You interact with the human-made world every day, from apps and login accounts to furniture and supermarket checkouts. Behind all these things is a designer, crafting the product with your experience in mind. In this episode we hear from Cathy Bergstrom, a Director of Product Design with deep knowledge of the process. If you want to learn how products are born, this episode is for you!

Episode Guide

00:00 Intro

02:18 What is product design?

06:55 Product design vs. UX design

07:50 Elements of good design: Apple Notes

11:00 Cathy’s journey to product design

12:50 The product design process

17:38 How new products are born: Amazon Prime

22:51 Defining the problem

27:52 Great design: familiarity or novelty?

30:40 Alternate use: Segway

32:23 Cathy’s final thoughts on product design

34:36 Conclusion

Alyssa Bowser’s Second Chance Dance offers true dance education to adults, providing both novices and experienced dancers the opportunity to learn and move in community with others. In this episode, Alyssa shares the unexpected way Second Chance Dance (SCD) came to be, why dance matters, and how people travel across state lines to fulfill their heart’s desire to practice ballet, modern, tap and other genres. You’ll leave this conversation inspired! 

Episode Guide

0:00 Intro 

01:34 Meet Second Chance Dance (SCD)

03:11 The origins of SCD

07:06 Recitals and their Impact at SCD

10:49 Michelle’s transcendent recital experience

13:27 Learning dance- emotional, mental, and physical work

16:55 Choreography

22:56 Experience of dancer versus audience

24:53 SCD as its own living entity and how to maintain its heart

30:01 Juggling community mission with dance education

32:01 Alyssa says: answer the call

34:50 Credits

What would you like to create? Creative ideas come in many forms, from a screenplay to a new cookie recipe. While emotions can keep us from getting started or completing our work, we can harness our emotions to overcome a variety of creative challenges. In this episode, we hear from Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, author and Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Zorana’s book, The Creativity Choice is an insightful and inspirational guide to getting us through the emotional and cognitive hurdles we face as creative beings.

Episode Guide

0:00 Introduction

02:15 Why Zorana wrote The Creativity Choice

04:39 Uncertainty is part of creativity

05:26 Defining creativity

07:56 Big C, little C and pro C creativity

11:37 Creativity in unexpected places

14:57 Making your creative idea happen

18:43 Exploration of the idea and willingness to change

21:04 Expanding or refining your idea

26:26 Challenges of the creative process

32:36 Dealing with blocks

34:22 Harnessing our emotions

38:41 The Power of frustration

42:30 Creativity is social- strong and weak ties

45:24 Conclusion

How are music and imagination linked? Is it possible to transmit images and even stories using music? In this episode, post-doc researcher Itamar Jalon shares the mind-expanding research happening at the Music Cognition Lab, part of Princeton University’s Neuroscience Institute. Whether you like neuroscience, music, or simply letting your mind wander, you’re going to love this conversation.

Link to the research article: https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10690083 

Episode Guide

0:00  Intro

1:53 Itamar describes the research project

7:05 Why the comparison data of spoken story is important

09:21 Defining Neural Patterns

16:32 Extramusical Thoughts 

17:56 Areas of the brain activated by imagining musical narratives

19:29 Default Mode Network

20:06 Association cortices

22:22 How do we apply this information in our daily lives?

23:45 Attention harvesting

24:45 Boredom 

27:27 Other ways to experience music

28:31 Controlled vs naturalistic studies

29:49 Shared meaning-making and conversations

33:22 Closing Remarks

Today’s episode explores neurology, Parkinsons’s Disease, brain science and creativity with Dr. Jonathan Reiner,  a neurologist who is also an artist. Johnathan specializes in Parkinson’s Disease, so our conversation explores neurology and brain science through the Parkinson’s lens, while also delving into movement and creativity as critical to brain health. 

Episode Guide

• 0:00  Intro
• 1:42 What is a Neurologist?
• 4:39 Defining Parkinson’s Disease 
• 8:17 Dopamine deep dive
• 11:04 Is Parkinson’s a male disease?
• 11:40 Deep Brain Stimulation DBS origins, how it works
• 16:57 Brain anatomy in context
• 23:45 Maintaining quality of life w/Parkinson’s
• 28:04 Creative Urges with Parkinsons
• 29:22 Johnathan’s Creative life
• 31:08 Conclusion

From improv classes and stage acting to cosplay conventions, renaissance fairs, and sharing skits on social media, many of us love to act. In Episode 4 of Incredible Mind, Thalia Goldstein shares fascinating and widely applicable insights from her work on the 8 Acting Habits of Mind. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in psychology and its application in the real world. 

