Wellness 2.0: Rising to the Occasion
From time to time, all of us are called upon to do hard or even seemingly impossible things. Do we rise to the occasion, or do we fall short?
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Hidden Brain
Wellness 2.0: Be Yourself
We’re often drawn to people who appear to be true to themselves. Yet showing our authentic selves to the world can be terrifying. This week, we kick off 2025 with a new series, “Wellness 2.0.” We’ll go beyond New Year’s resolutions to take a deep look at how we can approach our lives with a sense of meaning and purpose.
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How To Be More Creative
Creative breakthroughs often seem to arise without explanation. But researchers increasingly find there is a science to cultivating creativity.
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What Your Online Self Reveals About You
Every day, we leave small traces of ourselves online. This week, computational social scientist Sandra Matz explores how understanding what we actually do online – not just what we think we do – can help us improve our lives.
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The Secret to Gift Giving
With the holidays upon us, many of us are hunting for that special something for the special someones in our lives. It’s how we show we care about them. So why is it so hard to find the right gift? This week, we talk to Jeff Galak about new research on why the presents we give for holidays and birthdays often miss their mark, and how to become a better gift giver.
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How Monsters Are Made
What makes ordinary people do evil things? It was a question that long fascinated the psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who died in October. Zimbardo was best known for the controversial Stanford prison experiment, in which he created a simulated prison in the basement of a university building and recruited volunteers to act as prisoners and guards. This week, we explore how Zimbardo came to create one of psychology’s most notorious experiments – and inadvertently became the poster child for the human weaknesses he was trying to study.
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Emotions 2.0: The Logic of Rage
Neuroscientist Doug Fields was on a trip to Europe when a pickpocket stole his wallet. Doug, normally mild-mannered, became enraged — and his fury turned him into a stranger to himself. This week, we revisit a favorite 2020 episode about the secret logic of irrational anger.
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Emotions 2.0: What’s Better than Being Happy?
Many of us go to great lengths to be happy. But is our singular focus on feeling good actually making us miserable? This week, psychologist Jordi Quoidbach explores what happens when we try to live in an emotional monoculture, and makes a case for letting it all in — the ups … and the downs.
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Emotions 2.0: The Benefits of Mixed Emotions
Sometimes we feel just one single feeling with overwhelming force. We’re joyously happy. We’re crushingly sad. But sometimes it’s more complicated than that: We feel happy and sad at the same time. This week, we revisit a favorite 2022 episode with psychologist Naomi Rothman, who shares her research on the mixed emotion of ambivalence. She explores how being
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Emotions 2.0: The Feeling That Moves Us Forward
For centuries, philosophers and theologians have warned about the dangers of hubris. It’s an emotion that can make us arrogant, egotistical, and reckless. But psychologist Jessica Tracy suggests this caution is too broad. She argues that when we see pride only as a negative emotion, we miss out on all the powerful ways it can
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