Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
475 episodes transcribed"Be the change you wish to see in the world." It's a popular quote that's made its way onto coffee mugs and bumper stickers — but it's not t...
There is one truth that has endured through the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency: he has kept the support of the core voters who propelled...
We often assume our life experiences are the root of our political ideologies. But what if there is something deeper at play?
When Randy Gardner was 17, he won a world record for going eleven days without sleeping. On this Radio Replay, Randy shares insights from that experie...
After a disaster happens, we want to know whether something could have been done to avoid it. Did anyone see this coming? Many times, the answer is ye...
If you live in a big city, you may have noticed new buildings popping up — a high-rise here, a skyscraper there. The concrete jungles that we've built...
Have you ever had a job where you had to stop and ask yourself: what am I doing here? If I quit tomorrow, would anyone even notice? This week on Hidde...
The simple "to-do" list may be one of humanity's oldest tools for getting organized. But checklists are also proving essential in many moder...
What does it mean to be an original? As part of our summer series, You 2.0, we talk with psychology professor Adam Grant about innovators and the cha...
Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power...right? As part of our summer series, You 2.0, we try to understand why we stick our heads in the sand.
Finding a new job may be the solution to your woes at work. But there may also be other ways to get more out of your daily grind. This week, we talk...
If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. In this month's Radio Replay, w...
Look down at what you're wearing. You picked out that blue shirt, right? And those sandals — you decided on those because they're comfortable, didn't...
There is great comfort in the familiar. It's one reason humans often flock to other people who share the same interests, laugh at the same jokes, hold...
Fake news may seem new, but in reality, it's as old as American journalism. This week, we look at a tension at the heart of news coverage: Should repo...
Why are we so often pulled into memories of the past? This week, two emotions we just can't shake: regret and nostalgia.
As many as 40 percent of students who intend to go to college don't actually show up to their new campuses in the fall. Education researchers call thi...
There can be a lot of psychological noise involved in teaching. But what if we replaced all that mental chit chat....with a click? This week, we explo...
