Leading Neuroscientist: Stress Leaks Through Skin, Is Contagious ft. Dr. Tara Swart

5 neuroscience-backed protocols for managing stress, rewiring the brain, and protecting your mental performance, from the MD and MIT lecturer.

With Tara Swart

"Your stress doesn't stay in your body. It leaks through your skin chemistry and affects the people near you. Managing your stress isn't just self-care — it's an obligation to everyone you influence."

Tara Swart, on the episode

Dr. Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, medical doctor, and senior lecturer at MIT. She spent years as a psychiatrist before becoming one of the world's leading researchers on neuroplasticity, executive coaching, and the intersection of brain science and performance. In this Diary of a CEO conversation, she walks through findings that most people hearing them for the first time find startling: stress is literally transmissible through skin chemistry, sleep debt is functionally equivalent to being drunk, and the brain can be deliberately rewired well into old age. She operationalizes the science into specific protocols that high performers can implement immediately. Steven Bartlett called this the conversation that changed how he thinks about his own body.