In John Charles Simon and Jennalee Donian’s Understanding Laughter and Humor: Why We Laugh, Why We Don’t, and Why It Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), the authors put forward a comprehensive new theoretical approach to understanding laughter and the humour we use to inspire it. Applying an evolutionary and biological lens to these complex and universal hum ... Show More
Sep 4
Shaun Gallagher, "The Self and its Disorders" (Oxford UP, 2024)
In this interview, Shaun Gallagher discusses The Self and its Disorders (Oxford University Press, 2024) A ground-breaking theory of the self as a pattern Interdisciplinary, drawing on philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive psychology, psychiatry, and dynamical systems an ... Show More
56m 51s
Aug 14
Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951): A Discussion with Jay Garfinkel
A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, who eventually taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements—the ... Show More
32m 13s
Jul 17
Susanne Paola Antonetta, "The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today" (Catapult, 2025)
The Devil’s Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today (Catapult, 2025) delves into the forgotten history of eugenics and links it to present-day psychiatry to explain how we as a culture continue to get mind care so wrong. In The ... Show More
1h 4m
Sep 2019
[Rerun] Jordan Peterson on Wonder, Creativity, and the Personality of Political Correctness
Today we have Dr. Jordan Peterson on the podcast. Dr. Peterson has taught mythology to lawyers, doctors and business people, consulted for the UN Secretary General, helped his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia, served as ... Show More
39 m
Apr 2025
Rise Above with Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman (Interviewed by Dr. Jonathan Haidt)
In a special role-reversal episode of The Psychology Podcast, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman is interviewed by renowned social psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt to discuss Scott’s brand-new book, Rise Above: Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential. Thi ... Show More
48m 22s
Dec 2019
#179 — The Unquiet Mind
Sam Harris speaks with Judson Brewer about addiction, craving, and mindfulness. They discuss the nature of reward-based learning, the role of subjective bias in addiction, the neuroscience of craving, the neural correlates of the sense of self, real-time neuroimaging, effort and ... Show More
34m 1s
Aug 2017
#91 — The Biology of Good and Evil
Sam Harris speaks with Robert Sapolsky about his work with baboons, the opposition between reason and emotion, doubt, the evolution of the brain, the civilizing role of the frontal cortex, the illusion of free will, justice and vengeance, brain-machine interface, religion, drugs, ... Show More
43m 12s
Apr 2025
#411 — The Victimhood Pandemic
<p>Sam Harris speaks with Scott Barry Kaufman about Scott's new book, <em><a href="https://amzn.to/42Is3JI">Rise Above: Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential</a></em>. They discuss victimhood culture, narcissism and psychopathy, the personal ... Show More
31m 12s
Nov 2018
#143 — The Keys to the Mind
Sam Harris speaks with Derren Brown about his work as a "psychological illusionist." They discuss the power of hypnosis, the power of expectations, the usefulness of Stoic philosophy, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to ... Show More
42m 28s
Apr 2023
#317 — What Do We Know About Our Minds?
<p>Sam Harris speaks with Paul Bloom about the state of psychological science. They discuss fiction as a window onto the mind, recent developments in AI, the tension between misinformation and free speech, bullshitting vs lying, truth vs belonging, reliance on scientific authorit ... Show More
1h 7m