Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.
507 episodes transcribedWe all face tough decisions in life, whether we're juggling the demands of work and family or deciding whether to take a new job. These situations oft...
Have you ever been falsely accused of something? Many of us think there’s only one way we’d act in such a situation: we’d defend ourselves. We’d do wh...
If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. This week, we revisit a favorit...
Many of us feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. We struggle to make time for all the competing demands at work and at home, and inevitably...
So often, we think we know what other people are thinking. But researchers have found that our attempts at reading other people go wrong more often th...
We like to think that all humans are born with the same core emotions: anger, fear, joy, sadness and disgust. But what if that's not true? This week,...
All of us want to feel safe in our daily lives. Yet when we think about crime, our first response is often a blanket approach: find the bad guys, and...
In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. In this favorite 2021 e...
The pressure. The expectations. The anxiety. If there’s one thing that many of us have in common, it’s the stress that can come from performing in fro...
Some challenges can feel insurmountable. But psychologist Emily Balcetis says the solutions are often right in front of our eyes. This week, as part o...
How well do we know ourselves? Maybe the better question to ask is how well can we truly know ourselves? Psychologist Tim Wilson says introspection on...
You 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 h...
We often assume that we see ourselves and the world around us accurately. But psychologist Alia Crum says that our perceptions are always filtered thr...
We often assume that we see ourselves and the world around us accurately. But psychologist Alia Crum says that our perceptions are always filtered thr...
Have you ever gotten into a heated argument about politics? Maybe you’ve said something you're not proud of during game night with friends, or booed t...
We've all heard the saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But is there any truth to this idea? This week, we explore the concept of post...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Those words, penned by Thomas Jefferson 246 years ago, continue to inspire...
When Paul Burnham was a teenager, he received what felt like a premonition: he would die at the age of 54. Now, he's 54. This week, what his story of...
From the time we are schoolchildren, we are ranked and sorted based on how smart we are. But what if our assumptions about intelligence limit our pote...
