Reimagining Psychology

Psychology's an important science, one that can really help us live better lives day-to-day. In this podcast we look at what parts of this science work well, and what parts don't. If we dare to look closely, we can find ways to improve it. Join us in a mind-blowing journey to a behavioral science for the 21st century.

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Reimagining Psychology

Addiction as Parasitic Behavior

April 17, 2025 • Tom Whitehead

Welcome!

For this special podcast I asked Deep Divers Mark and Jenna to put their heads together and do the best they could to explain addiction as parasitic behavior – how looking through that lens helps explain all the strange things we know about addictions. So they sat down together, and (after drinking way too much digital coffee) they really put some serious effort into the project. I have to hand it to them. They did a pretty good job explaining things in the time they had to work with – about a quarter hour. Enjoy!

The ideas in this Deep Dive are drawn from my new book, Reimagining Psychology: New Light on Addictions and Other Rogue Habits, now available on Amazon.com. The music is “Walking with Billie” by talented guitarist and composer Michael Kobrin. You can find more of his tracks on YouTube. Jenna and Mark are AI characters produced by Google’s incredibly sophisticated learning tool NotebookLM, available at https://notebooklm.google.com.