Shankar Vedantam

Science

Hidden Brain host Shankar Vedantam previews 'Healing 2.0' and shares what's on his mind

7:00am November 03, 2023

This weekend begins a new five-part series on NPR’s Hidden Brain. The weekly podcast and radio program explores many of the unconscious patterns that drive our behavior.

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Taken in aggregate, the billions of online searches we make every day say a lot about our most private thoughts and biases.

Science

I, Robot: Our Changing Relationship With Technology

5:00pm October 03, 2019

Do you ever catch yourself yelling at your Alexa? Or typing questions into Google that you would never ask aloud? This week, we explore our changing relationship with technology.

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Finding Meaning At Work: How We Shape And Think About Our Jobs

4:56pm September 12, 2019

Finding a new job may be the solution to your woes at work. But there may also be other ways to get more out of your daily grind. This week on Hidden Brain, we explore ways to find meaning at work.

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Fresh Starts: Tales Of Renewal For A New Year

5:51pm December 27, 2018

The turn of the year is a time when we set the old aside and welcomed the new into our lives. When one chapter ends, another begins.

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Researcher Elizabeth Currid-Halkett says celebrity can be boiled down to a simple formula.

Arts

Never Go To Vegas, And Other Unspoken Rules Of Being An A-Lister

9:00pm December 18, 2017

It can seem arbitrary the way certain people fascinate us. But researcher Elizabeth Currid-Halkett says celebrity has a formula. So does being part of any social group — perhaps even your own.

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From sports, to politics, to the stock market, we love to make (and hear) predictions. This week, Hidden Brain explores why the so-called experts are so often wrong, and how we can avoid the common pitfalls of telling the future.

Degrees of Maybe: How We Can All Make Better Predictions

9:00pm June 26, 2017

Pundits and prognosticators make predictions all the time: about everything from elections, to sports, to global affairs. This week, we explore why they're often wrong, and how we can all do better.

A woman wins the lottery not once, not twice, but four times. What are the odds? According to mathematician Joseph Mazur, it depends on how you ask the question.

Science
Arts

Magic, Or Math? The Appeal Of Coincidences, And The Reality

9:00pm May 08, 2017

This week on Hidden Brain: coincidences. Why they're not quite as magical as they seem, and the psychological reasons we can't help but search for meaning in them anyway.

Having a safety net can make us less motivated to achieve our primary goals ... like, for example, preventing our boats from sinking.

Science

The Best-Laid Backup Plans ...

12:03am November 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

This week on Hidden Brain, researcher Katy Milkman explains why backup plans may make us less motivated, Dan Pink is back to discuss moral hazard, and NPR's Adam Cole ties it all together with a song.

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Twitter changed its "favorite" star icon to a "like" heart icon prompting largely negative responses from Twitter users. But is it the heart they hate? Or the change itself?

Why No Love For Twitter's Hearts?

5:43pm November 03, 2015

by Laura Wagner

Twitter changed its "favorite" icon from a yellow star to a red heart. Twitter users aren't loving it, but NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam predicts it's just a matter of time.

Switchtracking, as defined by author Sheila Heen, is when "someone gives you feedback, and your reaction to that feedback changes the subject."

Science

Trying To Change, Or Changing The Subject? How Feedback Gets Derailed

12:08am September 22, 2015

by NPR Staff

The first episode of Hidden Brain explores switchtracking: a common pattern in conversations you'll be accusing your partner of in no time! Plus speedy science, a cup of tea and a song from Adam Cole.

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