Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
479 episodes transcribedYou know that negative voice that goes round and round in your head, keeping you up at night? When that negative inner voice gets switched on, it’s ha...
Across every domain of our lives, our minds have a tendency to get accustomed to things. In fact, the brain seems evolutionarily designed to focus on...
Some think of religious faith as just that: a leap of faith. But psychologists are increasingly filling in the gaps in our understanding of how belief...
Have you ever had an unexplainable feeling of emptiness? Life seems perfect - and yet - something is missing. This week, sociologist Corey Keyes helps...
Thinking is a human superpower. On a daily basis, thinking and planning and effort bring us innumerable benefits. But like all aspects of human behavi...
The human drive to invent new things has led to pathbreaking achievements in medicine, science and society. But our desire to create can keep us from...
Most of us love to brainstorm with colleagues. But so often, our idea-generating sessions don't lead to anything tangible. Teams fill up walls with st...
Think about the last time you asked someone for something. Maybe you were nervous or worried about what the person would think of you. Chances are tha...
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that people wrote you off? Maybe a teacher suggested you weren't talented enough to take a certain cl...
Why is it so hard to guess where we're meant to be? To predict where we'll end up? Nearly all of us have had the experience of traveling down one road...
If you're a parent or a teacher, you've probably wondered how to balance play and safety for the kids in your care. You don't want to put children in...
We've all had those days when all we want is a little treat. Maybe it's a bag of chips, an ice cream sundae or a glass of wine. But sometimes, these d...
Anthropologist Tom Pearson was devastated after his daughter Michaela was diagnosed with Down syndrome. When he began to examine that emotional respon...
If you've ever taken an economics class, you were probably taught that people are rational. But about 50 years ago, the psychologists Daniel Kahneman...
Have you ever sat across from your spouse, colleague or friend and realized that while they may be hearing what you're saying, they aren't actually li...
A little more than a decade ago, researchers began tracking an alarming trend: a dramatic uptick in anxiety and depression among young Americans. Psyc...
Over the past few weeks, we've been exploring the psychology of partisanship, and how to effectively handle disagreements with those around us. This w...
We typically divide the country into two distinct groups: Democrats and Republicans. But what if the real political divide in our country isn’t betwee...
Conflicts are inevitable — both at a global scale and in our personal lives. This week, in the latest in our US 2.0 series, psychologist Peter Coleman...
