As we go through life, we’re constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. Psychologist Liane Young says this ability to assess other people’s thoughts is an extraordinary feat of cognition. This week, in a favorite episode from our archives, we explore this mental superpower — and how it can lead us astray. Then, we welcome ba ... Show More
Jun 1
Unleashing Your Creativity
For centuries, people have described creativity as something mysterious: a flash of insight, a whisper from the muse, a sudden idea that seems to arrive out of nowhere. Psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis explores the hidden mental processes that lead to these moments of inspiration, an ... Show More
52m 47s
Oct 2025
Jane G. Goldberg, "Wired for Why: How We Think, Feel, and Make Meaning" (2025)
WIRED FOR WHY: How We Think, Feel and Make Meaning. (Self-Published 2025) spans eighteen chapters exploring everything from how we manage to stay alive against all odds, to why language separates us from other species, to whether death might be a metaphor. It's a journey through ... Show More
1h 3m
Sep 2024
Why Do People Fear Being Wrong?
In this episode from our archives, Gwyneth sits down with organizational psychologist and beloved Wharton professor Adam Grant to talk about being a recovering logic bully, why we mistake confidence for competence, the trap of letting our ideas become our identities, and how we c ... Show More
49m 32s
Aug 2025
Dealing with Feelings w/ Dr. Marc Brackett
This week, Scott sits down with Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of Dealing with Feelings: Use Your Emotions to Create the Life You Want. Together, they explore why so many of us struggle to manage our emotions and what ... Show More
55m 57s
Oct 2024
436. The Brainy Biases: Why Novelty and Stories Captivate Us (Refreshed Episode)
<p dir="ltr">In episode 436 of The Brainy Business podcast, Melina Palmer dives into the fascinating biases our brains have toward novelty and stories. This episode, originally aired in 2019, is part of an eight-part series on biases and offers a rapid-fire overview of how our br ... Show More
28 m
Jul 2025
Our memory and sense of self are full of illusions | with Anne Wilson
Psychologist Anne Wilson studies how we construct our identities over time—how we remember the past, imagine the future, and tell ourselves stories that shape who we believe we are. In this episode, we explore why our memories are often less reliable than we think, and how that i ... Show More
52m 53s
Oct 2025
What's worth remembering?
We like to think of memory as a record of the past. But that’s not really what it is. Memory doesn’t keep the past — it can also remake it. It stitches fragments into stories, and those stories — true or not — are what we end up calling our life, and sometimes, our collective his ... Show More
58m 54s
<p><strong>David Eagleman explains <em>why</em> counterfeiting works, <em>how</em> our empathy fails, <em>why</em> mind reading remains elusive, and <em>if</em> we'll ever upload our minds to computers.</strong></p>
<strong>What We Discuss with David Eagleman:</strong>
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