The Story of Stories

With Shankar Vedantam, Tania Lombrozo, Jonathan Rottenberg · Sunday, November 1, 2026

Psychologist Tania Lombrozo discusses the cognitive science behind human explanations, revealing how our instinct to construct narratives aids learning but can also foster biases, conspiracy theories, and overconfidence. In the episode's second part, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg answers listener questions about depression, challenging the conventional chemical defect model by framing sadness as an evolved adaptive stop system that can alert individuals to life dilemmas.

Listen to the episode ↗On Apple Podcasts ↗All Hidden Brain summaries →More from Science →

Key takeaways

Psychologist Tania Lombrozo describes conspiracy theories as an error of overexplaining, where the mind strings together independent, random events and blames a single intentional group or actor. Read more →
Jurors do not convict by calculating evidentiary probabilities; they build a chronological story and pick whichever narrative flows best. Read more →