Shankar Vedantam

Our airwaves are filled with debates about immigrants and refugees. Who should be allowed in the United States, who shouldn’t, and who should decide? In the wake of President Trump’s vulgar remarks about some immigrants — remarks that he has since denied — we’re going to revisit a favorite episode from 2016 that explores the patterns and paradoxes of immigration in the U.S. Historian Maria Cristina Garcia joins us.

Do you ever catch yourself yelling at your Alexa? Or typing questions into Google that you wouldn’t dare ask aloud? On this episode, our changing relationship with technology and what big data knows about our deepest, darkest secrets.

The tone of American politics can be…nasty. But is this nastiness really worse than in previous eras, and if so, what does that mean for our democracy? Historian David Moss takes the long view — arguing that American democracy is much more resilient than we realize. This week on Hidden Brain, we turn to history for insight about our current moment in American politics.

Have you ever opened your computer with the intention of sending one email — only to spend an hour scrolling through social media? Maybe two hours? In this episode, we examine the strategies media companies use to hijack our attention so they can sell it to advertisers.

Unpredictable things happen to us all the time. In the process of getting back on your feet, you may realize that something’s different. On this Radio Replay, we mark the new year with two of our favorite stories of loss and the change it brings.

There are some topics about which it seems no amount of data will change people’s minds: things like climate change, or restrictions on gun ownership. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot says that’s actually for good reason. As a general rule, she says, it’s better to stick to your beliefs and disregard new information that contradicts them. But this also means it’s very difficult to change false beliefs. In this favorite episode from earlier this year, we look at how we process information, and why it’s so hard to change our views.

In this week’s Radio Replay, we bring you stories of fakes, phonies, and con men — and the people who fall for the false worlds they create. First, the tale of a middle-aged man who impersonates a series of women and gets thousands of men to fall in love with his creations. Then, we’ll hear about a painter who tricks the world’s greatest art experts into believing they’re looking at masterpieces.

How do you spend your money? On shoes, cars, coffee, fancy restaurants? You might think you use money just to, you know, buy stuff. But as Neeru Paharia explains, the way we spend often says a lot about who we are, and what we want to project. We use money to express our values — by going to the local coffee shop instead of Starbucks, or by boycotting — or buycotting — Ivanka Trump shoes. In this April 2017 episode of Hidden Brain, we explore the way we use money to tell stories about ourselves, and to ourselves.

All countries have national myths. The story of the first Thanksgiving, for example, evokes the warm glow of intercultural contact: European settlers, struggling to survive in the New World, and Native American tribes eager to help. As many of us learned in history class, this story leaves a lot out. This week on Hidden Brain, we explore a national secret: that from the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World until 1900, there were as many as five million Native American people enslaved. We’ll learn about this history, and the psychological forces that kept it unexamined for so long.