The Kindness Effect: How Your Brain Changes When You Care with Jedidiah Thurner

The Kindness Effect: How Your Brain Changes When You Care with Jedidiah Thurner

What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? Here, brain health specialist Dr Daniel Amen teams up with strategic leader and non-profit co-founder Jedidiah Thurner to unpack how simple, intentional kindness can shift mood, behaviour, and even brain structure.

You’ll hear Dr Amen explain how everyday choices literally shape the brain: “Every day, you are making your brain better, or you are making it worse.” He breaks down the role of the hippocampus – the brain’s memory and mood hub – and shares research showing that regular volunteering can help this area grow rather than shrink with age. Acts of kindness aren’t framed as fluffy extras; they’re presented as practical tools that can ease anxiety, depression and loneliness.

Jedidiah brings the bigger cultural picture, describing a “cultural crisis” of record-high anxiety and loneliness, especially in Gen Z. He shares how his organisation Love Has No Limits grew from the belief that “hate's not working. It never has, and it never will,” and how that led to a national kindness movement aiming for 250 million acts of kindness and a million volunteers serving in their own communities. A key theme is the difference between love and kindness.

As Jedidiah puts it, “Kindness is a definitive act… a choice you're actually making regardless if you have an emotion for it,” making it a realistic starting point for a divided, hurting society. The conversation also touches on parenting, social media, and modelling kindness at home, from nightly back scratches for children to what Dr Amen calls the “penguin kindness challenge” – noticing what you like in others far more than what you criticise.

If you’re looking for practical brain-based reasons to be kinder – to yourself, your family, your neighbours, and even people you struggle with – this conversation shows how small acts can be a bridge to better mental health and more hopeful communities. What simple kindness could you choose today?