We have been making progress in incorporating emotional responses into measures of public perceptions to predict behavior. On this episode, we talk with Tomas Gonsorcik, Global Chief Strategy Officer at DDB Worldwide, about innovations in considering how what we feel says something about what we tend to think and do. 

Whenever we use the Internet, we potentially share personal data in exchange for information that can, in turn, shape future information presented to us. What are the implications of that arrangement for society? On this episode, we talk with Jose Marichal, professor at California Lutheran University and author of the new book, You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem: Renegotiating the Socio-Technical Contract.

How we talk about suicide matters. How we talk about prevention and support also matters. On this episode, we talk with Aurora Occa of the University of Kentucky about her work to help college students by considering how we frame opportunities for support.

We hear often hear about stress and burnout in healthcare. We don’t hear as often about kindness. What roles could kindness play in the future of our healthcare system? On this episode, we talk with Nora Jones of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the Pincus Foundation about evidence that kindness matters in serving patients and promoting wellbeing.  

How to be a good parent has been a topic of conversation for decades but raising children now includes online influences as well. How is the Internet shaping how we think about parenting? On this episode, we talk with Ranjana Das of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. She is author of Parents Talking Algorithms: Navigating Datafication and Family Life in Digital Societies.

Even as people use online technologies in their everyday lives, they sometimes worry about potential pitfalls, including concerns about trusting other people. On this episode, we talk with two innovators who are seeking to improve public health by improving transparency in sexual relationships through a new platform called PlumCheck: Celine Gounder of the Kaiser Family Foundation and CBS News, and Josh Karetny, CEO of the new platform.

As we seek to know ourselves, who should help us with that exploration? Many different perspectives on empirical research,  philosophy, and contemplation can be helpful as we try to understand our minds and ourselves. On this episode, we talk with Vladimir Miskovic, co-author of DREAMING REALITY: How Neuroscience and Mysticism Can Unlock the Secrets of Consciousness with Steven Jay Lynn.

Local public health workers help communities all over the country. Who helps them do their work? On this episode, we talk with two people who have spent time supporting public health in Western North Carolina with compelling new innovations to improve communication about local health: Adrienne Ammerman, founder of Arclet, and Brandon Romstadt of the WNC Health Network. 

How should we support people facing mental health challenges? The Ad Council -- the same organization which introduced us to Smokey Bear over 80 years ago -- has some answers with their latest evidence-based campaign: Love, Your Mind. On this episode, we talk with Catherine Chao, Vice President of Strategy and Evaluation at the Ad Council. 

Artificial intelligence tools have been in the headlines and yet we are still learning who opts to use such tools and why. On this episode, we talk with David Playfoot of Swansea University in the United Kingdom about his work on student use of AI tools.