For many of us, Thanksgiving means spending time with our families and carrying out traditions that we’ve practiced for years.

While it can be very stressful, messy, and challenging to spend time with family members you don’t see very often, it can also be a beautiful time of re-centering.

Traditions serve a psychological function. By repeating the same traditional activity with the same group of people over the years, we construct a chronological record of who we’ve been before – and who we are now. It’s a hidden way of staying in touch with the consistent elements of our identities, and it allows us to track ourselves as we develop and change.

Traditions give us an opportunity to become psychologically close to the person that we used to be in childhood, or adolescence – or even as recently as last year. And that’s something to be thankful for.

As always, Drs. Bob Duke and Art Markman are carving it up.

The post The Psychology of The Holiday Traditions (Rebroadcast) appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

We evolved to believe what we are told, however, we did not evolve in an environment with mass media. This is what makes the spread of misinformation so insidious and effective. In this week’s episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about why we believe lies.

The post Why We Believe Lies appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

There are many ways in which reading enriches our lives, but we may overlook some of the most important. In this week’s episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke conclude their exploration into the psychology of reading.

The post The Psychology of Reading (Part II) appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Many of us enjoy reading novels but rarely do we ask ourselves why we prefer one over another. In this week’s episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of reading.

The post The Psychology of Reading (Part I) appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

You can go to the gym and work out your quads, your biceps, or your balance and isolate those muscle groups to focus on the improvement of those areas of function with work.

So it’s not too far of a stretch to assume if we exercise specific areas of our brains might we see improvement in functions as well, right?  Unfortunately, it’s not quite so simple.

But have so many brain-training systems like Lumosity become so popular?

On this week’s Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke will demystify the process of brain function improvement and illustrate the effectiveness of brain training programs.

The post Brain Games and Learning appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Healing from an injury, suffering a loss, or struggling with a mental illness, can be isolating, and yet many of us don’t take the time or know how to ask about where our friends, colleagues, or loved ones are in their process of healing from or dealing with these challenges; and that’s a problem. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the social components of healing and why they’re important.

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When someone offends you you may think the right thing to do is to confront them in that moment, yet as  Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, it turns out there might be a better and more productive approach.

The post Confronting Offense appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

There is a common misconception that when you’re not succeeding at something all you need to do is put in more effort, when in fact it may be a better option to give up.

In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman,  Dr. Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy explore quitting and how it could be the key to success.

The post In Praise of Quitting appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

It’s much more efficient and effective to type LOL in a text rather than Laugh Out Loud, but can using acronyms excessively be more trouble than it’s worth?

In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman,  Dr. Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy answer a listener’s question about acronyms.

The post Acronyms appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

There are many aspects of healing from an injury other than just the physical element. In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman,  Dr. Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy talk about what Art learned from his recent accident about the psychology of healing from trauma and experiencing pain. 

The post Healing Part II: Trauma and Pain appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.