Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain
  • 5.0 (9)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
Hidden Brain

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Why do I feel stuck? How can I become more creative? What can I do to improve my relationships? If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, you’re not alone. On Hidden Brain, we help you understand your own mind — and the minds of the people around you. (We're routinely rated the #1 science podcast in the United States.) Hosted by veteran science journalist Shankar Vedantam.

  1. How to Be More Creative

    3 DAYS AGO

    How to Be More Creative

    It's happened to all of us: We're in the shower, or on a walk, and boom — a big idea or a brilliant solution appears out of nowhere. These sorts of insights often seem to arise without explanation. But researchers increasingly find there is a science to cultivating creativity. This week, social psychologist Sheena Iyengar shares research and case studies of innovation, and discusses what these examples tell us about the alchemy of creative breakthroughs.

    52 min

  2. 17 DEC • HIDDEN BRAIN+ ONLY

    How To Protect Yourself Online

    Marketers, political campaigns and technology platforms know a great deal about us. They know where we shop, what we buy, and who our friends are. In part two of our conversation with computational social scientist Sandra Matz, we explore the downsides of digital surveillance and why we may need new kinds of interventions to keep ourselves safe.   If you missed part one of our interview with Sandra Matz, it's the episode titled "What Your Online Self Reveals About You," available on the Hidden Brain podcast or at hiddenbrain.org.

    26 min
  3. What Your Online Self Reveals About You

    16 DEC

    What Your Online Self Reveals About You

    Every day, we leave small traces of ourselves online. And we might not realize what these traces say about us. This week, computational social scientist Sandra Matz explores how understanding what we actually do online — not just what we think we do — can help us improve our lives.

    52 min

  4. 14 DEC • HIDDEN BRAIN+ ONLY

    Your Questions Answered: Vanessa Patrick on Saying No

    It’s just a tiny little word, a single syllable. And yet it’s one of the hardest things for most of us to say: no. This week, Vanessa Patrick returns to Hidden Brain to answer your questions about how to turn down requests in a way that preserves relationships. Also, if you missed our initial conversation with Vanessa Patrick, you can find it here: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/you-2-0-how-to-say-no/

    25 min
  5. The Secret to Gift-Giving

    9 DEC

    The Secret to Gift-Giving

    With the holidays fast approaching, many of us are hunting for that special something for the special someones in our lives. So why is it so hard to find the right gift? This week, we revisit a favorite 2022 conversation with researcher Jeff Galak. We'll discuss why the presents we give for holidays and birthdays often miss their mark, and how to become a better gift-giver.

    46 min
  6. How Monsters are Made

    2 DEC

    How Monsters are Made

    What makes ordinary people do evil things? It was a question that long fascinated the psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who died in October. Zimbardo was best known for the controversial Stanford prison experiment, in which he created a simulated prison in the basement of a university building and recruited volunteers to act as prisoners and guards. This week, we explore how Zimbardo came to create one of psychology's most notorious experiments – and inadvertently became the poster child for the human weaknesses he was trying to study.

    47 min
  7. The Power of Family Stories

    25 NOV

    The Power of Family Stories

    There's a tradition around many Thanksgiving dinner tables that's as consistent as stuffing and pumpkin pie: the family stories that get told year after year. Sometimes these stories are funny; sometimes they make us roll our eyes. No matter how we feel about these tales, we rarely pause to consider how they shape who we are and how we view the world. This week, we talk to psychologist Robyn Fivush about the profound impact that family stories can have on our lives.

    57 min

  8. 25 NOV • HIDDEN BRAIN+ ONLY

    How to Bind Your Family Together

    As we heard in part one of our conversation with psychologist Robyn Fivush, the stories that we tell around the dinner table or at family get-togethers can have surprising psychological benefits. In this episode, exclusively for subscribers to Hidden Brain+, we talk with Robyn about the gender dynamics of family narratives, and techniques to elicit stories from parents and children.

    24 min
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5
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Why do I feel stuck? How can I become more creative? What can I do to improve my relationships? If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, you’re not alone. On Hidden Brain, we help you understand your own mind — and the minds of the people around you. (We're routinely rated the #1 science podcast in the United States.) Hosted by veteran science journalist Shankar Vedantam.

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