To check out Thalia’s book and get a printable copy of her Acting Habits of Mind, visit

https://www.thaliagoldstein.com/why-theatre-ed-matters 

Episode Guide

• 0:00  Intro
• 1:48 Thalia’s Journey 
• 4:17  Defining Habits of Mind
• 8:02  Acting Habits of Mind Origins
• 12:17  Body Awareness and Control (interoception, emotion)
• 13:38  Release Inhibitions and be playful (creativity, divergent thinking)
• 15:28  Commit to Choices
• 17:05  Reflect and Think Metacognitively (providing feedback)
• 22:32  Consider Others (empathy, theory of mind, default social network)
• 26:37  Collaborate, the 21st century skill
• 29:07  Collaboration in the digital space
• 31:57  Emotion contagion and embodies awareness
• 33:37  Imagine and Envision
• 36:32  Bringing Acting Habits of Mind into our lives
• 39:51  Releasing our inhibitions to play as adults
• 43:57  Conclusion

What is neuroaesthetics? Is it simply the study of aesthetic beauty, or can neuroaesthetics help shape a more positive experience of the world around us? This special episode takes place at the Neuroaesthetics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where researchers Soma Chaudhuri and Vasiliki Meletaki share their knowledge and work on this intriguing topic. Due to some technical issues, the audio quality on this episode is lower than usual. For closed captioning to support your listening, you can find this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/94TqfUKc4F4?si=3Sbcps7LdupOn1Xf

Episode Guide:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:32 Defining Neuroaesthetics
• 5:18 How the brain processes aesthetics
• 12:22 How expertise impacts aesthetic experiences
• 15:00 Vasiliki’s journey to neuroaesthetics
• 16:23 Impact of the immediate environment on our well-being
• 20:34 Soma’s journey to neuroaesthetics
• 22:31 Impressions, beauty and facial anomalies
• 24:57 Social categorization and the possibility of change
• 28:03 Human definitions of beauty
• 29:13 Study on art therapy projects
• 32:03 A word of caution on “neuro” marketing and bold research headlines
• 35:24 Conclusion

Art is a widely accessible mood-booster, if we take the time to really look and reflect on an artist’s work. In this episode of Incredible Mind, Katherine Cotter, Associate Director of Research at the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project at U Penn’s Positive Psychology Center, explains what happens in our brains when we look at art, what is meant by everyday creativity, and how experiencing art contributes to our sense of well being.

Episode Guide:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:22  Defining Positive Psychology
• 3:03 Katherine’s Journey to Research
• 4:14 Democratization of creativity
• 6:45  Art and the Brain
• 9:24 The ways people experience art today
• 11:19  Making a case for museums
• 15:39 What is flourishing?
• 18:03 Public Art and well-being
• 22:55 Social prescriptions for art (loneliness, dementia and more)
• 26:34-29:11 Everyday Creativity and aesthetics
• 29:12 Creativity is for everyone
• 30:24 Getting kids to enjoy museums
• 31:55 Conclusion

What's happening in your brain when you listen to music? How about when you play music? Can music heal? In this inaugural episode of Incredible Mind, host Michelle Cross Smith gets you answers from Anna Palumbo, Research Manager at NYU's Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy.

Episode Guide

• 0:00 Podcast Intro and Episode Intro
• 1:38 Anna introduces Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy
• 3:54 Playing and experiencing music during music therapy
• 6:05 Motivation for work and how Anna got into music therapy
• 9:33  Power of music + what happens in our brains when we listen to music
• 12:33 What's happening cognitively when we play music
• 14:24 About strokes and how music helps the brain heal
• 20:29 What's so special about improv?
• 25:06 Intrinsic Motivation
• 26:18 Tips for improv anxiety
• 29:41 Music, dancing and Groove
• 31:40 Advice from Anna
• 34:40 Conclusion and credits