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Hidden Brain
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Hidden Brain
@HiddenBrain
Exploring the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior | Team: Host and Executive Editor Shankar Vedantam & Executive Producer @taranoelleboyle
- “We don't fully understand the magnitude of the impact that we're having on another person.” We feel good when people are kind to us, yet we underestimate just how powerful our own kindness can be. This week, how to overcome our own failures of kindness. And how doing so can
- We tend to treat forgetting as a flaw, a sign our memory is failing us. Then you meet someone like Jill Price, who can recall nearly every day of her life in vivid detail, including the ones she'd give anything to lose. Her story reveals something strange about the mind:
00:00 - During his first year of college, Stephen Parker was devastated by the loss of a relationship he didn't yet fully understand. One difficult night, a roommate listened with compassion, never pushing him to confront feelings he wasn't ready to face.
- We know kindness is a good thing. So when we think of doing something nice for someone, why do we often hold back? This week, the psychological barriers that stand in the way of helping others.
- “I'm not the first person to suggest that being kind to other people improves wellbeing, and yet we have tons of opportunities to be kind to other people that we don't take advantage of.” We all have moments in our lives when we see someone who could use a helping hand. It could
- We spend so much energy trying to make things comfortable for the people we love. Easy outings, smooth weekends, no friction. But the research on identity fusion suggests something we don't expect: it's often the hard moments we go through together that bind us, not the pleasant
00:00 - After learning she was a candidate for brain surgery, Rebecca Simonitsch boarded a flight home feeling overwhelmed and scared. The stranger beside her turned out to be exactly the person she needed.
- “The mask that I'm wearing at any given moment is not me.” For two decades, Eric Oliver has taught a university class designed to help students answer a big question: who are you? You’re not the same person with your friends as you are with your co-workers or your kids. So, who
- “ We are not nouns. We are verbs. There's no part of us...that's static.” For years, political scientist Eric Oliver searched for a deeper understanding of who he really was, through relationships, therapy, and personal achievement. Instead of finding one clear and consistent
- As a new mom, Missy Nicholson checked herself into a psychiatric ward for depression. During a group session, a fellow patient reached over and held her hand as she cried.
- We’ve all been there. You’re stuck on an impossible problem. Then you go for a walk or a drive or take a shower and —bam!—the solution comes to you in a flash of insight. Why does this happen? What are the mental mechanisms responsible for our most creative moments? This week,
- “There's something about the unconscious that can come up with something that is very pure, very beautiful.” You know those eureka moments, when an idea hits you like a bolt of lightning? Where do those ideas come from? This week, the science of inspiration.
