Ever Forward Radio with Chase Chewning

What if the person you believe yourself to be—your personality, your memories, your motivation, even your perception of reality—is far less fixed than you think? In this episode, I sit down with Oxford neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist Professor Masud Husain for one of the most fascinating explorations I've had into what actually makes us who we are. We unpack how the brain constructs our sense of self, why what we experience as "reality" is actually a representation created by the brain, and what patients with neurological disorders can teach us about just how fragile identity can be. Masud explains why dopamine is less about pleasure and more about our motivation to act, how a tiny change in the brain can dramatically alter personality and behavior, and why our memories aren't recordings of the past but reconstructions that can change over time. We also go deep into free will and whether our choices are ever truly free when every decision is influenced by previous experiences, memories, biology, and unconscious processes. From hallucinations and false memories to the voice inside your head, consciousness, attention, and the surprising amount of information influencing you without ever entering conscious awareness, this conversation ultimately raises a powerful question: if your brain is constantly constructing your experience of reality, how much of the person you believe yourself to be is actually capable of changing?
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00:00 – What Actually Makes You, You?
02:14 – Is the Brain Different From the Mind?
04:34 – Your Brain Is Creating a Simulation of Reality
08:56 – Is There Really a Singular "Self"?
12:02 – Confidence, Truth and How We Define Reality
16:18 – How Your Brain Makes Decisions
18:04 – How Brain Damage Can Completely Change Motivation
20:44 – The Neuroscience of Motivation and Apathy
23:25 – Dopamine's Real Role in Motivation
27:21 – Why Apathy May Require More Brain Activity
29:16 – How to Make Motivation Easier
31:10 – The Myth of Dopamine Hits and Dopamine Detoxes
34:18 – What Happens When Dopamine Gets Too High?
35:55 – Do We Lose Ourselves One Brain Function at a Time?
40:02 – Can Changing the Brain Change the Self?
44:20 – The Ethics of Altering the Brain
48:40 – The Treatments Transforming Neurological Disease
52:45 – Do We Actually Have Free Will?
55:20 – Can Your Choices Create Your Reality?
56:23 – How Experiences Shape the Choices We Make
57:55 – If You Lost Every Memory, Would You Still Be You?
60:17 – What Is a Memory, Really?
60:58 – Your Memories Are Reconstructions, Not Recordings
62:32 – False Memories and Confabulation
66:36 – Is Memory Constantly Recreating Your Identity?
68:03 – When an Experience Feels More Real Than Reality
68:48 – Delusions, Hallucinations and the Brain's Version of Truth
70:41 – The Terrifying Power of Belief
72:58 – Can We Think Without Language?
74:08 – What Is the Voice Inside Your Head?
75:33 – Are Thoughts Created or Received?
78:37 – Neglect Syndrome: How the Brain Can Ignore Half of Reality
83:39 – Can Neuroscience Explain Consciousness?
85:19 – Your Brain Processes Things You're Not Conscious Of
87:10 – Rapid Fire: Social Media, Dopamine, Loneliness and AI
89:25 – Can Purpose Be Measured in the Brain?
89:45 – What Does Ever Forward Mean to Masud?
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Episode resources:
This episode is brought to you in part by BON CHARGE. I have ncorporated BON CHARGE's red light therapy panel into my recovery routine following my total hip replacement. The panel uses red and near-infrared light and is designed as an easy-to-use addition to a recovery and wellness routine. Visit BONCHARGE.com and use code EVERFORWARD to save 15% sitewide.
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Get Dr. Husain's book Our Brains, Our Selves

