For this episde, we sat down with neuroscientist and writer Dr. Ben Martynoga, who as an avid runner himself, loves to look at how running affects the brain.

While Ben isn’t leading any of his own clinical studies, he acts as somewhat of a translator in his writing, helping us to understand the cutting edge of brain science. He’s spent the past decade and a half in the lab, looking at how the brain grows and works during our lifetime.

And being a keen runner, Ben is curious to look at real evidence, and science that supports the effects and feelings many of us express about what running does for our wellbeing: how running can help us clear the mind, find focus, deal with stress, think more creatively, experience a “runner’s high” and impact our overall mental health. 

Ben in fact equates running with a type of mindfulness meditation, part of the reason his important work is so interesting to us at Aire Libre, and why we wanted to include him in this series of intimate conversations on discovering our world through running, travel, culture, spirituality and mindfulness.