Stanford Psychology Podcast

This week, Katia Kriakova has a conversation with Brian Knutson, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University. In this episode, we explore the neuroscience of decision-making, how brain activity can predict behavior and relapse in addiction, and why our choices don’t always align with how we want to live.

Brian Knutson’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-knutson-8b87762a5/ 

Brian Knutson’s Lab Website: https://spanlab.stanford.edu/people/brian-knutson/ 

Katia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/  

Podcast Contact: [email protected] 

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ 

In this week’s episode, Julie and Adani chat with Tamar Schapiro, professor of philosophy at MIT! Tamar is interested in a wide range of things, from what it means to make good decisions in everyday life to ethical theory and the history of ethics (especially Kant and the British Moralists). We discussed Tamar’s work on why we treat children differently from adults, dig into whether and how reactivity might be the root of all evil, and close with some practical life advice based on Tamar’s own journey through philosophy and life!

Tamar’s faculty webpage: https://philosophy.mit.edu/schapiro
Tamar’s recent book, Feeling Like It: a Theory of Inclination and Will: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862932.001.0001
Tamar’s paper, Childhood and Personhood: https://access.heinonline.com/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/arz45&i=593

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on The Philosophy of Childhood: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/childhood/ 

Julie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hengj/

Adani: https://www.adaniabutto.com

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]

This week, Katia Kriakova has a conversation with William Damon, a professor at Stanford University. He is one of the world's leading researchers on human development across the lifespan and has pioneered the scientific study of purpose in life. In this conversation, we explore how we can make our own lives more purposeful and expand purpose beyond ourselves.

William Damon’s book on purpose: The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life

William Damon’s paper: The Psychology of Purpose: A Comprehensive Approach

William Damon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdamon/

Katia Kriakova’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/  

Podcast Contact: [email protected] 

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ 

Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanford-psychology-podcast/

This week, Katia has a conversation with Bill Burnett, an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He is the co-founder of Stanford's Life Design Lab and also the co-author of Designing Your Life and How to Live a Meaningful Life.  In this conversation, Bill shares how we can live in alignment with our values and compass, how prototyping can help us embrace uncertainty, and how to design a life that is more meaningful to us. 

Designing Your Life Website: https://designingyour.life/ 

Bill Burnett’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-burnett-4225401/  

Bill Burnett’s Books:

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day

Katia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/  

Podcast Contact: [email protected] 

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ 

Adani chats with Nomisha Kurian, Assistant Professor in Education Studies at the University of Warwick, Associate Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research in Digital Education. Nomisha has been at the forefront of research on children’s safety and well-being, elucidating what it means for up-and-coming AI technologies to support children’s development and align with their best interests. She has also advised the UK Government Open Innovation Team, spearheaded policy briefs, and previously researched children’s rights law at Yale University. We discuss how a recently-viral NYT article relates to Nomisha’s frameworks for developmentally aligned AI, why we should have “critical hope” for the future, and learn more about the exciting things she’ll be releasing later this year!

NYT feature – “What Parents in China See in A.I. Toys”:  https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000010595407/china-ai-toy-chatbot.html 

Nomisha’s framework on developmentally aligned AI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00009-z
Nomisha’s further work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wT89nlAAAAAJ
Nomisha’s children’s book: https://nosycrow.com/book/university-of-cambridge-think-big-artificial-intelligence/ 

Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]

In this episode, Elizabeth chats with Dr. Andrew Lampinen as a part of our Alumni in Industry series. Andrew is currently a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic. Prior to joining Anthropic, he worked as a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, and before that he earned his PhD here at Stanford and researched how humans are able to learn new things rapidly. His work bridges cognitive science and artificial intelligence, often with a focus on how the complex behaviors and representations of models, agents, or humans emerge from their learning experiences or data. In this episode, Dr. Lampinen shares his experiences in academia and industry and offers an insightful perspective on how these two research landscapes may be similar and different. 

Andrew's website: https://lampinen.github.io/

Elizabeth’s: website: imelizabeth.github.io

Elizabeth’s BlueSky: @imelizabeth.bsky.social

Podcast BlueSky @StanfordPsyPod.bsky.social

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]

Adani chats with Cynthia Osborne, Professor at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center. Prof. Osborne’s work focuses on translating developmental science into effective, evidence-based policies for families and young children in the U.S. We discuss what the field of Early Childhood Policy entails, the ongoing work that Prof. Osborne and the Impact Center conduct, and why the first three years of childhood are so critical. Prof. Osborne also tells us about her path into her current work, how she built the Impact Center’s wonderful team, and what advice she would pass on to students seeking to bridge research and policy!

Cynthia Osborne’s page: https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/cynthia-osborne/
Cynthia Osborne’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tRc8EmMAAAAJ
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center: https://pn3policy.org/
Policy Impact Calculator: https://pn3policy.org/policy-impact-calculator/
Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap: https://pn3policy.org/pn-3-state-policy-roadmap-2025/ 

Adani’s website: https://stanford.edu/~aabutto/
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]

This week, Enna chats with Dr. Julia Nolte, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at Tilburg University. Julia’s research examines how information management, risk perception, and decision-making change across adulthood. She is particularly interested in what keeps people, especially older adults, from making well-informed and high-quality decisions, and how we can better support people in making choices that align with their goals and values.

In our conversation, Julia discusses how her early interest in theater sparked her interest in psychology, how she came to study aging and decision-making, and what her work can teach us about information avoidance, decision-making, and the very human challenge of choosing between imperfect options.

Julia’s Website: https://www.julianolte.org/ 

Julia’s X: @Dr_Julia_Nolte

Julia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-nolte-8aa02b158/ 

Julia’s Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361073X.2025.2473849 

Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/ 

Enna’s X: @EnnaYuxuanChen

Podcast Contact: [email protected] 

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ 

Podcast Contact: [email protected] 

In this re-air (but more timely than ever!) episode from 2021, Anjie chats with Alison Gopnik, Professor at the Department of Psychology and Affiliate Professor at Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Alison is not only a great cognitive scientist and philosopher who has made many groundbreaking contributions to the field, but also a great science communicator. Alison authored multiple bestselling books, including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, The Gardener, and the Carpenter. She also writes widely about cognitive science and psychology for multiple national outlets including the NYT, the Atlantic, and so on. In this episode, we discussed one of her recent review pieces on the role of childhood in solving the explore-exploit dilemma, a challenge to contemporary artificial intelligence.

Alison's lab website: https://www.gopniklab.berkeley.edu/
Alison's paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0502
Alison's Twitter: @AlisonGopnik

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]

Adani chats with Elizabeth Bonawitz, Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth’s work focuses on basic theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. She uses computational, behavioral, and neural methods to study a broad variety of things within cognitive development, from children’s curiosity and belief revision to their exploration and play. We discuss Elizabeth’s view of cognitive development research and, most importantly, the secret formula behind her great academic paper titles and funny talks. Elizabeth also tells us about her path into science and what she’s most excited for next!

Elizabeth’s lab page: https://ccdlab.hsites.harvard.edu/people/elizabeth-bonawitz
Elizabeth’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MA7j1gkAAAAJ
Susan Carey’s paper, ‘Science Education as Conceptual Change’: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00046-5

Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) [email protected]