Which is better: Optimism or pessimism?

Your heart pounds, your chest tightens, your stomach drops and your legs feel weak and shaky. Your palms are sweating and a tingling rush spreads through your arms and fingertips as your brain is overwhelmed with feelings of tension and fear. And yet, you’ve asked for this. You w ...  Show more

Some fish can deliver electric shocks that are four times more powerful than the electricity in your plug sockets at home. Crowdscience listener Mouhammed in Cameroon was stunned by this, so he charged us with finding out how they do it. Presenter Caroline Steel heads to Bayreuth ...  Show more

We live in a culture obsessed with hope. We are trained to believe that being hopeful is the key to success. Stay positive. The sun will come out tomorrow. Keep the faith. But maintaining that kind of blind hope is hard. When our hopes are dashed, we often feel defeated. In a wor ...  Show more

Is the cup of life half full or half empty? Would you call yourself an optimist or a pessimist? What if you weren’t actually in control of this, but instead through the process of evolution your brain had been hardwired to be optimistic? Neuroscientist Dr. Tali Sharot calls this ...  Show more

In today's episode, we're exploring the topics of optimism, pessimism, and realism. These are different attitudes towards life and the future and can have a massive impact on your happiness and mental health.I go over the definitions and words, discuss some possible benefits of b ...  Show more

On this episode, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of optimism. First, we examine the various motivations for pessimism, and hear what Winston Churchill, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Marcus Aurelius have to say about optimism. Next, we think about the vastly different implication ...  Show more