167* Addiction with Gina Turrigiano (EF, JP)

Mar 26, 2026

Gina Turrigiano, a Brandeis neuroscientist known for work on brain plasticity and sleep, joins to explore addiction through neuroscience, anthropology, and literature. They compare everyday habits to severe addiction. They discuss brain ruts, tolerance and withdrawal, social context and supply, and how different books illuminate desire, pleasure, and the opioid crisis.

46:53

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

insights

INSIGHT

Drugs Shortcut The Same Pleasure Pathway

Drugs take a quantitative shortcut into the brain's same pleasure pathways used by natural rewards, making them more powerful but not qualitatively different.
Drugs directly boost dopamine, so addiction is easier though mechanistically similar to other habit formation.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Clinic Walks Reveal Structural Contexts

Angela Garcia's ethnography follows opiate addicts in northern New Mexico and ties addiction to land dispossession and social history.
Garcia frames addiction as embedded in climate, dispossession, and local political economies, not just individual pathology.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

River Discovery Led To Leaving Treatment

In Garcia's fieldwork a clinic walk to the Rio Grande led patients to find discarded heroin cookers, triggering a treatment dropout.
The sight of a 'dead' river and syringes prompted John to check himself out of treatment that evening.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Framing Addiction Through Multiple Disciplines

01:53 • 2min

chevron_right

Why Mark Lewis's Book Matters

04:02 • 59sec

chevron_right

Habit versus Addiction: The Habitual Brain

05:01 • 2min

chevron_right

Comparing Everyday Compulsions to Addiction

07:20 • 2min

chevron_right

Brain Ruts and Reversibility

09:25 • 3min

chevron_right

Social Context: Ethnography of the Española Valley

Detox Clinic Vignettes and Environmental Loss

22:57 • 5min

chevron_right

What Drugs Provide: Desire vs. Pleasure

27:32 • 3min

chevron_right

Supply, Social Decay, and Epidemic Patterns

30:41 • 3min

chevron_right

De Quincey's Opium: Pleasure and Torment

33:56 • 4min

chevron_right

Tolerance, Withdrawal, and the Loss of Euphoria

• Mentioned in 4 episodes

Confessions of an opium eater

Thomas De Quincey

In 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater', Thomas De Quincey chronicles his journey with laudanum addiction, detailing both the euphoric experiences and the devastating consequences. The book is divided into sections that explore the pleasures and pains of opium use, offering a candid and influential portrayal of addiction in the early 19th century. Despite its controversial reception, it remains a significant work in English literature, influencing perceptions of narcotics and addiction for generations.

The pastoral clinic

Angela Garcia

Angela Garcia's ethnographic study explores how heroin addiction is embedded within histories of land dispossession, economic decline, and social marginalization along the Río Grande. Through close work in a detox clinic and long-term engagement with people who use drugs, Garcia examines how the chronic-disease model shapes subjectivity and moral narratives. The book foregrounds personal narratives while situating addiction in political and historical contexts. It critiques simplistic individualizing frameworks and shows how structural conditions enable and sustain addiction. Garcia's writing combines ethical reflection with rigorous anthropology to illuminate addiction as both personal suffering and social phenomenon.

The Compass of Pleasure

David Linden

David J. Linden explains how disparate pleasurable experiences—from food and sex to gambling and generosity—converge on common neural reward circuits. The book synthesizes neuroscience research for a broad audience, illustrating mechanisms like dopamine signaling and habit formation. Linden uses engaging examples and humor to show why certain behaviors become compulsive and how evolution shaped reward systems. He discusses implications for understanding addiction while making the science accessible. The book serves as an approachable primer on the neurobiology of pleasure and its role in human behavior.

When I Wear My Alligator Boots

Shaylih Muehlmann

Shaylih Muehlmann's ethnography examines how narco-culture shapes identities, economies, and patterns of drug use in border communities. Focusing on methamphetamine, she links addiction to labor conditions, migration, and social aspirations among people involved in low-level narcotics economies. The book combines vivid fieldwork, personal narratives, and theoretical insight to show how drugs intersect with culture and livelihoods. Muehlmann highlights how pleasure, status, and economic necessity complicate moralizing accounts of drug use. Her work illuminates the structural and cultural forces that produce and sustain substance use in borderland settings.

#2570

• Mentioned in 18 episodes

Dreamland

The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

Sam Quinones

Dreamland by Sam Quinones tells the story of two powerful drug industries—that of prescription opiates and black tar heroin—driven by capitalism and greed. The book examines how the medical community's shift towards pain relief, fueled by pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, and the influx of black tar heroin from Mexico, contributed to the opiate epidemic. Quinones uses personal anecdotes, historical context, and a cast of characters including pharmaceutical pioneers, Mexican entrepreneurs, and narcotics investigators to illustrate the catastrophic impact on American communities. The book also highlights the role of community in recovery and the need for addressing the underlying social and economic issues that contributed to the epidemic.

#12504

• Mentioned in 4 episodes

The Biology of Desire

Why Addiction Is Not a Disease

Marc Lewis

In *The Biology of Desire*, Marc Lewis presents a compelling case against the disease model of addiction, suggesting that it is an unintended consequence of the brain's normal functioning in pursuit of pleasure and relief. Through vivid stories of individuals who have overcome addiction, Lewis illuminates a path to recovery that focuses on retooling treatment approaches to achieve lasting results.

In Recall This Book's second episode (January 2019) John and Elizabeth spoke with their brilliant Brandeis colleague, the MacArthur-winning neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano, about a number of different facets of addiction. The conversation seems as timely as ever.

What makes an addiction to a morning constitutional different from–or similar to–an addiction to Fentanyl? What are the biological and social factors to consider? Should the addict be thought of in binary terms, or addiction as a state that people move into and out of? They contemplate these questions through biological, anthropological, and literary lenses, drawing on Marc Lewis, Angela Garcia, and Thomas de Quincey. Late in the episode, there’s also a Sprockets joke.

Then, in Recallable Books, Gina recommends David Linden’s The Compass of Pleasure, Elizabeth recommends When I Wear My Alligator Boots by Shaylih Muehlmann, and John recommends Sam Quinones’s Dreamland.

Discussed in this episode:

Marc Lewis, The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease
Angela Garcia, The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession Along the Rio Grande
Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater: Being an Extract from the Life of a Scholar
David Linden, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good
Shaylih Muehlmann, When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the U.S. Mexico Borderlands
Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Home Top podcasts Popular guests Top books