The Behavioral Design Podcast

In this episode, we speak with Ashley Whillans on time and how to spend it well ⏰.

Ashley is a Professor at Harvard and author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life. She's got a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and is an expert on time and how to spend it well. Her research investigates whether and how intangible incentives, such as experiential and time-saving rewards, affect employee motivation and well-being. She also works with organizations to help employees overcome time stress and thrive in their lives in and outside of the workplace.

In this episode, we have a fun conversation with Ashley about her book, including discussing her research on people's perception of time and decision making, how to design better products and services based on these insights, and how to best decline an invitation (you're welcome). We hope you enjoy the episode!

Relevant links

Missed Habit Day? No worries, here's link to the full event recording.

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The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro. 

In this episode, we're speaking with behavioral science superstar Katy Milkman ⭐️

Katy has one of the most impressive resumes in the field – She's a professor at UPenn, Co-founder of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative with Angela Duckworth, Host of Choiceology podcast (much more refined than ours), and Author of a new book: How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

Some of our favorite research from Katy includes Fresh Start Effect, Temptation Bundling, Implementation Intentions, and most recently, she's pioneered the mega-study (what works to promote exercise, vaccination)

In this episode, we have a fun conversation with Katy about her book, including discussing personalization, temptation bundling, and what type of interventions are most effective. We also talk about her recent study on regret lotteries in Philly + much more! 

Relevant links

Katy's Research

Support the podcast by joining Habit Weekly Pro 🚀 and by giving us a review on Apple Podcast. Thanks!

The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro. 

We're back with Season 2 - yay! We start the new season with a bang as our first guest is none other than Emily Oster. 🎉 

Besides being Aline's favorite person to follow, Emily is an economics professor at Brown University and a thought-leader on data-driven parenting. She has written several best-selling books on pregnancy and parenting, all centered around a specific goal: creating a world of more relaxed pregnant women and parents.

In this episode, we have a fun conversation with Emily about her latest book, The Family Firm (out today!). We learn about her fantastic 4 Fs framework, discuss salience of risk and how that impacts decision-making, learn what science communication often gets wrong, AND why Summersalt swimwear is underrated.

Relevant links

Support the podcast by joining Habit Weekly Pro 🚀 and by giving us a review on Apple Podcast. Thanks!

The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro. 

We've reached the end of season 1 - yay! 🎉 In this finale, we sit down and nerd out about all things behavioral as Aline is welcomed back from her baby cave. We explore the growing landscape of behavioral associations, the recent attempts to incentivize vaccine uptake, we languish on languishing, talk faulty risk perceptions, and, our course, complete a final round of overrated vs. underrated. 

Relevant links

Recently launched behavioral associations and groups (and their abbreviations):  

Vaccination uptake

Flourishing & languishing

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The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

Matt Johnson is a professor, researcher, and writer specializing in the application of neuroscience and psychology to the business world and Prince Ghuman is an experienced marketer with great experience of applying neuroscience to marketing and business strategy. Together they've written the book Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brain.

In this episode, we have a fun conversation with Matt and Prince about what the heck "Blindsight" is and what it has to do with decision-making, we dive into the ethics around using behavioral science for good (and for less obviously good “marketing” purposes) and how we can solve the thorny problem of tech addiction.

Links and resources:

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The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

*This episode was recorded in Q1 of 2021

Kelly Peters is the CEO and Co-founder of BEworks, and one of the leading voices in the world of Applied Behavioral Economics. Kelly has done some fantastic work in the field and she's a firm believer that when applied properly, scientific thinking has the power to transform society. 

In this episode, Kelly shares her journey into behavioral economics, how BEworks approach their client work, challenges related to COVID-19, and much more. Hope you enjoy the episode!

Links and resources:

Support the podcast by joining Habit Weekly Pro 🚀

The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

*This episode was recorded in Q1 of 2021

Maya Shankar is the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and previously served as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House's Behavioral Science Team. For good measure, she also served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations. Most recently, Maya launched "A Slight Change of Plans," a fantastic new podcast with Pushkin Industries.

In this episode, Maya shares her journey into behavioral science and highlights along the way, including the importance of her mentors, reminiscing about her time leading the White House's Behavioral Science Team, and whether it's harder to change minds or change behaviors. 

Links and resources:

Support the podcast by joining Habit Weekly Pro 🚀

The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

Logan Ury is a behavioral scientist-turned dating coach and Hinge’s Director of Relationship Science. She recently published How to Not Die Alone – a fantastic book on the surprising science that will help you find love. 

We speak about all things behavioral science and modern love, including how Hinge designs the app to be deleted and common cognitive biases in dating. We also talk about how Logan became the lead of Google’s behavioral science and was later able to build a successful career combining her passion for behavioral science and relationship science. Hope you love it!

Links and resources:

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The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

Interested in learning more about how Behavioral Economics can be used in practice? Great, this episode is for you! It features a fun conversation with Melina Palmer, one of the leading experts in applied Behavioral Economics. Melina is the founder and CEO of the Brainy Business, teaches Applied BE at Texas A&M University and recently published her first book, What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You. 

We speak about her journey and how she built her Brainy Business podcast and community, how she supports her clients to ask better questions, important principles regarding pricing, and we talk cookies! Enjoy! 🍪

Links and resources:

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The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.

This episode features an insightful conversation with decision-making rockstar Annie Duke. Annie barely needs an introduction, she's the best-selling author of Thinking in Bets, and most recently, How to Decide. She has made it her pursuit to help us understand how we make decisions and provide us with concrete steps and tools for improving our decision making process. 

We cover several interesting topics, including Annie's journey from academia, to professional poker, to consulting and back to research. We also cover why it's so difficult to update our beliefs, why we should hone our archer's mindset, and much more. The episode even includes a special guest. Enjoy!

Links and resources:

Philip Tetlock's work

Support the podcast by joining Habit Weekly Pro 🚀

The song used is Murgatroyd by David Pizzaro.