Dr. Audrey Tang: Detours, Dopamine, and the Science of a Life Not Scripted

Most of us were handed a script before we were old enough to question it. A school told us what to study. A parent told us what success looks like. A career ladder told us which rung comes next. And somewhere along the way, we confused following the script with actually living.

This conversation with Dr. Audrey Tang starts with a simple but unsettling question: what if the detour was never the problem? What if the belief in a straight line was?

Dr. Audrey Tang is a Chartered Psychologist, leadership trainer, and award-winning author of The Leader's Guide to Resilience and The Leader's Guide to Wellbeing (winner, Business Book Awards 2024). For years she has worked with leaders and organisations on the psychology behind performance, confidence, and behaviour change. Her own life, which has crossed teaching, performing, writing, broadcasting, and building a charity, is anything but linear.

Ivan and Audrey explore the neuroscience behind why we default to linear thinking, why the corporate habit of setting fixed goals makes us worse at life, and what it actually takes to build confidence in the face of the unexpected.

In this episode:

Why the brain fills in narrative gaps automatically, and how Gestalt psychology explains our obsession with sequences and conclusions

The difference between happiness and relief, and why "I'll be happy when I achieve X" is one of the most common traps we fall into

How parental scripts get installed early and how to start asking whose critical voice you are actually hearing

The skills vs. strengths distinction: why getting promoted on things you are good at but that drain you is one of the quietest career crises there is

How dopamine reinforces the wrong behaviours, keeping people climbing ladders that lead somewhere they never wanted to go

Why "follow your passion" can tip into obsession, and the better question to ask: what problems do you want to solve?

The stretch zone framework: how small daily discomforts build the resilience to handle real uncertainty without panic