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Hidden Brain
Description

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.

Episodes
  • 2025 / 5 / 12
    Forget About It!

    Forgetting something — whether it's a colleague's name or where we put our keys — can be deeply frustrating. This week, psychologist Ciara Greene helps us explore the science of forgetting. We look at why our...

  • 2025 / 5 / 5
    How to Harness Your Feelings

    Do you feel like you control your emotions, or do your emotions control you? What scientists call "emotion regulation" turns out to be one of the most important life skills we can possess. It's essential in...

  • 2025 / 4 / 28
    Relationships 2.0: Keeping Love Alive

    There's no magic potion that can make someone adore you. But there are things you can do to promote a deep and enduring connection — and even feelings of passion — between yourself and your partner. In the...

  • 2025 / 4 / 21
    Relationships 2.0: Why Did You Do That? + Your Questions Answered: Fred Luskin on Grudges

    As we go through life, we’re constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. Psychologist Liane Young says this ability to assess other people’s thoughts ​is an extraordinary feat...

  • 2025 / 4 / 14
    Relationships 2.0: The Power of Tiny Interactions + Your Questions Answered: Erica Bailey on Authenticity

    As you go about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. These relationships can help you feel cared for and connected. But what if there’s a whole category of people in your life...

  • 2025 / 4 / 7
    Relationships 2.0: Become a Better Negotiator

    When we head into a negotiation — whether we're asking for a raise or trying to get our spouse to do the dishes — our focus is usually on getting the other person to agree to our preferred outcome. What we...

  • 2025 / 3 / 31
    Relationships 2.0: The Price of Disconnection

    All of us want to "seen" by the people around us. We want to be recognized as unique individuals. Yet the experience of being seen in this way can be dispiritingly rare. This week, we kick off our...

  • 2025 / 3 / 24
    The Moments that Change Us

    Often in life, we find ourselves wrestling with a decision. But in running these mental calculations, there's something we rarely consider about the future: we might not be the same person when we get there....

  • 2025 / 3 / 10
    When To Pivot

    When should you stay the course in life, and when should you shift with changing tides? This week, we bring you case studies from the world of business to explore the science of inflection points — changes...

  • 2025 / 3 / 3
    Dropping the Mask

    Have you ever downplayed some aspect of your identity? Maybe you don’t hide it, but you don’t bring it up with certain people, either. It turns out that these subtle disguises can have powerful effects on...

  • 2025 / 2 / 24
    Marching To Your Own Drummer

    What would you have done? It's one of the most enduring questions in psychology. We all like to think that in a moment of crisis, we'd rise to the occasion and show courage. And yet many of us have had...

  • 2025 / 2 / 17
    The Conversations that Bring Us Closer

    Last week on the show, we looked at the science of conversation, and how even ordinary chats can involve a delicate dance of coordination. This week, we explore the discussions we all dread: the tough ones....

  • 2025 / 2 / 10
    We Need to Talk

    Just because we’ve been doing something for a long time doesn’t mean we’re doing it right. One part of our lives where this may be particularly true is when we're talking with others. This week, we bring you...

  • 2025 / 1 / 27
    Wellness 2.0: The Art of the Unknown

    "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." It's been 45 years since John Lennon sang that line, yet it's an idea that continues to speak to an uncomfortable truth. While we all like...

  • 2025 / 1 / 20
    Wellness 2.0: When It's All Too Much

    It’s no exaggeration to say that the world in 2025 can be ... a lot. Sometimes it may seem that tuning it all out is our only option. This week on Hidden Brain, we talk with researcher Sarah Jaquette Ray...

  • 2025 / 1 / 13
    Wellness 2.0: Who Do You Want To Be?

    We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. Parents and peers influence our major life choices, but they can also steer us in directions that leave us deeply...

  • 2025 / 1 / 6
    Wellness 2.0: Rising to the Occasion

    From time to time, all of us are called upon to do hard or even seemingly impossible things. Do we rise to the occasion, or do we fall short? Today on the show, we examine the psychology of pushing through a...

  • 2024 / 12 / 30
    Wellness 2.0: Be Yourself

    We’re often drawn to people who appear to be true to themselves. Yet showing our authentic selves to the world can be terrifying. This week, we kick off 2025 with a new series, “Wellness 2.0.” We’ll go beyond...

  • 2024 / 12 / 23
    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...

  • 2024 / 12 / 16
    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...

  • 2024 / 12 / 9
    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. It’s how we show we care about them. So why is it so hard to find the right gift?...

  • 2024 / 12 / 2
    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...

  • 2024 / 11 / 25
    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...

  • 2024 / 11 / 18
    Emotions 2.0: The Logic of Rage

    Neuroscientist Doug Fields was on a trip to Europe when a pickpocket stole his wallet. Doug, normally mild-mannered, became enraged — and his fury turned him into a stranger to himself. This week, we revisit...

  • 2024 / 11 / 11
    Emotions 2.0: What's Better than Being Happy?

    Many of us go to great lengths to be happy. But is our singular focus on feeling good actually making us miserable? This week, psychologist Jordi Quoidbach explores what happens when we try to live in an...

  • 2024 / 11 / 4
    Emotions 2.0: The Benefits of Mixed Emotions

    Sometimes we feel just one single feeling with overwhelming force. We're joyously happy. We're crushingly sad. But sometimes it's more complicated than that: We feel happy and sad at the same time. This week,...

