New Books in Neuroscience · New Books Network

James Kimmel, Jr., "The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction—and How to Overcome It" (Random House, 2025)

August 14, 2025·52 min·20 clips

Caleb Zakrin opens the conversation with James Kimmel Jr. about The Science of Revenge. Kimmel argues that revenge can act like an addiction. He frames the brain evidence as pointing to reward and habit systems rather than a purely moral story. He names the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum as part of that circuitry. He also links grievance to the brain's pain network, the anterior insula. That gives him a way to describe revenge as a response to hurt that can quickly harden into a craving to hurt back. Zakrin keeps the discussion focused and asks for the studies and examples that make the claim concrete. Kimmel explains that the book draws on work with scientists who knew how to conduct the studies properly. He also brings in his own background in revenge law. One recurring image is the private courtroom people build in their heads. In that imagined courtroom, they weigh the evidence and decide what punishment feels deserved. The conversation treats that impulse as familiar rather than theatrical. Zakrin then turns to a study Kimmel calls the story of Billy. Kimmel is asked to introduce it and to show why it matters. From there, the interview widens from neuroscience into history. Kimmel reviews examples of revenge that did not solve the deeper problem they were meant to answer. He returns to the idea that revenge is not just a personal feeling but a force with social consequences. The closing stretch pushes toward the larger claim that studying both the science and the history of revenge may help people address violence more effectively. The result is a careful, book-centered conversation that treats a hard subject as something worth unpacking carefully.

As heard by us

Revenge comes off as a learned reward loop, not a slogan.

James Kimmel Jr. treats revenge less like a moral reflex and more like a brain loop, and Caleb Zakrin lets the argument unfold without rushing it.

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Why you'd press play

When you want revenge explained as a brain loop, not a slogan.

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