The Story of Stories
Psychologist Tania Lombrozo discusses the cognitive science behind human explanations, revealing how our instinct to construct narratives aids learning but can…
Podcast
Hidden Brain podcast summaries.
Every full Hidden Brain episode we cover, summarized with verbatim, timestamped quotes: 6 episodes and 24 articles since September 2026. Hosted by Shankar Vedantam. Part of our Science coverage. New summaries every Sunday.
6 episodescovered
24 articleswith timestamped quotes
24 articleswith timestamped quotes
Frequent voices
Do You Have Trouble Sleeping?
Sleep researcher Chris Barnes explains how chronic sleep deprivation impairs cognitive decision-making, fuels unethical conduct, and contributes to industrial…
Why Am I Unhappy?
Shankar Vedantam speaks with psychologist George Loewenstein about the internal psychological mechanisms that undermine human happiness, including hedonic adap…
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Historian Kate Bowler reflects on her stage IV cancer diagnosis, exploring the psychological discomfort society experiences when faced with unexplainable suffe…
How to Make a Difference: Part 2
Psychologist Martin Seligman joins Shankar Vedantam to explore the psychology of human agency and how optimism, efficacy, and imagination can be cultivated. Th…
Blowing Up Your Life
Shankar Vedantam explores how sudden life disruptions and flashes of insight reshape human decision-making and career trajectories. Psychologist Anthony Klotz…