Fatty liver disease is becoming increasingly common—but liver damage can develop quietly, sometimes before obvious symptoms or abnormal liver enzymes appear. Today we welcome Dr. Mike Smith, MD to break down liver health, fatty liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), cirrhosis, liver inflammation, and the everyday factors that may be putting additional stress on your liver.
Dr. Mike explains how fat begins accumulating in the liver, how liver inflammation and cellular damage can progress toward fibrosis and eventually cirrhosis, and why fatty liver disease isn't only a concern for people who drink alcohol. The conversation explores the metabolic and lifestyle factors associated with poor liver health—including excess calories, visceral fat, refined sugar, highly processed foods, alcohol, environmental exposures, medications, metabolic dysfunction, poor sleep, and chronic stress. Mike Smith transcript
We also unpack one of the biggest challenges surrounding fatty liver disease: you may not know you have it. Dr. Mike discusses vague symptoms including fatigue, brain fog and gastrointestinal issues, why standard liver enzyme testing doesn't necessarily tell the entire story, and when additional evaluation such as liver imaging may become relevant. 
You'll also learn how the liver processes what you eat and drink through the body's "first pass" system, why metabolic health is so closely connected to liver health, and practical strategies discussed in the episode for supporting healthy liver function through nutrition, exercise, reducing environmental exposures, and appropriate supplementation.
We also explore the relationship between magnesium and liver health, including magnesium's role in liver reactions involved in detoxification and the broader importance of adequate magnesium status. Dr. Mike discusses magnesium alongside milk thistle, curcumin and foundational dietary strategies as part of a broader—not single-supplement—approach to liver health. 
If you've ever wondered about the symptoms of fatty liver disease, whether fatty liver can be reversed, what causes nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, how MASLD develops, how fatty liver progresses toward cirrhosis, or what you can do today to better protect your liver, this episode is your deep dive into one of the body's most important—and often overlooked—organs.
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00:00 – Can Liver Damage Happen With Normal Liver Enzymes?
02:34 – Why Fatty Liver Disease Is Becoming So Common
05:15 – What Your Liver Actually Does Every Day
07:24 – How Food Travels From Your Gut to Your Liver
09:32 – Is Modern Life Overloading the Liver?
10:50 – Excess Calories, Visceral Fat & Fatty Liver Disease
12:22 – Sugar, Fructose & Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
15:29 – Alcohol and Liver Damage Explained
18:04 – Hangover Supplements, Glutathione & NAC
24:09 – Environmental Toxins and Liver Health
27:50 – Pesticides, Soil Depletion & Our Food Supply
30:47 – How Fatty Liver Progresses to Cirrhosis
33:27 – NAFLD, NASH & the Stages of Fatty Liver Disease
34:42 – Can You Reverse Fatty Liver Disease?
35:25 – The Silent Symptoms of Liver Dysfunction
36:22 – Can You Have Fatty Liver With Normal Liver Enzymes?
38:36 – Testing and Screening for Liver Disease
39:20 – Why Liver Enzymes Don't Tell the Whole Story
40:11 – Ultrasound and Diagnosing Fatty Liver
41:14 – Magnesium and Liver Health
42:13 – Best Supplements for Supporting Liver Health
44:06 – Magnesium L-Threonate, Brain Health & the Liver
45:20 – Why Our Food May Be Magnesium Deficient
49:07 – Can Magnesium Improve Fatty Liver?
50:27 – Foods That Support a Healthy Liver
51:48 – Practical Ways to Protect Your Liver
52:49 – The Most Important Liver Health Takeaways
55:20 – How to Live "Forever-ish"
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Episode resources:
Try Life Extension and save $10 on orders of $50 or more plus free shipping with code CHASE10 when you visit https://www.LifeExtension.com/chase
Thank you to Life Extension for sponsoring this episode
 
Disclaimer: This episode is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always discuss personal medical concerns, testing and supplementation with your qualified healthcare provider.

ADHD in women is far more complex than being distracted, forgetful, or unable to sit still. In this episode, Dr. Jolene Brighten, ND, author of ADHD and Women, breaks down how ADHD actually presents in women, why so many women are first diagnosed with anxiety or depression, and how estrogen, progesterone, dopamine, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause can influence symptoms. We explore executive dysfunction, time blindness, rejection sensitivity, procrastination, medication, hormone therapy, exercise, sleep, nutrition, caffeine, meditation, and practical strategies for working with an ADHD brain instead of constantly fighting against it. Ultimately, Dr. Brighten reframes ADHD not as personal failure, but as a different operating system that requires different tools to thrive.
Follow Jolene @drjolenebrighten
Follow Chase @chase_chewning
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00:00 What science gets wrong about women and ADHD
02:32 Why studying the female brain is so complicated
04:18 Hormones and ADHD medication effectiveness
06:45 Can we recover decades of missing female health data?
08:01 Estrogen, dopamine and the menstrual cycle
09:32 Personality flaw or ADHD symptom?
11:50 Why women are diagnosed with anxiety and depression first
13:56 Why female ADHD doesn't always look hyperactive
14:42 Time blindness explained
16:33 ADHD is really a problem of dysregulation
17:27 What ADHD actually is—and isn't
20:03 Are you born with ADHD?
22:56 Hormones, masking and the female ADHD experience
26:37 When ADHD begins showing up in girls
27:50 ADHD medication in children
30:03 Can a brain scan diagnose ADHD?
31:13 Procrastination vs. task paralysis
33:47 ADHD in high-performing women
36:32 Rejection sensitivity dysphoria
39:07 Can changing your self-talk improve symptoms?
40:08 How to interrupt negative ADHD thought loops
44:46 Dopamine, phones and doomscrolling
45:54 Why ADHD brains need pleasure
48:24 What Parisian cafés can teach us about attention
51:02 ADHD medications: what women should know
53:42 HRT, estrogen and ADHD symptoms
57:30 Should the goal be getting off ADHD medication?
1:00:03 When medication becomes a bigger conversation
1:02:10 Exercise, sleep, environment and nutrition—ranked
1:03:05 20 minutes of exercise and focus
1:03:42 Iron deficiency, sleep and ADHD
1:04:12 Why nutrition comes last—but still matters enormously
1:06:01 Are women simply not eating enough?
1:09:31 Rapid fire: the best and worst ADHD morning habits
1:15:51 The "different operating system" approach
1:19:06 What Ever Forward means to Dr. Brighten
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Episode resources:
FREE sample of MitoPure from Timeline
Strong Coffee Company code CHASE for 15% off
Get Jolene's new book on Amazon

