The Science & Art of Comedy & Creativity | Tom Segura

90% of exercise's brain benefit comes from raising alertness

Huberman reveals that 90% of the effect of long slow distance exercise on brain function is simply raising your level of alertness and arousal. A morning workout changes your neurochemical state for about six hours by triggering adrenaline release, which acts on the vagus nerve to release dopamine and norepinephrine, waking up both body and brain.

"90% of the effect of exercise on improving brain function when it comes to long, slow distance work is that it raises your level of alertness and arousal. So you can do really great work afterwards."

Your brain tracks your phone even while you sleep

Huberman explains that your brain anticipates potential actions even during sleep, which is why removing your phone from the bedroom improves sleep quality. Students perform worse on tests when their phone is in their bag in the room versus in another room. During REM sleep, people can correctly answer simple math problems.

"If you give students a test and their phone is in their bag in the room, they perform less well than if their phone is in their bag in another room. This is true for adults too."

How comedians build material: kernel ideas tested in real time

Tom Segura explains his creative process of capturing comedy ideas as kernels and taking them onstage without writing them out in full. He builds bits in real time through conversation and performance, iterating based on audience response. His set list is just single words in Sharpie representing 15-minute chunks.

"I don't write them out full form. And then I just go on stage with the kernel of the idea that I kind of have a blueprint of like, well, here's what I'm sort of going to try to attack and then see what happens as I speak it."