Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard David Sussillo (on foster care and neuroscience)
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Mar 25, 2026 David Sussillo, technologist and computational neuroscientist at Stanford and author of Emergence, shares his journey from foster homes and childhood instability to Carnegie Mellon and AI research. He discusses how video games offered refuge, life inside group homes, the role of education as protection, and the switch from tech startup life to studying brains and neural networks.
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Video Games Became A Predictable Refuge
- David Sussillo escaped chaotic childhood by obsessing over video games that offered fixed rules and predictable reward loops.
- At age 7 he and friend Shiloh used video-arcade quarters to buy concentrated, absorbing focus during extreme family instability.
Being Sent To A Group Home Overnight
- At 8 David and his sister were put into Albuquerque Christian Children's Home after caregivers couldn't manage them.
- He describes being clothed in trash bags, uprooted overnight, and feeling "orphaned by the living" despite parents being alive.
A Future Goal Acts As A Psychological Shield
- David framed the idea of college as a psychological shield that created a protective identity and motivated survival.
- A karate instructor's mention of scholarships became his Patronus, giving him a future-oriented goal to survive.