Go For Brain Gains

Unlock your brain’s potential through Center for BrainHealth's speaker series

The speakers for BrainHealth Presents 2025.

Photo courtesy of Center for BrainHealth

Discover the power of neuroscience and incorporate brain health into your 2025 wellness goals with the help of Center for BrainHealth, a cognitive neuroscience leader focusing on proactive brain gains that make a difference to overall brain health.

Its speaker series, BrainHealth Presents, lets you engage with renowned experts in an exclusive social setting while learning how to harness your brain powers of memory, self-agency, creativity and hyper-efficiency.

All events begin with a VIP reception at 6:15 pm before the talk starts at 7 pm, and are in-person by subscription only. Here is the 2025 speaker lineup:

April 17: Why We Remember – and How to Hold on to What Matters Most
Charan Ranganath, PhD

Dr. Ranganath explains the hidden role memory plays in our lives and how we imagine the future. Author of the New York Times best-seller Why We Remember, he has pioneered a new way of thinking about the everyday act of remembering.

One of the world’s top memory researchers, his work sheds light on the powerful role of memory in nearly every aspect of life, from recalling faces and names to learning, decision-making, trauma, and healing.

He is director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis and is an affiliated faculty with the Center for Mind and Brain, and has appeared on the Huberman Lab Podcast, NPR’s Fresh Air, and the goop podcast with Gwyneth Paltrow.

May 8: Reducing the Risks of Brain Injury
Kim Gorgens, PhD

Dr. Gorgens reframes our understanding of brain injury by connecting with often-overlooked populations.

Reaching millions of viewers through inspiring TED Talks on youth sports concussion and brain injuries in criminal justice, she has appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper, NPR, and 20/20.

A professor of psychology at University of Denver, she manages a large portfolio of brain injury-related research and has lectured extensively around the world.

October 9: Unleashing Imagination: The Creative Brain and AI
Adam Green, PhD

In an age driven by AI, neuroscientist Dr. Green predicts an increasing demand for human creativity.

Leader of a $2.5 million National Science Foundation project on creativity in STEM, he seeks to measure innovative thinking as a predictor of success, gauge how different aspects of creativity may work together, and map the seemingly miraculous process of creative ideation.

He directs the Lab for Relational Cognition at Georgetown University and is co-founder of The Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity.

November 6: Hyper-efficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work
Mithu Storoni, MD, PhD

A physician, cognitive neuroscientist, and author, Dr. Storoni advocates for a new, hyper-efficient way of working.

The work that matters most in our technology-dominated workplace — generating brilliant ideas, solving complex problems, and learning — can’t be manufactured like outputs on an assembly line. Our brains function like a car’s engine, with multiple gears that put the brain in optimal mode for different mental challenges to create, solve, and learn.

Your $150 subscription includes an array of benefits. In addition to admission to all 2025 talks, you'll receive:

A VIP reception at 6:15 pm that includes light hors d'oeurves, beverages, and specialty mocktails catered by Eating Royally, whose chef-owner once cooked for members of the British royal family
Complimentary valet parking
Access to full recordings from the 2025 season
The opportunity to interact with the speaker and other like-minded attendees

Learn more and subscribe to BrainHealth Presents here.

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The Joke Has Landed

New comedy club at Toyota Music Factory in Irving gets set for laughs

Photo by Anna Dolmany

This is the fifth Punch Line location.

It's almost time for Punch Line Irving to open its doors, and Dave Chappelle is at the ready. The famous comedian will christen the new comedy club with four sold-out shows on December 17 and 18, but there's plenty more funny business in store for 2026.

First announced in November, this is Punch Line's fifth location — and second in Texas, the first opened in Houston in 2024 — and it's taking up residence at the Toyota Music Factory. The 240-seat club plans to host more than 350 shows and private events annually, featuring a blend of high-wattage celebrity and homegrown talent.

Its decor nods to the brand's belief that comedy is a sport, with feature wall showcasing punching bags and boxing bells signed by "heavy hitter" performers.

The menu also echoes the theme, with such cocktails as the Bellringer (bourbon, lemonade, and Liquid Death half-and-half iced tea), Ringside Ranch Water (blanco tequila, hibiscus, lime, and soda), and the Espresso All-Star, their take on the espresso martini. Food includes Punch Line favorites like the Mic Drop Burger, Punch Line Nachos, and Homemade Punch Pop Tarts in bourbon apple or strawberry cream.

There is also a second, more flexible space outside the main showroom called The Callback Bar that's designed to host smaller performances, as well as a furnished patio.

Punch Line Irving The Callback Bar.Photo by Anna Dolmany

Photo by Anna Dolmany

This is the fifth Punch Line location.

The talent gets treated as well as the audience, with a private comics lounge in place of a traditional dressing room. Designed as a shared gathering space, it sports a custom media wall showing the live-show feed, a dressing table, a private ensuite restroom, and a hospitality station.

Punch Line makes it a point to support the local comedy scene, and its Irving location will be no exception. Twenty-five cents from each ticket at participating shows benefits Comedy Gives Back, a nonprofit organization providing financial grants and resources to stand-up comedians in need. The club also hosted its first open mic on December 9 to welcome the community, with participating comics donating nonperishable items to the North Texas Food Bank.

Don't fret if you didn't snag tickets to Dave Chappelle — big names like Leslie Jones, Tone Bell, Pete Holmes, and Christina P. all have shows scheduled in the first few months of 2026 and tickets are on sale now.

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