Ep 26: Dopamine Nation on Social Media with Anna Lembke, M.D.

Dr. Anna Lembke is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is Medical Director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, Program Director for the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. 

She is the author of the New York Times Best Selling book, “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” where she explores the problem of compulsive overconsumption, including digital products, and how to achieve balance in a dopamine-overloaded world. She also previously published “Drug Dealer, MD – How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop” which explored the impact and implication of prescribers contributing to the opioid epidemic (Zuger, 2018). 

Dr. Lembke appeared on the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, an unvarnished look at the impact of social media on our lives. Dr. Lembke has testified before Congress and consulted with governors and senators from Kentucky to Missouri to Nevada. She has been a featured guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, MSNBC with Chris Hayes, and numerous other media broadcasts. She continues to educate policymakers and the public about causes of and solutions for the problem of addiction.

In this episode, we explore the impact of dopamine on the addiction of social media. Dr. Lembke provides examples of how access to social media has opened up opportunities for negative behavioral side effects, how users can protect themselves to engage in social media wisely, and what precautions apps should take to lessen the risk of addiction among their users. Let’s get into it. 

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Produced by You Lucky Dog Productions.