Dr. Dean Burnett Launches Second Podcast Series, BRAIN YAPPING: BATTLE DAMAGED

In 2019, neuroscience writer Dr Dean Burnett and journalist Rachel England launched the Brain Yapping podcast, where they engaged in unplanned discussions of how the human brain works in surreal-but-recognisable situations. Much fun was had by all, and they vowed to return with a new series ASAP.

Then 2020 happened

While everyone struggled with the pandemic and lockdown, Dean and Rachel were hit especially hard. Rachel has dealt with mental health issues her whole life, and lockdown and isolation haven't helped. Meanwhile, Dean was hit with multiple losses and had to endure the subsequent grief and trauma largely alone. It was, to put it mildly, an awful time, mentally.

But now it's 2021, and they're ready to talk about it all. In the new series, Dean and Rachel will cover all manner of issues concerning mental health, in the context of lockdown and beyond. Drawing on established science, eye-watering real world experiences, and contributions from listeners, and to coincide with Dean's new book Psycho-Logical, which is all about this exact subject (and which Rachel is in), the new series of Brain Yapping explores mental health like never before, via two people who have been through the wringer with theirs

This is Brain Yapping: Battle Damaged.

Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, lecturer, author, blogger, media pundit, science communicator, comedian and a whole host of other things. Evidently, he is a busy man, which is why Rachel wrote this bio for him.

His first book, The Idiot Brain, debuted in February 2016 to global acclaim, selling tens of thousands of copies and seeing print runs in more than 20 countries. It even enjoyed a brief stint as a number one non-fiction bestseller in Mexico.

His second book, The Happy Brain, followed in May 2018, in which Dean lays out the science behind humanity's number one pursuit: happiness. His new book Psycho-Logical: Why Mental Health Goes Wrong, And How To Make Sense Of It, is published on 4th February this year. Further books are now in the pipeline with titles to be confirmed, although The Exhausted Brain and The Why Did I Agree To These Deadlines Brain seem like suitable working titles for now.

Rachel England's decade-long writing career has seen her run the gamut of journalism, from arts to technology, via sustainability, finance, mental health and everything in between - she once dressed up as a bin in the name of recycling awareness, for example. She's a self-styled jack of all trades and has the opinions to match.

As well as all this, Rachel has experience in self-defence, poetry, stand-up comedy, spoken-word and storytelling. She also hates writing self-promotional blurbs about herself, so got Dean to do this one.