We Need to Talk

How do the groups you identify with shape your sense of self? Do they influence the beer you buy? The way you vote? In this favorite episode from 2021, psychologist Jay Van Bavel explains how our group loyalties affect us more than we realize, and can even shape our basic senses ...  Show more

We tend to see depression as an illness to eliminate, evidence that something has gone wrong in the brain. But what if low mood serves a purpose? Psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg examines the evolutionary roots of depression and reflects on his own painful experience with suicida ...  Show more

Conversational chemistry might seem intangible, but psychologists are beginning figure out what makes some conversations work while others fall apart. Charles Duhigg, author of the upcoming book Supercommunicators and conversation researcher Michael Yeomans, PhD, talk about how a ...  Show more

​​ What makes a great conversation?“Many of us dread small talk,” says Harvard Business School professor and author Alison Wood Brooks. Yet she believes these everyday exchanges are the gateway to deeper connection and opportunity. An expert in the science of conversation, Wood B ...  Show more

Is there a reason we have eyebrows? Pretty much every part of the human body has a reason for being there and eyebrows actually have three reasons. I begin this episode by explaining what they are. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58424/why-do-we-have-eyebrows Every relations ...  Show more

What can we learn about the way we speak by analysing thousands of everyday conversations? That’s a question that fascinates Alison Wood Brooks. Alison, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and author of the forthcoming book, Talk: The Science of Conversation and th ...  Show more