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Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human b

Episodes

Total: 532

Cognitive scientist Nafees Hamid studies the minds of people drawn to radical or fringe ideas. This

You know that negative voice that goes round and round in your head, keeping you up at night? When t

Across every domain of our lives, our minds have a tendency to get accustomed to things. In fact, th

Some think of religious faith as just that: a leap of faith. But psychologists are increasingly fill

Have you ever had an unexplainable feeling of emptiness? Life seems perfect - and yet - something is

Thinking is a human superpower. On a daily basis, thinking and planning and effort bring us innumera

The human drive to invent new things has led to pathbreaking achievements in medicine, science and s

Most of us love to brainstorm with colleagues. But so often, our idea-generating sessions don't lead

Think about the last time you asked someone for something. Maybe you were nervous or worried about w

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that people wrote you off? Maybe a teacher suggeste

Why is it so hard to guess where we're meant to be? To predict where we'll end up? Nearly all of us

If you're a parent or a teacher, you've probably wondered how to balance play and safety for the kid

We've all had those days when all we want is a little treat. Maybe it's a bag of chips, an ice cream

Anthropologist Tom Pearson was devastated after his daughter Michaela was diagnosed with Down syndro

If you've ever taken an economics class, you were probably taught that people are rational. But abou

Have you ever sat across from your spouse, colleague or friend and realized that while they may be h

Many of us believe we know how we’d choose to die. We have a sense of how we’d respond to a diagnosi

A little more than a decade ago, researchers began tracking an alarming trend: a dramatic uptick in

Fear is a normal and healthy response to things that may harm us. But fear can also hold us back fro

Over the past few weeks, we've been exploring the psychology of partisanship, and how to effectively