Hidden Brain

By Hidden Brain

Arts Performing Arts Social Sciences

What's Hidden Brain about?

Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.

4.6

29,894 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Taking Control of Your Time

09.26.2022

Many of us feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. We struggle to make time for all the competing demands at work and at home, and inevitably feel like we're letting someone down. But what if there were ...

Hidden Brain episodes:

09.26.2022 Taking Control of Your Time Many of us feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. We struggle to make time for all the competing demands at work and at home, and inevitably feel like we're letting someone down. But what if there were ...
09.19.2022 How to Really Know Another Person So often, we think we know what other people are thinking. But researchers have found that our attempts at reading other people go wrong more often than we realize. This week, we talk with psychologist Tessa West about what we ...
09.12.2022 Decoding Emotions We like to think that all humans are born with the same core emotions: anger, fear, joy, sadness and disgust. But what if that's not true? This week, psychologist Batja Mesquita offers a different model of emotions — one that ...
09.05.2022 Making the World a Safer Place All of us want to feel safe in our daily lives. Yet when we think about crime, our first response is often a blanket approach: find the bad guys, and punish them. But what if there were another way? This ...
08.29.2022 You 2.0: How to Open Your Mind In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. In this favorite 2021 episode, psychologist Adam Grant pushes back against the benefits of certainty and describes the magic ...
08.22.2022 You 2.0: Overcoming Stage Fright The pressure. The expectations. The anxiety. If there’s one thing that many of us have in common, it’s the stress that can come from performing in front of others. In this week’s episode, we revisit our 2021 conversation with cognitive ...
08.15.2022 You 2.0: The Mind's Eye Some challenges can feel insurmountable. But psychologist Emily Balcetis says the solutions are often right in front of our eyes. This week, as part of our annual series on personal growth and reinvention, we revisit a favorite 2020 conversation about ...
08.08.2022 You 2.0: How To See Yourself Clearly How well do we know ourselves? Maybe the better question to ask is how well can we truly know ourselves? Psychologist Tim Wilson says introspection only gets us so far, and that we often make important decisions in life and ...
08.01.2022 You 2.0: Befriending Your Inner Voice You know that negative voice that goes round and round in your head, keeping you up at night? When that negative inner voice gets switched on, it's hard to think about anything else. Psychologist Ethan Kross has a name for ...
07.25.2022 Reframing Your Reality: Part 2 We often assume that we see ourselves and the world around us accurately. But psychologist Alia Crum says that our perceptions are always filtered through our mindsets — and these mindsets shape our lives in subtle but profound ways. In ...
07.18.2022 Reframing Your Reality: Part 1 We often assume that we see ourselves and the world around us accurately. But psychologist Alia Crum says that our perceptions are always filtered through our mindsets — and these mindsets shape our lives in subtle but profound ways. In ...
07.11.2022 Separating Yourself from the Pack Have you ever gotten into a heated argument about politics? Maybe you’ve said something you're not proud of during game night with friends, or booed the opposing team at a sporting event. Psychologist Mina Cikara studies what happens in these ...
07.04.2022 What We Gain from Pain We've all heard the saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But is there any truth to this idea? This week, we explore the concept of post-traumatic growth with psychologist Eranda Jayawickreme. He finds that suffering can have benefits ...
06.27.2022 A Founding Contradiction "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Those words, penned by Thomas Jefferson 246 years ago, continue to inspire many Americans. And yet they were written by a man who owned hundreds of enslaved ...
06.20.2022 The Premonition When Paul Burnham was a teenager, he received what felt like a premonition: he would die at the age of 54. Now, he's 54. This week, what his story of confronting death reveals about life.
06.13.2022 Why You're Smarter Than You Think From the time we are schoolchildren, we are ranked and sorted based on how smart we are. But what if our assumptions about intelligence limit our potential? This week, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman proposes a more expansive notion of what ...
06.06.2022 Do Less The human drive to invent new things has led to pathbreaking achievements in medicine, science and society. But our desire for innovation can keep us from seeing one of the most powerful paths to progress: subtraction. Engineer Leidy Klotz says ...
05.30.2022 Money 2.0: Let's Go Shopping! What do the things you buy say about you? Many of us like to think of ourselves as immune to slick advertising and celebrity endorsements. But like it or not, we're communicating messages about ourselves every day with the clothes ...
05.23.2022 Money 2.0: The Rich and the Rest of Us Where do you stand on the income ladder? Do you think of yourself as rich, as poor, or as somewhere in between? Our perceptions of wealth — our own, and other people's — can affect us more profoundly than we ...
05.16.2022 Money 2.0: Emotional Currency What’s the point of money? The answer might seem obvious: we need it to get paid for our work and to buy the things we need. But there’s also a deeper way to look at the role of money in ...
05.09.2022 Money 2.0: Why We Bust Our Budgets Have you had a recent surprise expense? You're not alone. More than half of American households report facing an unplanned financial shock in the last year. This week, in the second part of our new "Money 2.0" series, psychologist Abigail ...
05.02.2022 Money 2.0: Rewrite Your Money Story Money worries are one of the biggest sources of anxiety in the lives of Americans. This week, we kick off our new "Money 2.0" series with psychologist Brad Klontz. He says that while external economic forces often shape our financial ...
04.25.2022 The Logic of Rage Neuroscientist Doug Fields was on a trip to Europe when a pickpocket stole his wallet. Doug, normally mild-mannered, became enraged — and his fury turned him into a stranger to himself. This week, we revisit a favorite 2020 episode about ...
04.18.2022 When Doing Right Feels Wrong Have you ever been in a position where you had to choose between someone you care about and a value that you hold dear? This week, we tell the story of a Detroit police officer who found himself in this ...
