How to counteract common thinking traps

Oftentimes, it's easier to scroll through our phones than do some squats. So what can we do to motivate ourselves to pick movement? In this episode of Life Kit, we speak with clinical psychologist Diana Hill and movement specialist Katy Bowman about how to retrain your brain to c ... Show More

In this episode of Life Kit, reporter Andee Tagle talks to entomologist Sammy Ramsey and environmental health professor Brian Byrd about why some people get bitten more than others, which ingredients to seek in bug repellents and what you can do to protect yourself against those ... Show More

Play isn't just for kids. Research shows it can help you adapt to difficult circumstances, collaborate better and problem-solve. In this episode, play researchers and enthusiasts share the benefits of playtime at any age and how you can bring more play into your life. This episod ... Show More

Why do projects often take so much longer than expected? Join us in conversation with Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn, Professor of Psychology at Yale and the author of Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better, to explore the thinking errors we make every day and discover powerful to ... Show More

Samah Karaki est une neuroscientifique libanaise, fondatrice du social Brain Institute. Elle a travaillé pendant 10 ans sur l'éducation et la gestion du stress. Elle est l'autrice de "travail en équipe" paru chez Dunod mais avec Samah, j'ai souhaité abordé la problématique de l'é ... Show More

What shapes our perceptions (and misperceptions) about science? In an eye-opening talk, meteorologist J. Marshall Shepherd explains how confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect and cognitive dissonance impact what we think we know -- and shares ideas for how we can replace th ... Show More

Here’s a sobering thought: The older we get, the harder it is for us to learn, to question, to reimagine. This isn’t just habit hardening into dogma. It’s encoded into the way our brains change as we age. And it’s worsened by an intellectual and economic culture that prizes effic ... Show More

A flood of new research is overturning old assumptions about what animal minds are and aren’t capable of – and changing how we think about our own species. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod 

What is a mind? Can we pin it down? To what do the pronouns "I" and "you" really refer? Is the mind different to its contents? What do we know and what are we struggling still to understand? 

Are babies oblivious to danger? It's not that simple, says cognitive scientist Shari Liu. Sharing surprising insights (and plenty of baby videos) from studies of early human development, Liu highlights the unexpected ways babies perceive and respond to risky situations — and what ... Show More

Why do we so naturally form ingroups and outgroups? And what does that have to do with evolution, monkeys, Greeks, psychopaths, Syndrome E, and propaganda posters? Join Eagleman to learn why our brains are so wired for tribalism, what the consequences are for the world, and how a ... Show More

Why do teenagers sometimes make outrageous, risky choices? Do they suddenly become reckless, or are they just going through a natural phase? To find out, Kashfia Rahman -- winner of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (and a Harvard freshman) -- designed and cond ... Show More

Is our thinking becoming our enemy? How do we control our own thoughts and flow of thinking? And is it true that by limiting our thinking we are limiting our suffering?