What Is the Opioid Crisis: Causes, Waves, and the Path Forward
The opioid crisis killed over 500,000 Americans between 1999 and 2019. Understand the three waves, the neuroscience of addiction, Purdue Pharma's role, and what treatments actually work.
August 2025
March 2025
What Is Addiction: The Neuroscience, Policy, and Treatment Science
A deep look at the neuroscience of addiction, the dopamine system, how tolerance works, what the opioid crisis reveals about pharmaceutical industry accountability, and which treatments actually reduce mortality.
November 2024
Intermittent Reinforcement: Why Unpredictable Rewards Create the Strongest Habits
Intermittent reinforcement explains why slot machines, social media likes, and even toxic relationships can be impossible to quit. Explore Skinner's accidental discovery, dopamine prediction error research, and the psychology of variable ratio schedules.
September 2024
Why Sugar Is Addictive: The Neuroscience of Sweet Cravings
Sugar activates the same dopamine pathways as cocaine. Understanding the neuroscience of sugar addiction — and what's hype versus real — can help you understand your cravings.
July 2024
How Social Media Rewires the Brain: Dopamine, Attention, and Anxiety
Social media platforms are engineered to exploit fundamental brain systems. What neuroscience and psychology actually know about how social media affects attention, dopamine, and mental health.
June 2024
How Alcohol Affects the Brain: The Neuroscience of Drinking
Alcohol affects nearly every neurotransmitter system in the brain. Understanding the neuroscience of alcohol — from the first drink to dependency — explains why it's so seductive and so dangerous.
December 2023
How Addiction Works: The Neuroscience of Compulsion, Craving, and Recovery
What actually happens in the brain during addiction? Understand the neuroscience of dopamine, reward hijacking, withdrawal, craving, and why addiction is a brain disease — not a moral failing.
October 2023
The Science of Addiction: Dopamine, Desire, and the Brain That Traps Itself
Addiction is not a moral failure or a simple lack of willpower. Explore the neuroscience of the dopamine reward pathway, the Rat Park experiment, behavioral addictions, and what recovery actually requires.
May 2022
What Is Addiction?
Addiction explained: from the dopamine reward system and prediction error neurons to the brain disease model controversy, Rat Park, the opioid crisis, genetic heritability, and evidence-based treatments including medication-assisted therapy.