Hidden Brain
Episodes
An Update from Shankar
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been five years since we launched this podcast. Today, we want to take a moment to thank the many people who’ve helped us over the years. And...
Laughter: The Best Medicine
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you listen closely to giggles, guffaws, and polite chuckles, you can discern a huge amount of information about people and their relationships with...
The Halo Effect
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Judy, Lyn and Donna Ulrich were driving to a volleyball game when their Ford Pinto was hit from behind by a Chevy van. The Pinto caught fire, and the ...
Why Nobody Feels Rich
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever flown in economy class on a plane, you probably had to walk through the first class cabin to get to your seat. Maybe you noticed the ex...
The Fee-for-Service Monster
07 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The United States spends trillions of dollars on healthcare every year, but our outcomes are worse than those of other countries that spend less money...
You 2.0: Empathy Gym
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some people are good at putting themselves in another person's shoes. Others may struggle to relate. But psychologist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy i...
You 2.0: WOOP, WOOP!
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
American culture is all about positive affirmations. Dream big! Shoot for the stars! But do positive fantasies actually help us achieve our goals? Thi...
You 2.0: Loss And Renewal
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maya Shankar was well on her way to a career as a violinist when an injury closed that door. This week, as part of our annual You 2.0 series on person...
You 2.0: The Mind's Eye
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some challenges feel insurmountable. But psychologist Emily Balcetis says the solutions are often right in front of our eyes. This week, as part of ou...
You 2.0: Our Pursuit of Happiness
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. No matter how hard you try to get happier, you end up back where you started. What's going o...
Edge Effect
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Untold Story Of Lyndie B. Hawkins
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, a novel by a new author, Gail Shepherd, arrived in bookstores. The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins tells the story of a young white girl gr...
Romeo & Juliet In Rwanda
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How do you change someone's behavior? Most of us would point to education or persuasion. But what if the answer lies elsewhere? This week, we revisit ...
The Night That Lasted A Lifetime
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Not long after his sixteenth birthday, Fred Clay was arrested for the murder of a cab driver in Boston. Eventually, Fred was found guilty — but only...
The Founding Contradiction
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." These words, penned by Thomas Jefferson more than 240 years ago, ...
Buy, Borrow, Steal
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Policymakers have a tried-and-true game plan for jump-starting the economy in times of severe recession: Push stimulus packages and lower interest rat...
A Rap on Trial
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few weeks, the nation has been gripped by protests against police brutality toward black and brown Americans. The enormous number of demon...
The Air We Breathe
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump said this week that a few "bad apples" were to blame for police killings of black people. But research suggests that somethi...
Playing Favorites
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If we do a favor for someone we know, we think we've done a good deed. What we don't tend to ask is: Who have we harmed by treating this person with m...
Justifying The Means
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When we are asked to make a moral choice, many of us imagine it involves listening to our hearts. To that, philosopher Peter Singer says, "nonsen...
The Time Machine
30 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In recent months, many of us have looked back with longing at our lives before COVID-19. For many of us, that world was one of bustle and activity —...
The People Like Us
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Far from being "the great equalizer," COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened and killed African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. Many of ...
Our Better Angels
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the months since the spread of the coronavirus, stories of selfishness and exploitation have become all too familiar: people ignoring social distan...
A Hidden Brain Commencement Address
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Commencement ceremonies allow us to take stock of what we've accomplished and where we're headed. This is one of the key opportunities that students a...
The Dramatic Cure
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In recent months, many of us have become familiar with the sense of fear expressing itself in our bodies. We may feel restless or physically exhausted...
The Choices Before Us
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An abundance of choices is a good thing, right? In the United States, where choice is often equated with freedom and control, the answer tends to be a...
Starving The Watchdogs
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amidst the confusion and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have sought out a long-trusted lifeline: the local newspaper. Though the value of ...
A Social Prescription
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Confined to our homes, many of us are experiencing a newfound appreciation for our social relationships. What we may not realize — and what physicia...
Sex Machines
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From stone statues to silicone works of art, we have long sought solace and sex from inanimate objects. Time and technology have perfected the artific...
Playing Tight And Loose
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We all know people who prefer to follow the rules, and others who prefer to flout them. Psychologist Michele Gelfand defines these two ways of being a...
Close Enough: Living Through Others
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A silver lining of social distancing: you may have more time and space to pursue the projects you've bookmarked on your web browser. Whether your goal...
An Unfinished Lesson
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A virus is more than a biological organism. It's a social organism. It detects fissures in societies and fault lines between communities. Historian Na...
Panic In The Street
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It sounds like a movie plot: police discover the body of a young man who's been murdered. The body tests positive for a deadly infectious disease. Aut...
