This is Your Brain on Achievement Culture with Dr. William Stixrud

We are in the midst of a youth mental health crisis, especially among kids in “high achieving” schools. Neuropsychologist William Stixrud has a front row-seat to the crisis, with unique insight into emerging research on the impact that “achievement-culture” related chronic stress and anxiety have on the adolescent brain. 

We cover a lot of territory, including:

4:20 How the Beatles shaped Bill’s brain

7:46 The difference between rich and poor kids’ mental health 

8:58 The mental health status of “high achieving kids”

10:51 Detailing the adolescent mental health CRISIS

13:19 The cruel untruths we tell teens

16:52 How stress “sculpts” the adolescent brain

18:39 The relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala 

21:41 A crazy story about fearing a kid in Iowa

23:17 How depression “scars” kids’ brains

24:27 The most important indicator of a successful childhood

26:58 How fear fuels the problem

29:00 The most stressful thing in the universe

30:47 Teenagers’ experience of learned helplessness

32:53 School policy strips kids of autonomy

34:53 Teachers need autonomy too!

38:11 The startling paradox of “good schools”

Here’s a link to my conversation with Emmy Huefner about her experiences with achievement culture stress.

About Experience Matters

Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro invites guests to reflect on the most profound learning experiences of their youth and to consider how we can reform American schools. Each episode provides clues about how parents and educators alike can engage young people in powerful, sometimes transformational experiential learning. Education can take many forms, but whatever form it takes- experience matters.