The Air We Breathe

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

Disgust is a strong emotion, one designed by evolution to protect us from danger and diseases. But disgust also spills into other areas of our lives, influencing our morals, our intuitions about right and wrong, even our politics. We talk with psychologist David Pizarro about how ...  Show more

Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as protests have occurred in all fifty states calling for justice on his behalf. But this tension between African American communit ...  Show more

On today's episode of @TheBreakdown I unpack and explain how police brutality is a math problem. African Americans are forced to interact with police FAR too much. And by drastically reducing these number of forced interactions, we will, by default, reduce the incidents of police ...  Show more

Recent high profile cases of unarmed black men dying at the hands of the US police have sparked outrage, protests and civil unrest in several American cities. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray are - some claim - evidence of long-standing prob ...  Show more

When it comes to police reform, a retired NYPD detective argues that policing as a profession must evolve or go away completely.  The problem of police violence, and the excessive use of force in Black and Brown communities in particular, has spanned centuries and retired NYPD de ...  Show more