Bella chats with professor Cameron Ellis.

Cameron is an assistant professor in the psychology department at Stanford University, where he leads the Scaffolding of Cognition Team. Cameron’s research focuses on understanding the infrastructure of human cognition and how it’s constructed during infancy. In other words, what is it like to be an infant? To study this, Cameron and his team use neuroscience and cognitive science methods such as fMRI.

In this episode, Cameron discussed his research in studying infants’ memory and attention, how he overcame the challenges when doing infant fMRI, and directions for his newly formed lab at Stanford. Later on, Cameron also shared personal stories about his background and journey in academia.

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Links:

Cameron’s lab: http://soc.stanford.edu/

Cameron’s Twitter: @CameronTEllis

Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/

Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

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

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Anjie chats with Dr. Wayne Wu. Wanye is an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He works on attention, perception, action, and schizophrenia at the interface between philosophy and cognitive science. In this episode, Wayne shares his recent work “On Attention and Norms: An Opinionated Review of Recent Work”. He also talks about attention in real life – for example, how do we thrive in a world where social media algorithms constantly fight for our attention? Finally, Wayne also shares a preview of his upcoming book Movements of the Mind,  which explores topics related to mental actions. 

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Links:

Wayne’s paper: https://psyarxiv.com/83qva/

Wayne’s twitter: @attninaction

Wayne’s website:https://www.waynewu.net/

Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io

Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

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

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Eric chats with Martha Nussbaum, Distinguished Service Professor in law and philosophy at the University of Chicago. She is one of the most influential philosophers alive and has written about various topics such as Roman philosophy, existentialism, feminism, and emotions. She has won more awards than could be listed here, including the prestigious Berggruen Prize and Holberg Prize. Most recently, she is the author of “Justice for Animals.”

In this chat, Eric asks Martha about what it means to be just to animals. Should we be just to all animals equally? Why can people be so cruel to animals? What do wonder, anger, compassion, and hope have to with animal justice? Can people be too compassionate? Martha talks about Avatar’s role in promoting compassion for animals and gives recommendations for documentaries. Finally, she shares what a day in her life looks like and how she stays so productive.

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Links:

Martha's new book
Martha's faculty page

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

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

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

Eric chats with Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of the Greater Good Science Center. Dacher has worked on many topics such as compassion, power, and social class. He has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to “The Science of Happiness” through his online course and podcast with the same name. He has written multiple best-selling books, most recently on awe.

In this chat, Eric asks Dacher about all things awe, from traveling to psychedelics to Beyonce. Does everyone feel awe? Should everyone feel it? What is the most common form of awe? How can awe help people through grief? What does it have to do with ASMR? Does awe make people naïve? Finally, Dacher shares what it was like to work on movies such as Inside Out and adds some kind words about his former advisor and psychology legend, the late Lee Ross.

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Links:

Dacher's new book on awe
Dacher's website

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

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

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

Anjie chats with Dr. Kimberly Chiew with us. Kimberly is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver. She directs the Motivation, Affect, & Cognition Lab. She is broadly interested in examining affective and motivational influences on goal-directed cognition. In this episode, Kimberly chats bout her paper “Remembering Election Night 2016: Subjective but Not Objective Metrics of Autobiographical Memory Vary with Political Affiliation, Affective Valence, and Surprise”. She also shares how she came up with the idea of this natural experiment, and how different factors such as emotion, or feelings of surprise may influence the way we remember things.

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Links:

Kimberly’s paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-68985-001

Kimberly’s twitter: @kimberlychiew

Kimberly’s lab’s website: http://dumaclab.org/

Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io

Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

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

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

Eric chats with Sa-Kiera Hudson, Assistant Professor at University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business. Kiera studies hierarchies: How hierarchies are formed, how they are maintained, and how they intersect.

In this episode, Eric and Kiera chat about her work on social dominance orientation. Why do some people feel justified to discriminate against minorities? Kiera explains that a desire for social dominance leads to less empathy and more schadenfreude towards minorities. Finally, Kiera shares what it was like working with the late Jim Sidanius, a legend in psychology, and how she stumbled into psychology research.

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Links:

Kiera's pre-print
Kiera's website
Kiera's Twitter @Sakiera_Hudson

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

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

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

Our NEW HOST Xi Jia chats with Dr. Todd Kashdan, Professor of Psychology at George Mason University. Todd leads the Well-Being lab and studies meaning and purpose in life, psychological strengths, psychological flexibility, curiosity, and social relationships.

In this episode, Xi Jia and Todd discussed about Todd's new book, the Art of Insubordination. Todd shared about a formula for being principally rebellious, strategies in dissenting, and ways to cultivate environments where diverse opinions can be heard. According to Todd, this book is for anyone who wants to see more justice, creativity & innovation in the world. Listen to this episode to learn more about both the science and the art of effective dissent and defiance.

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Links:

Todd's book: https://toddkashdan.com/

Todd's Twitter @toddkashdan

Xi Jia's Twitter @LauraXijiaZhou

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

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

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

Anjie chats with Dr. Hu Chuan-Peng, a faculty member of the School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include self-cognition (i.e., how humans process self-related information) and mental health, his team uses three broad approaches: meta-science, modeling, and measurement. In addition, he is also one of the founding members of the Chinese Open Science Network, a grassroots network for promoting awareness of reproducibility and open science in China. In this episode, Chuan-Peng shared how the network was initiated, the events that a network run by volunteers can organize, and lessons learned through promoting open science in a developing country.

If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.

Links:

 Chuan-Peng’s paper: https://psyarxiv.com/ac9by/

Chuan-Peng’s twitter: @hcp4715

Chuan-Peng’s website: https://huchuanpeng.com/

Chinese Open Science Network’s website: https://open-sci.cn/

Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io

Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

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

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

AN INTERACTIVE TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS EPISODE: https://share.descript.com/view/PDj7Wi7M2oS or on OUR SUBSTACK

Eric chats with Delroy Paulhus, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He famously co-created the term dark triad, describing everyday villains: psychopaths, narcissists, and Machiavellians. He and his collaborators have recently added a fourth factor: sadism.

In this episode, Eric and Delroy chat about how these dark personalities manifest in everyday life. How are they similar, and how are they different? How does Delroy study something like sadism in the lab? Where in society do these dark individuals flourish, and do they ever benefit society? Are they more intelligent? Do we have more psychopaths and narcissists among us now than in the past? Finally, Delroy shares if he is still able to see the good in people after studying dark personalities for so long.

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Links:

Interactive transcript

Delroy's review paper

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

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

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

Bella chats with professor Laura Schulz.

Laura is a Professor of Cognitive Sciences in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT. She is also the director and principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab. Laura’s research focuses on understanding the infrastructure of human cognition and how it’s constructed during early childhood. For example, Laura and her lab study children’s causal reasoning, social cognition, emotion understanding, and the connection between play and learning. Laura has also received numerous scientific awards, such as the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology and the National Academy of Sciences Troland Award.

In this episode, Laura shares personal stories about her journey in science and fascinating research projects that she and her students conducted with infants and children over the years. We also discussed the open science online platform for developmental research called Lookit, first developed by Kim Scott, who was one of Laura’s PhD students. 

Laura also shared her vision for gearing the field towards a more open, accessible, and collaborative environment where data sharing is made possible among institutions across continents.

If you find this episode interesting, please leave us a good review on your podcast platform! It only takes a few minutes, but it will allow our podcast to reach more people and hopefully get them excited about psychology and brain sciences.

Links:

Laura’s lab: https://eccl.mit.edu/

Lookit: https://lookit.mit.edu/

Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/

Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

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

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