Money isn’t just about numbers—it’s about neurons. In Your Money and Your Brain, financial journalist Jason Zweig reveals how every financial decision, from buying a stock to swiping your credit card, is powered by ancient wiring in the brain. Dopamine, the chemical that fuels our craving for reward, pushes us toward risky bets; the amygdala, our fear center, jolts us into panic when markets drop. These invisible forces explain why smart people often make irrational money choices. What makes this book so powerful is how it connects to ideas we’ve already explored together on The You Only Podcast. In Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, we learned how emotions shape our lives—Zweig shows they shape our financial destiny, too. In The Courage to Be Disliked, we examined how hidden beliefs and social pressure drive our choices—this book proves the same herd behavior controls markets. And just as Edward Bernays revealed in Propaganda how advertising manipulates desire, Zweig uncovers how our own brain chemistry can become the ultimate persuader, luring us into bad financial habits.

But Zweig doesn’t stop at diagnosis—he offers tools. He shows how to pause when dopamine whispers “buy now,” how to quiet the amygdala’s panic during downturns, and how to make decisions that align not with fear or impulse, but with long-term clarity and peace of mind. By the end, you’ll see money not as an external force, but as something inseparable from the biology of the mind. And once you understand that, you can rewire the way you think about wealth—making smarter, calmer, and more empowered financial decisions.