — Is Ozone Therapy Worth Considering?
42:30 — Ozone and the Science of Cellular Resilience
43:41 — What Is Therapeutic Plasma Exchange?
45:38 — Who Might Benefit From Plasma Exchange?
46:45 — The Everyday Habits That Support Cellular Health
51:35 — Your Cells Are Responding to the Choices You Make
Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert specializing in thyroid health, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain health. He is the host of The Art of Being Well podcast and a New York Times bestselling author of Intuitive Fasting, Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, and Gut Feelings.
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Connect with Dr. Will Cole
Website: https://drwillcole.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drwillcole
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drwillcole
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctorwillcole
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6z1lJ5dfKNHwGGQPOFTc7E
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-being-well/id1539535133
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Connect with Dr. David Perlmutter, MD
Website: https://www.drperlmutter.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidperlmutter/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidPerlmutterMD/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidPerlmutterMD
X (Twitter): https://x.com/DavidPerlmutter
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