Guessing Games

Millions of us move through our days without getting enough sleep. We know that sleep deprivation can affect our physical health and our mood. But sleep researcher Chris Barnes says a chronic lack of good sleep can also affect how we make decisions and even what we value. He join ... Show More

We often imagine that feelings of unhappiness come from outside us — in our circumstances or the difficult people in our lives. But what if the forces that erode our happiness come from within? Psychologist George Loewenstein joins us to explore why our minds nudge us toward the ... Show More

When historian Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, she became fascinated by the ways people try to impose order on events they can't control. She joins us to explore what it means to live fully when life offers no satisfying explanation for the tragedies we may face. ... Show More

This week the guys talk about the future: expectations vs. reality. What did people in the past predict the future would be like? Were they accurate? Will we be accurate if we attempt to do the same…? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Do brains time travel? What is a prediction error? What does any of this have to do with the 2008 crash of the economy, how we keep internal price tags, or a rational approach to drug addiction in society? Join Eagleman to learn how your 3-pound universe spends its whole existenc ... Show More

Our brain likes to play tricks on us, so it allows us to see the things we want to see and formulate biased conclusions, accordingly. In this episode, Rawane Affara explains how, at times, a child’s behavior is misunderstood and underestimated.Listen to The Ringlet on Podeopodeo. ... Show More

Today’s episode of Uncertain is about the ways that studies can leave us overconfident and how “just-so stories” can make us feel overly certain about results that are still a work in progress. And sometimes studies get misleading results because of random error or weird samples ... Show More

In a year when billions of people have been to the ballot box, what do stickleback fish have to do with it? Alex Lathbridge, Tristan Ahtone and Candice Bailey discuss some unexpected elements of electoral studies.Can ancient geology really map election outcomes? What has machine ... Show More