Actress Erika Christensen joins us for a thought-provoking conversation about self-trust, identity, emotional resilience, and breaking free from the experiences that quietly shape how we think, feel, and behave. Erika shares how Dianetics and its concept of the "reactive mind" have influenced her understanding of trauma, fear, shame, external validation, and the beliefs we carry from our past, while exploring what it takes to become more present and trust yourself again. Together, we unpack the difference between faith and proof, why painful experiences can cause us to learn the wrong lessons, how self-trust can transform decision-making and relationships, and why changing your mind can actually be a sign of growth. Erika also reveals how these principles changed the way she approaches acting and ultimately explains why true freedom, for her, comes down to one powerful idea: possibility.
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00:00 Welcome to Ever Forward with Erika Christensen
01:00 Knowing Her Purpose at 12 Years Old
05:19 "I Knew I Was Going to Make It"
07:16 Losing Yourself in Other People's Perception
07:53 Dianetics and the Reactive Mind
09:28 Can People Actually Change?
12:36 Are We Given Answers—or Better Questions?
13:57 Understanding the Reactive Mind
15:44 Why Self-Discovery May Require Another Person
19:08 How Do You Know the Difference Between Theory and Truth?
20:00 Faith vs. Proof
22:22 How Erika Developed Faith in Herself
23:42 Trauma, Self-Trust and Whether People Are Inherently Good
24:45 What Shame Really Says About You
26:49 How Much of Our Suffering Is Self-Created?
28:25 Erika Shares Her Husband's Experience With Dianetics
30:58 How Dianetics Changed the Way Erika Sees Other People
34:11 How Self-Trust Changed Erika as an Actress
37:01 A Practical Tool for When You Feel Triggered
39:59 Who Are You Beneath Your Conditioning?
42:09 The Trap of External Validation
44:07 Why Self-Trust Makes You a Better Decision-Maker
47:36 "You Are Exactly Where You're Supposed to Be"
49:31 Why Changing Your Mind Is a Strength
50:51 Rapid Fire: Fear, Anger, Forgiveness & Freedom
53:55 What "Ever Forward" Means to Erika

Najwa Zebian returns for a powerful conversation about healing after heartbreak, betrayal, toxic relationships, manipulation, self-worth, boundaries, closure, and learning how to let go of someone who hurt you. Inspired by her book The One Who Broke You Can't Heal You, Najwa explains why waiting for an apology, accountability, or validation from the person who caused your pain can keep you emotionally attached to them—and why real healing begins when you stop giving them control over your recovery. We explore why we ignore red flags, how toxic relationships distort our sense of self, the difference between taking responsibility and blaming yourself, why someone's intention doesn't erase their impact, how narcissistic and manipulative dynamics weaponize your best qualities against you, and why knowing who you are may be one of the most important tools for reclaiming your life. 
Follow Najwa @najwazebian
Follow Chase @chase_chewning
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00:00 — The One Who Broke You Can't Heal You
00:42 — Why We Wait for the Person Who Hurt Us
03:36 — Were You Naive—or Were You Manipulated?
07:20 — Stop Blaming Yourself for What They Did
10:24 — Does It Matter If They Intended to Hurt You?
13:10 — Why "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You" Isn't Enough
16:44 — The Problem With "Just Let Them"
19:16 — "That's Just Who I Am" Is Not an Excuse
24:34 — Why the Person Who Broke You Cannot Heal You
27:27 — They Are Their Own Karma
28:51 — Life Isn't Fair—Now What?
30:45 — How Hope Can Keep You Stuck
33:28 — The Thread Analogy: Why You Can't Let Go
36:49 — How to Cut the Emotional Bond
38:00 — Why People Stay in Toxic Relationships
41:14 — How Much Suffering Will You Accept for Love?
43:17 — Stop Trying to Prove Who You Are
47:23 — When Love Makes You Question Yourself
50:25 — "I Don't Want to Be Loved That Way"
50:53 — Communication, Boundaries & Reevaluating Relationships
53:14 — When Your Kindness Is Weaponized Against You
57:27 — Know What You Bring to the Table
59:04 — Knowing Your Worth Isn't Arrogance
1:00:00 — You Don't Need Their Apology
1:03:06 — Najwa's Emotional Definition of "Ever Forward"
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Episode resources:
Najwa's first appearance in episode 811
Get her new book on Amazon