Hidden Brain
Shankar Vedantam
Social science research applied to everyday life, with storytelling and expert interviews.
Why we picked this
We picked Hidden Brain for the distance Shankar Vedantam keeps from easy sentiment. Where most psychology shows settle for the counterintuitive takeaway, this one stays with the uncomfortable follow-up—how empathy hardens tribal loyalties, how acceptance requires abandoning the life you imagined first. Vedantam presses his guests past the study and into the trade-off. The result is a feed that treats human behavior as a system of constraints, not a self-improvement project.
Recent episodes
Who Are You, Really?
Jun 8, 20261h 37m
Unleashing Your Creativity
Jun 1, 202652 min
The Past is Never Dead
May 25, 202651 min
The Empathy Gym
May 18, 20261h 28m
The Cowboy Philosopher
May 11, 20261h 29m
Radical Acceptance
May 4, 20261h 30m
Designing a Life that Matters
Apr 27, 202651 min
Do You Feel Loved?
Apr 20, 20261h 33m
How to Change the World
Apr 13, 20261h 30m
The Debt Trap
Apr 6, 20261h 40m
When It's Okay to Lie
Mar 30, 202651 min
Group Think
Mar 23, 20261h 27m
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