04.14.2022 A Conspiracy of Silence We all self-censor at times. We keep quiet at dinner with our in-laws, or nod passively in a work meeting. But what happens when we take this deception a step further, and pretend we believe the opposite of what we ...
04.11.2022 How Rude! It’s not your imagination: rudeness appears to be on the rise. Witnessing rude behavior — whether it's coming from angry customers berating a store clerk or airline passengers getting into a fistfight — can have long-lasting effects on our minds. ...
04.04.2022 Healing Your Heart We’ve all heard about the five stages of grief. But what happens when your experience doesn’t follow that model at all? Resilience researcher Lucy Hone began to question how we think about grief after a devastating loss in her own ...
03.28.2022 You Don't Need a Crystal Ball When disaster strikes — from the explosion of a space shuttle to the spread of a deadly virus — we want to know whether we could have avoided catastrophe. Did anyone speak up with concerns about the situation? And if ...
03.21.2022 How to Change the World Does power truly flow from the barrel of a gun? Pop culture and conventional history often teach us that violence is the most effective way to produce change. But is that common assumption actually true? Political scientist Erica Chenoweth, who ...
03.17.2022 You Can't Hit Unsend Social media sites offer quick and easy ways to share ideas, crack jokes, find old friends. They can make us feel part of something big and wonderful and fast-moving. But the things we post don’t go away. And they can ...
03.14.2022 The Benefits of Mixed Emotions We've all been in situations where we experience mixed emotions. Maybe you've felt both joy and sadness during a big life decision, such as whether to purchase a home or accept a job offer. Or maybe you've experienced mixed feelings ...
03.07.2022 Putting Our Assumptions to the Test Do you ever stop to wonder if the way you see the world is how the world really is? Economist Abhijit Banerjee has spent a lifetime asking himself this question. His answer: Our world views often don't reflect reality. The ...
02.28.2022 Mind Reading 2.0: Why Conversations Go Wrong Do you ever struggle to communicate with your mom? Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? In the final episode of our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we bring back a favorite conversation with linguist Deborah Tannen. ...
02.21.2022 Mind Reading 2.0: Our Better Angels Turn on the news, and you'll be bombarded with stories of people who lie, cheat, and kill. Most of our public and economic policies take aim at these sorts of people. But is there a hidden cost to doing so? ...
02.14.2022 Mind Reading 2.0: The Double Standard It’s easy to spot bias in other people, especially those with whom we disagree. But it’s not so easy to recognize our own biases. In the latest in our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we revisit a favorite conversation with psychologist ...
02.07.2022 Mind Reading 2.0: How others see you It's not easy to know how we come across to others, especially when we're meeting people for the first time. Psychologist Erica Boothby says many of us underestimate how much other people actually like us. In the second installment of ...
01.31.2022 Mind Reading 2.0: Why did you do that? As we go through life, we’re constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. Psychologist Liane Young says this ability to assess other people's thoughts is an extraordinary feat of cognition. But this mental superpower can ...
01.28.2022 My Unsung Hero: Sanaa Kerroumi's Story Sanaa is on her train ride home when an angry man begins threatening her. Before he gets too close, a stranger intervenes.
01.25.2022 Minimizing Pain, Maximizing Joy Life is often filled with hardships and tragedies. For thousands of years, philosophers have come up with strategies to help us cope with such hardship. This week, we revisit a 2020 conversation with philosopher William Irvine about ancient ideas — ...
01.17.2022 What Makes Relationships Thrive Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. But psychologist Harry Reis says there’s another ingredient to successful relationships that’s every bit as important as love.
01.14.2022 My Unsung Hero: Wendy McDowell's Story It's 1979, and Wendy is eight years old, crying alone in an airport. Then she sees a woman in white walking towards her.
01.10.2022 Changing Behavior, Not Beliefs The rift between police and Black Americans can feel impossible to bridge. But in his work with police departments across the U.S., Yale psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff has found novel ways to address the problem. If you like this show, ...
01.03.2022 Choose Carefully All of us make choices all the time, and we may think we're making those choices freely. But psychologist Eric Johnson says there's an architecture behind the way choices are presented to us, and this invisible architecture can influence decisions ...
12.27.2021 Creatures of Habit With the new year close at hand, we revisit our 2019 conversation with psychologist Wendy Wood, who shares what researchers have found about how to build good habits — and break bad ones.
12.24.2021 My Unsung Hero: Justin Horner's Story Justin is sitting on the side of the freeway, hoping someone will help him fix his busted wheel. Right around the time he’s about to give up, a van pulls over.
12.20.2021 Bringing Up Baby Bababa, dadada, ahgaga. Got that? Babies are speaking to us all the time, but most of us have no clue what they're saying. To us non-babies, it all sounds like charming, mysterious gobbledegook. To researchers, though, babbling conveys important information ...
12.13.2021 The Psychology of Self-Doubt We all have times when we feel like a fraud. Psychologist Kevin Cokley studies the corrosive effects of self-doubt, and how we can turn that negative voice in our heads into an ally. If you like this show, please check ...
12.10.2021 My Unsung Hero: Leah Bartell's Story It's 1994, and two men corner Leah on a dark street as she's walking home. Then she sees a car, and a glimmer of hope.
12.06.2021 Both Things Can Be True It’s psychologically simpler to see the world in black and white. But reality often comes in shades of gray. This week, how our minds grapple with contradictions, especially those we see in other people. If you like this show, please ...
11.29.2021 Work 2.0: The One-Room Commute If you’re working from home, you might be reveling in your daily commute to the dining room table. Or you might be saying, “Get me out of here.” In the final episode of our Work 2.0 series, economist Nicholas Bloom ...

