Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
507 episodes transcribedLife is often filled with hardships and tragedies. For thousands of years, philosophers have come up with strategies to help us cope with such hardshi...
Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. But psychologist Harry Reis says there’s another ingredient to successful relationships that’s every bit a...
It's 1979, and Wendy is eight years old, crying alone in an airport. Then she sees a woman in white walking towards her.In a few weeks we'll be runnin...
The rift between police and Black Americans can feel impossible to bridge. But in his work with police departments across the U.S., Yale psychologist...
All of us make choices all the time, and we may think we're making those choices freely. But psychologist Eric Johnson says there's an architecture be...
At the beginning of the year, many of us make resolutions for the months to come. We resolve to work out more, to procrastinate less, or to save more...
Justin is sitting on the side of the freeway, hoping someone will help him fix his busted wheel. Right around the time he’s about to give up, a van p...
Bababa, dadada, ahgaga. Got that? Babies are speaking to us all the time, but most of us have no clue what they're saying. To us non-babies, it all so...
We all have times when we feel like a fraud. Psychologist Kevin Cokley studies the corrosive effects of self-doubt, and how we can turn that negative...
It's 1994, and two men corner Leah on a dark street as she's walking home. Then she sees a car, and a glimmer of hope.To hear more stories like this,...
It’s psychologically simpler to see the world in black and white. But reality often comes in shades of gray. This week, how our minds grapple with con...
If you’re working from home, you might be reveling in your daily commute to the dining room table. Or you might be saying, “Get me out of here.” In th...
Tony is angry at his English teacher, Mrs. Holman, for making him stay after class. But on the last day of school, she takes his hand, and tells him s...
Francesca Gino studies rebels - people who practice "positive deviance" and achieve incredible feats of imagination. They know how and when to break r...
Many of us spend our workdays responding to a never-ending stream of emails and texts. We feel stressed out and perpetually behind on our to-do list....
Today we're sharing another episode of our new podcast, My Unsung Hero. To hear more stories like this, subscribe, and enjoy! It's a few days after he...
The world of play and the world of work are often seen as opposites. But they may have more in common than we think. In the second installment of our...
Introducing new ideas is hard. Most of us think the best way to win people over is to push harder. But organizational psychologist Loran Nordgren says...
We’ve grown accustomed to viewing climate change as an enemy we must urgently defeat. But is that the right metaphor for the greatest existential prob...
Today we're sharing another episode of our new podcast, My Unsung Hero. Subscribe, and enjoy! In 2008, while driving to work, Rick Mangnall crashes in...
