'Near-death experiences' come up often in films and novels - the idea of a 'white light' or experiencing meeting loved ones from years before. But are there common aspects to these experiences? And what sorts of consequences might they have once you have them? This week I speak with Dr Natasha Tassell-Matamua, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand to find out more.

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It is pretty well established that the experience of marital; separation and divorce is a risk for a range of poor health outcomes, even many years after the event. But how are these events linked? Although the association is established, the pathway between the two is not well understood. In this episode, I talk with Professor David Sbarra, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona in the USA, where he is also the Director of Clinical Training in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. In this conversation, we focus on David's work looking close relationships and health.

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When you think about climate change- psychology and mental health may not be the first thing that you think of. However, the two are very much connected. As well as possible mental health disorders such as anxiety or depression, psychological responses to climate change such as fatalism, fear, helplessness and resignation are growing. These responses might be keeping us from addressing the core causes of and developing solutions for our changing climates and the consequences of this, as well as building and supporting psychological resiliency. Join me as I discuss this with one of the authors of a new report from the American Psychological Association; Susan Clayton, Professor of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio, USA.

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Have you played hide and seek with a small child and found them in seconds as they sit in the middle of the room with their eyes covered, convinced that you can't see them? In this episode, I talk with Asst Professor Henrike Moll, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Southern California in the USA. In this conversation, we focus on Henrike's work looking at the social-cognitive development of pre-schoolers and how they appear to apply a principle of bidirectional social interaction, or "I can't see you, unless you can see me", and vice versa.

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Do we become more religious when we think about our own death. Or at least, less religiously skeptical? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Jonathan Jong, currently a Research Fellow at Coventry University, and Deputy Director of the Brain, Belief and Behaviour group there. He is also the Research Coordinator of the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. In this conversation, we focus on Jonathan's PhD work - in New Zealand - on understanding the link between death anxiety and religious belief.

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In this episode, I talk with Mark Schurgin, Graduate Fellow based in the Visual Thinking Lab at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. We talk about Mark's work combining his experience and knowledge of vision research memory, investigating how basic knowledge that we have about how the world works - our 'core knowledge' supports our memory about objects. We talk more about how Mark discovered this, and implications for processes such as machine learning for autonomous self-driving vehicles, devices such as Alexa or Siri, facial recognition software.

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In this episode, I talk with Dr. Sarah Gaither, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University in the USA. In this conversation, we focus on Sarah's work on understanding multiracial identities and the costs and benefits of navigating that social terrain.

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In this episode, I talk with Dr Joshua Swift, Assistant Professor in Psychology, based at Idaho State University in the USA. In this conversation, we focus on Joshua's work with his colleagues on treatment refusal and premature termination in psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and their combination.

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In this episode, I talk with Professor Sally Ferguson, based at the Appleton Institute in Adelaide, Australia, and Deputy Dean of Research in the School of Human Health and Social Sciences at Central Queensland University. In this conversation, we focus on Sally's work on the effects of restricted sleep on performance for people who are on-call.

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In this episode, I talk with Dr Ute Kreplin who is based at Massey University's School of Psychology in New Zealand. In this conversation, we focus on Ute's work on the Centre Stage effect.

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