Older episodes

Hidden Brain

What's Hidden Brain about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Hidden Brain episodes:

Taking Control of Your Time

How to Really Know Another Person

Decoding Emotions

Making the World a Safer Place

You 2.0: How to Open Your Mind

You 2.0: Overcoming Stage Fright

You 2.0: The Mind's Eye

You 2.0: How To See Yourself Clearly

You 2.0: Befriending Your Inner Voice

Reframing Your Reality: Part 2

Reframing Your Reality: Part 1

Separating Yourself from the Pack

What We Gain from Pain

A Founding Contradiction

The Premonition

Why You're Smarter Than You Think

Do Less

Money 2.0: Let's Go Shopping!

Money 2.0: The Rich and the Rest of Us

Money 2.0: Emotional Currency

Money 2.0: Why We Bust Our Budgets

Money 2.0: Rewrite Your Money Story

The Logic of Rage

When Doing Right Feels Wrong

A Conspiracy of Silence

How Rude!

Healing Your Heart

You Don't Need a Crystal Ball

How to Change the World

You Can't Hit Unsend

The Benefits of Mixed Emotions

Putting Our Assumptions to the Test

Mind Reading 2.0: Why Conversations Go Wrong

Mind Reading 2.0: Our Better Angels

Mind Reading 2.0: The Double Standard

Mind Reading 2.0: How others see you

Mind Reading 2.0: Why did you do that?

My Unsung Hero: Sanaa Kerroumi's Story

Minimizing Pain, Maximizing Joy

What Makes Relationships Thrive

My Unsung Hero: Wendy McDowell's Story

Changing Behavior, Not Beliefs

Choose Carefully

Creatures of Habit

My Unsung Hero: Justin Horner's Story

Bringing Up Baby

The Psychology of Self-Doubt

My Unsung Hero: Leah Bartell's Story

Both Things Can Be True

Work 2.0: The One-Room Commute

Other shows like Hidden Brain: