The Write Brain

This week on The Write Brain, we sit down with for a real, unfiltered conversation about creativity, childhood, and what it means to be honest in your work.We talk about growing up, school, family dynamics, and the early signs of feeling different — long before there was language for it. The conversation naturally moves into creativity as a place of refuge, songwriting as truth-telling, and the complicated relationship between vulnerability, shame, and connection.we open up about the creative process, the emotional cost of honesty, and how writing songs has changed over time — especially in environments where collaboration, expectations, and success can blur the original reason you started.This isn’t a how-to or a highlight reel. It’s a conversation about being human, staying present with discomfort, and letting the work say what you can’t always explain.Toward the end, we ask a question we always come back to on The Write Brain: what would you say to your younger self — or to a younger creative who’s struggling in the same ways you once did?Thanks for being here.

In this episode of The Write Brain podcast, we sit down with Dallas Alexander — world-record-holding sniper, country music artist, and devoted father.Dallas opens up about his military career, losing his brother to cancer, and the unexpected healing he experienced through music and psilocybin. We explore PTSD, grief, right-brain healing, parenting in a digital age, and how creativity can help us process life’s hardest moments.This is a raw, honest conversation about masculinity, emotional intelligence, and finding peace after trauma.🎧 Topics include:    •    Life in special operations    •    Losing a sibling and processing grief    •    Psilocybin and right-brain healing    •    Music as therapy    •    Fatherhood, freedom, and raising resilient kids    •    Creativity, boredom, and imagination

This might be one of the most vulnerable episodes we’ve ever done.Today on The Write Brain podcast, we sit down with actor Johnathon Schaech to talk about dyslexia, shame, Hollywood, sexual abuse, addiction, and what real healing has looked like for him.Johnathon opens up about growing up as a creative, right-brained kid in Baltimore, excelling in art, dance, and sports while secretly struggling in school. He shares how he went from drawing and “breaking” to booking a Franco Zeffirelli film in his early 20s… and then reveals what really happened behind the scenes during that movie — including the night Zeffirelli came into his room.For years, Johnathon didn’t have language for what happened to him. It wasn’t until the Me Too movement — and reading Rose McGowan’s story — that he realized he was a survivor of the same thing. He talks about how that one minute of his life shaped decades of shame, self-destruction, substance abuse, and sabotaged opportunities… and how EMDR, brain-based work, and 12-step recovery helped him finally get free.⚠️ Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, trauma, addiction, and self-destructive behavior. Please take care of yourself while listening.In this episode, we talk about:Johnathon’s childhood as a creative right-brain kidDyslexia, remedial classes & the shame of “feeling stupid”Creating games, drawing, dancing, and discovering actingThe wild path from Baltimore to Wilhelmina Models to LALanding a Franco Zeffirelli film — and the casting story behind itThe night Zeffirelli came into his room and how it changed everythingDissociation, the freeze response, and how trauma lives in the brainHow shame drove addiction, bar fights, and self-sabotage in HollywoodLosing a huge role opposite Meryl Streep because of drinkingGetting sober, finding AA, and learning he’s not “broken,” he’s an addictEMDR, brain-spotting & making the unconscious consciousHow healing trauma changed his acting, relationships, and self-worthFinally working shame-free on his TV series Blue RidgeAdvice to survivors: it wasn’t your fault, and you’re not alone

We finally did it — after 50 episodes, we’re revealing The Right Brain Box. This is the kit we’ve spent years talking about, experimenting with, and using in real life… and now we’re putting it into one place so anyone can start balancing their brain at home.In this episode, Ellis and Dr. Robert Melillo walk through everything inside the new Right Brain Box (and the upcoming Left Brain Box): vibration tools, TENS units, visual stimulation glasses, essential oils, brain-specific vitamins, primitive reflex tools, smell integration, and even The Brain Driver.Whether you struggle with anxiety, shame, dyslexia, ADHD, gut issues, overthinking, sensory overwhelm, or mood swings—this episode explains why these tools work and how they fit into right- vs. left-brain dominance.In this episode, we cover:• Why we built the Right Brain Box after 50 episodes • What each tool does — vibration, TENS, smell, vision, vitamins & more • How right-brain dominance shows up (anxiety, dyslexia, shame, sensitivity) • How left-brain deficits affect mood, memory & development • Using sensory tools to activate one hemisphere and calm the other • Why couples should know their brain dominance before having kids (!?) • How gut issues, chronic stress & neurodevelopment are all connected • Early signs of imbalance—and what you can do at homeThe Right Brain Box Includes:• TouchPoint vibration tools • TENS unit for hemisphere-specific activation • Essential oils for smell-based stimulation • Left/Right brain vitamins & digestive support • Eyelights (visual stimulation) • Dry brush for primitive reflex work • The Brain Driver (top-down stimulation device)Why this matters:Most people struggle with symptoms—anxiety, mood swings, gut issues, focus problems—without ever realizing the root cause is an imbalance between the hemispheres. These tools are designed to help you balance your brain, support your nervous system, and improve emotional regulation at home.

What is consciousness, really — and how does your brain build your reality?In this episode of The Write Brain podcast, Ellis and Dr. Robert Melillo dive into the trippy but practical side of consciousness: how your brain stitches together sight, sound, memory, and emotion into a “movie” of your life… and what happens when that timing gets thrown off (anxiety, paranoia, psychosis, false memories, and more).They get into gamma waves (40 Hz), quantum entanglement, parallel realities, why two people can remember the same moment totally differently, and how brain timing tools like the Interactive Metronome can actually help rebalance perception.All of that… plus Jackie’s pastries and Ellis’s croissant cravings as B-plot. 🥐In this episode, we talk about:What consciousness actually is (and why it’s the #1 question in neuroscience)How the brain “binds” sight, sound, memory, and emotion into one realityWhy your brain is really a reality emulatorHow timing issues between the hemispheres can warp perceptionFalse memories, paranoia & “filling in the blanks”Quantum entanglement & the idea of a collective consciousnessHow tools like Interactive Metronome help sync the brain’s timingWhy big life changes (moving cities, quitting drinking) can feel like “timeline jumps”Timestamps00:00 Intro, fasting, pastries & live audience energy 02:30 What is consciousness? Self-awareness & subjective experience 06:30 The “binding problem”: how the brain turns fragments into a single reality 10:30 40 Hz gamma waves & the brain as a reality emulator 14:30 When reality in your head doesn’t match the outside world 19:30 False memories & the left brain “filling in” stories 23:30 Right-brain big-picture paranoia (texts, tone, overthinking) 27:30 Quantum entanglement & universal/collective consciousness 33:00 Timelines, “quantum leaping” & changing your reality 38:00 Interactive Metronome, timing, and balancing the hemispheres 42:30 Wrap-up: how all of this connects back to mental health