Written by Many of us spend our workdays responding to a never-ending stream of emails and texts. We feel stressed out and perpetually behind on our to-do list. But what if there was a better way to work? This week, we revisit a favorite conversation about “deep work” with computer scientist Cal Newport. And we’ll visit a […]
Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend? Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on […]
Evidence of aliens might actually be an easy thing for scientists to detect—it’s proving that the evidence is legit that promises to be a greater challenge. A newly proposed framework developed by NASA scientists could help. “Our generation could realistically be the one to discover evidence of life beyond Earth,” declares a new Perspectives paper […]
Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships. Additional Resources: Featured in this episode: Learn more: Special thanks to the following musicians: Sponsor Message Source link
There’s a social script for how romantic relationships are supposed to develop, and that script can make it hard for us to become physically intimate with friends and keep being friends—nothing more, nothing less. In this episode, we try to understand what would be possible if we didn’t draw such stark lines between sex and […]
Self-criticism is often seen as a virtue. But psychologist Kristin Neff says there’s a better path to self-improvement — self-compassion. She says people who practice self-compassion are more conscientious and more likely to take responsibility for their mistakes. If you like our work, please consider supporting it! See how you can help at support.hiddenbrain.org. And […]
When we want something very badly, it can be hard to see warning signs that might be obvious to other people. This week, we bring you two stories about how easy it can be to believe in a false reality — even when the facts don’t back us up. If you like our work, please […]
In 2007, American anthropologist Katherine Verdery found herself staring at almost 3,000 pages worth of Top Secret files… all about her. What Katherine found in that dossier turned her world upside-down and tested her most basic assumptions about trust, betrayal, friendship and power. Additional Resources: More from Katherine Verdery: More about Communism and its aftermath […]
Before he traveled to Arrakis to tell the story of Dune, and before he took on one of sci-fi’s most popular legacies with Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve tackled a genre tale that was equally epic in its ideas but far more intimate in its storytelling: 2016’s Arrival. Its striking production design incorporates spaceships, fantastical […]
It’s a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. In this episode, we look at two institutions that experimented with taking away that choice. First, we follow two women who lived in Catholic convents in the 1960s. Then, we hear about a program for high schoolers — Telluride Association Summer Program […]