The Bomb That Didn't Explode
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We know that we live in an ever-changing world, but one thing we often overlook is demographic change. Whether the world's population is growing or sh...
The Tale of the Cowboy Philosopher
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2009, an old man died in a California nursing home. His obituary included not just his given name, but a long list of the pseudonyms he'd been know...
The Influence You Have
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Liar, Liar, Liar
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Editor’s note: Since this episode first aired, researchers have raised concerns about a number of studies authored by Dan Ariely, including one cite...
Passion Isn't Enough
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many Americans feel an obligation to keep up with political news. But maybe we should be focusing our energies elsewhere. Political scientist Eitan He...
When Things Click
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There can be a lot of psychological noise involved in teaching. But what if we replaced all that mental clutter...with a click? This week, we bring yo...
Secret Friends
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Where is the line between what is real and what is imaginary? It seems like an easy question to answer: if you can see it, hear it, or touch it, then ...
Warnings, Warnings Everywhere
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Emotional Currency
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What's the point of money? The answer might seem obvious: we need it to get paid for our work, and to buy the things we need. But there's also a deepe...
On The Knife's Edge
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What would drive someone to take another person's life? When researchers at the University of Chicago asked that question, the answer was a laundry li...
Creatures Of Habit
30 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the year, many of us make resolutions for the months to come. We resolve to work out more, procrastinate less, or save more money....
Why We Love Surprises
23 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we fall for surprise endings? It turns out that our capacity to be easily fooled in books and movies is made possible by a handful of predictab...
Did That Really Happen?
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our memories are easily contaminated. We can be made to believe we rode in a hot air balloon or kissed a magnifying glass — even if those things nev...
Zipcode Destiny
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's a core belief embedded in the story of the United States — the American Dream. Today we look at the state of that dream as we revisit our 20...
In The Heat Of The Moment
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a fit of anger or in the grip of fear, many of us make decisions that we never would have anticipated. This week, we look at situations that make u...
Counting Other People's Blessings
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Envy is one of the most unpleasant of all human emotions. It also turns out to be one of the most difficult for researchers to study. And yet, there's...
The Ventilator
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us believe we know how we'd choose to die. We have a sense of how we'd respond to a diagnosis of an incurable illness. This week, we have the ...
Hungry, Hungry Hippocampus
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anyone who's tried (and failed) to follow a diet knows that food is more than fuel. This week, we revisit our 2018 episode about the psychology behind...
The Talk Market
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can we affect the rise and fall of the economy? This week on Hidden Brain, we talk with Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller about the powerfu...
BS Jobs
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 Monkey Marketplace
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What makes the mind of a human different from that of other animals? Psychologist Laurie Santos says we can't know the answer to that question if we o...
The Lonely American Man
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Boys get the message at a young age: don't show your feelings. Don't rely on anyone. This week, we bring you a favorite 2018 episode about misguided n...
Screaming Into The Void
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Turn on the news or look at Twitter, and it's likely you'll be bombarded by outrage. Many people have come to believe that the only way to spark chang...
Baby Talk
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Babies are speaking to us all the time, but most of us have no clue what they're saying. To researchers, though, the babbling of babies is knowable, p...
We're All Gonna Live Forever!
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we spoke with psychologist Sheldon Solomon about the fear of death and how it shapes our actions. This week, we pivot from psychology and p...
We're All Gonna Die!
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Death may be inescapable, but we do our best to avoid thinking about it. Psychologist Sheldon Solomon says we're not very successful though. This week...
You Can't Hit Unsend
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Social media sites offer quick and easy ways to share ideas, crack jokes, find old friends. They can make us feel part of something big and wonderful...
You 2.0: Decide Already!
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the last episode in our You 2.0 series, we bring you a favorite conversation with Harvard researcher Dan Gilbert. He explains why we're bad at pre...
You 2.0: Deep Work
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When your phone buzzes or a notification pops up your screen, do you stop what you're doing to look and respond? That's what many of us are doing. Eve...
You 2.0: Rebel With A Cause
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Editor's note, December 6, 2024: Since we first published this episode with Francesca Gino in 2018, other researchers have raised concerns about the i...
You 2.0: Our Better Nature
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 bui...
You 2.0: Tunnel Vision
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When you're hungry, it can be hard to think of anything other than food. When you're desperately poor, you may constantly worry about making ends meet...
You 2.0: The Empathy Gym
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Some people are good at putting themselves in another person's shoes. Others may struggle to relate. But psychologist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy i...
Facts Aren't Enough
22 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes when we believe something, we resist data that can change our minds. This week, we look at how we rely on the people we trust to shape what ...
