invisibilia

Tiny Desk Concert with DakhaBrakha on April 3, 2015

Music & Culture

Invisibilia Staffers Pick Their 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

7:00am July 24, 2020

by Invisibilia

A hypnotizing mix of music and visuals, plus performances that honor home are two themes that emerge as the team at Invisibilia pick their five favorite Tiny Desk concerts.

A woman with an unlikely superpower â an incredible sense of smell â has inspired a new field of scientific research.

Health & Safety

Her Incredible Sense Of Smell Is Helping Scientists Find New Ways To Diagnose Disease

6:04pm March 23, 2020

Years before he got diagnosed with Parkinson's, Joy Milne noticed her husband's characteristic scent had changed. The discovery that she could smell his illness has opened up a new field of research.

We all walk around the world thinking of ourselves as individuals. But in this short animation, NPR's Invisibilia explores some of the ways in which we're all invisibly connected to one another.

Health & Safety

How Microexpressions Can Make Moods Contagious

2:01pm July 21, 2019

by Liana Simstrom

Feelings seem to spread contagiously between friends, partners or groups. Why are we so easily influenced by one another's emotions? A new video from Invisibilia explains what's going on.

Walter Mischel, a psychologist who devised the marshmallow test, explained what it really means.

Remembrance For Walter Mischel, Psychologist Who Devised The Marshmallow Test

11:44am September 21, 2018

by Julie Carli

Walter Mischel had an idea that became a pop culture touchstone. He wanted to see if preschoolers seated in front of a marshmallow could delay their gratification. What did the experiment really mean?

Invisibilia investigates Richmond's hardcore punk scene and the self-policing that went on there — and what it cost.

Invisibilia: Punks Policing Their Own

8:17am April 13, 2018

by NPR Staff

When someone in your community transgresses, do you banish them? Purge them in an attempt to make the community safer for everyone?

M spends so much time daydreaming that it interferes with her life.

Invisibilia: When Daydreaming Gets In The Way Of Real Life

2:19pm April 05, 2018

by Meredith Rizzo

In this episode of the Invisibilia podcast, our hosts explore how it feels to be "in between," including the story of one woman who spends so much time daydreaming that it interferes with her life.

Xawo Abdi Hassan rehearses her song. Xawo did not win the competition but the show launched her career as a singer.

Music & Culture

Invisibilia: They Risked Their Lives To Bring Music Back

10:40am March 21, 2018

by Alix Spiegel

When Somalia decided to start a reality show with a singing competition, there was a major problem. Singing in public could bring on the wrath of al-Shabab.

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A still from the alien hand syndrome episode of Invisibilia.

'Invisibilia': The Otherworldly Alien Hand Syndrome, Animated

6:00pm February 09, 2018

by Menaka Wilhelm

Imagine trying to play the piano or button a shirt, while one hand does something else, entirely of its own volition. Invisibilia explored this phenomenon. More stories are coming in the new season.

Scientists think that dreams are a form of memory consolidation.

Forget Freud: Dreams Replay Our Everyday Lives

11:42am June 22, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

Sigmund Freud thought dreams were all about wish fulfillment and repressed desire. But scientists now think they're linked to memory processing and consciousness. And they're often quite mundane.

Surgery that severed the connection between brain hemispheres reveals that those halves see the world in vastly different ways.

The Roots Of Consciousness: We're Of Two Minds

10:48pm June 15, 2017

by Kerin Higa

Surgery that severs the link between brain hemispheres reveals that those halves have way different views of the world. We ask a pioneering scientist what that tells us about human consciousness.

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