Millions have been inspired by Dan Levitin's books, four of which were bestsellers, including "This Is Your Brain On Music," which has been translated into 27 languages. (His full bio is below)
And even so…the celebrity neuroscientist and multi-million-book-selling author has a side hustle...making and producing music.
Dan released his second full-length record - "Sex and Math" - in late 2021, following his own research which became the subject of his book "Successful Aging." Prior to being a world-renowned Neuroscientist focusing on how music positively affects the brain, Daniel was an award-winning musician and music producer.
Dan has contributed to records by Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, and Stevie Wonder. Even the haunting, mega-hit song “Somebody I Used to Know” by Gotyé was mixed based on Daniel’s creative input. He is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, bass, guitar and vocals), and has performed with Sting, Mel Tormé, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Neil Young, Rodney Crowell, Bobby McFerrin (with whom he co-wrote two songs), Victor Wooten, Tom Scott, and members of the Steve Miller Band. Mega Opera star Renée Fleming liked one of his songs so much that she asked him to sing it with her at a virtual Kennedy Center performance in 2020.
Listen to the full interview here or watch the video interview on YouTube @ConnectedCarolineShow
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Dan Levitin Bio
Daniel J. Levitin is an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and best-selling author. His research encompasses music, the brain, health, productivity and creativity.
Levitin has published more than 300 articles, in journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has been featured over 1800 times in the popular press, including 17 articles in The New York Times, and in The London Times, Scientific American, and Rolling Stone. He is a frequent guest on NPR and CBC Radio and has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and CNN.
His TED talk is among the most popular of all time.
He is the author of four New York Times bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind and Successful Aging (published in the UK as The Changing Mind), as well as the international bestseller A Field Guide to Lies (also published as Weaponized Lies).
A popular public speaker, he has given presentations on the floor of Parliament in London, to the U.S. Congress, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. He has consulted for a number of companies including Apple, Booz-Allen, Microsoft, the United States Navy, Sonos, Philips, Sony, Fender, and AT&T. Dr. Levitin earned his B.A. from Stanford in Cognitive Science, his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with a Ph.D. minor in Music Technology from the University of Oregon, and and completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School and UC Berkeley in Neuroimaging and Perception.
As a musician (tenor saxophone, guitar, vocals and bass), he has performed with Mel Tormé, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Victor Wooten and Tom Scott. Levitin has produced and consulted on albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and on the films Good Will Hunting and Pulp Fiction, and has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.
Levitin taught at Stanford in the Departments of Computer Science, Psychology, History of Science, and Music, and has been a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley. He is currently the Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute, San Francisco, California, and James McGill Professor Psychology, Neuroscience and Music at McGill University.