Finding Your Voice
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At some point in our lives, many of us realize that the way we hear our own voice isn't the way others hear us. This week on Hidden Brain, we look at ...
The Fox And The Hedgehog
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote that "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." This week, we'll use the metaphor o...
I Buy, Therefore I Am
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
All of us are surrounded by brands. Designer brands. Bargain-shopper brands. Brands for seemingly every demographic slice among us. But have you ever ...
The Lazarus Drug
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
More than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2017 — many of them from heroin and other opioids. One of the most widely-used tools to confront t...
Our Animal Instincts
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Does living with animals really make us healthier? Why do we eat some animals and keep others as pets? This week on Hidden Brain, we talk with psychol...
Me, Myself, and IKEA
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Are women named Virginia more likely to move to Virginia? Are people with the last name of Carpenter more likely to be carpenters? This week on Hidden...
People Like Us
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Generations of Americans have struggled against segregation. Most of us believe in the ideal of a colorblind society. But what happens when that idea...
More Divided Than Ever?
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us intuitively feel that the bitter partisanship of American politics is bad for our nation. So should we be concerned about the health of our...
Losing Face
20 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It happens to all of us: someone recognizes you on the street, calls you by name, and says hello. You, meanwhile, have no idea who that person is. Res...
What's Not On The Test
13 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Smarts matter. But other factors may play an even bigger role in whether someone succeeds. This week, we speak with Nobel Prize-winning economist Jame...
Creating God
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you've taken part in a religious service, have you ever stopped to think about how it all came to be? How did people become believers? Where did th...
A Dramatic Cure
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Placebos belong in clinical trials, not in the doctor's office. That's the conventional wisdom, anyway. This week, we ask what placebos might teach us...
Why No One Feels Rich
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever flown in economy class on a plane, you probably had to walk through the first class cabin to get to your seat. Maybe you noticed the ex...
The Sorting Hat
15 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The desire to find our tribe is universal. We like to know who we are and where we belong. This fascination has led to a thriving industry built on th...
Radically Normal
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For generations, living openly as a gay person in the United States was difficult, and often dangerous. But there's been a dramatic change in public a...
Don't Panic!
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chaos is a part of all of our lives. Sometimes we try to control it. And other times, we just have to live with it. On this week's Hidden Brain, we br...
What Twins Tell Us
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Twin studies aren't just for twins. They're a paradigm for all of us, a way to explore an old question: how much are we shaped by our genes, and how m...
Never Go To Vegas
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
All social classes have unspoken rules. From A-list celebrities to teachers, doctors, lawyers, and journalists — there are social norms that govern ...
Unreal Sex
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From stone statues to silicone works of art, we have long sought solace and sex from inanimate objects. Time and technology have perfected the artific...
For Sale, By Owner
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You own your body. So should you be able to sell parts of it? This week, we explore the concept of "repugnant transactions" with the man who...
Radio Replay: Playing The Gender Card
01 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Annie Duke was about to win $2 million. It was 2004, and she was at the final hand of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. But as a woma...
Better Than Cash
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our modern world is saturated with awards. From elementary school classrooms to Hollywood to the hallways of academia, there's no shortage of prizes. ...
Emma, Carrie, Vivian
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The eugenicists were utopians, convinced that they were doing hard but necessary things. And that included making decisions about who could have child...
Close Enough
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today, more and more of us are living through the people on our screens and in our headphones. It's not real, but for many of us, it's close enough.
One Head, Two Brains
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we search for the answer to a deceptively simple question: why is the brain divided? Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist explains why popular dis...
Radio Replay: Creative Differences
01 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when we connect with people whose view of the world is very different from our own? We look at the links between diversity, conflict, and...
Rewinding & Rewriting
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
All of us think back to turning points in our lives, and imagine how things could have unfolded differently. Why do we so often ask ourselves, "W...
The Vegetable Lamb
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We like to think that science evolves in a way that is...rational. But this isn't always the case. This week, we look at how information and misinform...
The Best Medicine
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, a scientific look at what makes us laugh. Here's a hint — a lot of it isn't funny. We talk to neuroscientist (and stand up comedian) Soph...
The Cowboy Philosopher
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2009, an old man died in a California nursing home. His obituary included not just his given name, but a long list of the pseudonyms he'd been kno...
Loss and Renewal
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Maya Shankar was well on her way to an extraordinary career as a violinist when an injury closed that door. She eventually found a new path forward in...
Compassion
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we look at the science of compassion, and why doing good things for others can make a big difference in your own life.
Radio Replay: Yum and Yuck
21 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We dig into the psychology that determines the foods that make us salivate and the scents that make us squirm.