  • 2024 / 10 / 28
    Emotions 2.0: The Feeling that Moves Us Forward

    For centuries, philosophers and theologians have warned about the dangers of pride and hubris. It’s an emotion that can make us arrogant, egotistical, and reckless. But psychologist Jessica Tracy suggests...

  • 2024 / 10 / 21
    Emotions 2.0: When I Feel What You Feel

    This week, we kick off our new series, Emotions 2.0, with a special double episode about the emotions we experience with other people. We often think that emotions like happiness or sadness live inside our...

  • 2024 / 10 / 14
    How to Win People Over

    We humans are a social species, and so it's not surprising that we care a lot about what other people think of us. It's also not surprising that many of us stumble when we try to manage others' views of us....

  • 2024 / 10 / 7
    What's Hidden in Your Words

    I. Me. My. You. He. She. They. It. To. Of. For. These are all words we use without a second thought. But psychologist James Pennebaker says if we pay close attention to the patterns in speech and writing, we...

  • 2024 / 9 / 30
    Sitting With Uncertainty

    It can sometimes be exciting when we don't know what's coming next. Other times, the unknown can be deeply troubling. This week, we talk with researcher Dannagal Goldthwaite Young about how we respond to...

  • 2024 / 9 / 23
    Rewrite Your Money Story

    Money worries are one of the biggest sources of anxiety in our lives. Psychologist Brad Klontz says these worries are shaped by more than the number in our bank accounts — they’re often driven by our...

  • 2024 / 9 / 16
    You 2.0: Fighting Despair

    Every morning, you wake up and face the world. What does it look like to you? Do you see a paradise of endless opportunities, where people are friendly and helpful? Or a world filled with injustice, where...

  • 2024 / 9 / 9
    You 2.0: Remember More, Forget Less

    It happens to the best of us — we blank on someone's name, or forget an important meeting, or bomb a test we thought we'd ace. In this week's installment of our You 2.0 series, we talk to cognitive scientist...

  • 2024 / 9 / 2
    You 2.0: How To Say No

    Saying no to someone who asks for something is often easier said than done. Maybe it's a boss who wants you to take on a new assignment. Or your kid's teacher, seeking volunteers for a field trip. Or a friend...

  • 2024 / 8 / 26
    You 2.0: Taking Control of Your Time

    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 feel like we're letting someone down. But what if there...

  • 2024 / 8 / 19
    You 2.0: The Gift of Other People

    Are you someone who strikes up a conversation with the person next to you on the train? Or do you keep your eyes fixed on your phone? Do you offer gratitude to friends and family? Or do you assume that they...

  • 2024 / 8 / 12
    You're Not the Boss of Me!

    Whether in your personal life or at work, you've probably experienced what it’s like to have people reject your requests. To be told that what you want is unfair, or heavy-handed. And you've likely been in...

  • 2024 / 8 / 5
    The Cure for Self-Importance

    When we meet new people, we’re often drawn to those with a commanding presence or a dazzling personality. But it turns out that a very different trait — humility — is important in the long term. This week, in...

  • 2024 / 7 / 29
    Where Truth Lies

    When we think about misinformation, we often focus on blatant errors or deliberate attempts to deceive us. But in recent years, social scientists have found that misinformation comes in many flavors — many of...

  • 2024 / 7 / 22
    How To Be Alone

    We're always told to reach for that next ring, work that third job, go to that boisterous party after a long day at work. You only live once ... right? But psychologist Netta Weinstein says that when we...

  • 2024 / 7 / 15
    Changing Our Mental Maps

    As we move through the world, It's easy to imagine we're processing everything that happens around us and then deciding how to respond. But psychologist and neuroscientist Norman Farb says our brains actually...

  • 2024 / 7 / 8
    Out of the Rabbit Hole

    Cognitive scientist Nafees Hamid studies the minds of people drawn to radical or fringe ideas. This week, he takes us on a deep dive into the motivations of people on the brink of extremism — and those who...

  • 2024 / 7 / 1
    Befriending Your Inner Voice

    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 hard to think about anything else. Psychologist Ethan Kross...

  • 2024 / 6 / 24
    Making the World Sparkle Again

    Across every domain of our lives, our minds have a tendency to get accustomed to things. In fact, the brain seems evolutionarily designed to focus on the new and unexpected, on novel threats and...

  • 2024 / 6 / 17
    Our God-Shaped Brains

    Some think of religious faith as just that: a leap of faith. But psychologists are increasingly filling in the gaps in our understanding of how beliefs shape — and are shaped by — the human mind. This week,...

  • 2024 / 6 / 10
    Why You Feel Empty

    Have you ever had an unexplainable feeling of emptiness? Life seems perfect - and yet - something is missing. This week, sociologist Corey Keyes helps us understand where feelings of emptiness come from, how...

  • 2024 / 6 / 3
    Why Trying Too Hard Can Backfire On You

    Thinking is a human superpower. On a daily basis, thinking and planning and effort bring us innumerable benefits. But like all aspects of human behavior, you can sometimes get too much of a good thing. This...

  • 2024 / 5 / 27
    Innovation 2.0: Do Less

    The human drive to invent new things has led to pathbreaking achievements in medicine, science and society. But our desire to create can keep us from seeing one of the most powerful paths to progress:...

  • 2024 / 5 / 20
    Innovation 2.0: Shortcuts and Speed Bumps

    Most of us love to brainstorm with colleagues. But so often, our idea-generating sessions don't lead to anything tangible. Teams fill up walls with sticky notes about creative possibilities and suggestions...