OUR RATING:
Where Your Mind Goes to Be Publicly Undressed
Ever wondered what it would be like if your therapist recorded your sessions and broadcast them to millions of people? Well, wonder no more! “The Hidden Brain” podcast is essentially that, except instead of just your brain being exposed, it’s the collective psyche of humanity. How comforting.
Host Shankar Vedantam has made a career out of explaining why you do the stupid things you do, all while maintaining the soothing voice of someone who definitely judges you silently when you admit you binged an entire season of reality TV last weekend. The podcast explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, which is a fancy way of saying “here’s why you keep dating people exactly like your ex even though you swore you wouldn’t.”
Each episode features Vedantam interviewing some researcher who’s spent decades studying something you’ve never thought about but will now obsess over for weeks. Did you know there’s a psychological reason you feel the need to check your phone while reading this review? The Hidden Brain knows, and it’s not flattering to you or your attention span.
What I like most about Hidden Brain is that it manages to take concepts that should be limited to dry academic papers and turn them into compelling stories. By the end of each episode, you’ll have enough psychological insights to be dangerous at your next dinner party, where you’ll inevitably over-explain cognitive biases to people who were just trying to enjoy their risotto. “Actually, your preference for that wine is probably just an example of the anchoring effect,” you’ll say, as everyone silently decides not to invite you next time.
This is a podcast for people that want to gain a deeper understanding of exactly why people behave the way they do, from a scientific perspective that is. Topics like self-care, relationships, online behaviour, family stories, emotions, influence, despair, memory, saying no, loneliness, the feeling of emptiness and existential dread are covered amidst a myriad of many others.
“The Hidden Brain” is the podcast equivalent of having someone point out the spinach in your teeth hours after you’ve been walking around with it. Enlightening? Yes. Slightly humiliating? Also yes. Will you keep listening anyway? Absolutely. Because apparently, we humans love having our cognitive flaws exposed, which is probably something Vedantam could explain in a future episode.
Where to listen to Hidden Brain
Episodes.fm | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro
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