Why do our digital assistants such as Alexa, Google Home, Siri and Cortana have “feminized” voices and what are the effects of this trend? That’s what I explore in this episode. Are there negative effects of using female voices in the devices we talk to and who talk to us? Are there alternatives? Turns out […]
It’s ingrained in western society that people should find work they really enjoy – work that fulfills a passion. If you’re lucky enough to have found work you’re passionate about you ought to know that there is a dark side. People who know that you’re doing the work because you love it might just take […]
In this episode I cover a few interesting topics. First, have you ever “blanked out” in front of an audience? I recently did and I was determined to find out why this happened. I found some answers in a great book called Stop Talking, Start Influencing. Also I’ll tell you about the memorization strategies I […]
Do you have your own little “tricks”? That is, ways of doing things that are faster than how you used to do them? Well, congratulations, you’re something of an efficiency expert. And if you can picture an assembly line of people putting products together, then you’ve seen one way of increasing productivity. But some of […]
Why is it okay – in some cultures – to jaywalk, while in others you could get arrested for jaywalking? Why was marijuana was sold – legally – for years in the streets of Amsterdam when it is only now become legal in the US? The reason: some cultures are what author Michele Gelfand calls […]
Resources: Would you like to get into the mind of someone who not only has OCD, but who also wrote a novel in which the main character deals with it as well? That’s the premise behind the book, Waiting For Fitz. In this episode I interview the author, Spencer Hyde. He talks about the novel, […]
Only a little while ago cannabis (marijuana) was approved for medical purposes. Now “recreational use” of the plant is legal in many states in the US. It is being prescribed to treat PTSD, schizophrenia and chronic pain among others. But what is dispensary opens near you – can you trust the advice of the “budtender” […]
It seems like there’s no end to TV shows about criminals who have various psychiatric disorders. It’s understandable that we find them fascinating, but how accurate are they? What is it really like to work with individuals who are convicted of serious crimes but who are unquestionably suffering from a mental illness? If you’re interested […]
Recently we’ve learned that many students learn best not when things are well explained to them, but rather when they’re just a little bit confused. Professor Jeremiah Sullins (interviewed in episode 267) talked about his work on Productive Confusion. Now he’s on to a related topic: what if instead of being motivated by confusion, students […]
Have you ever seen something so cute you just want to squeeze it to death? Or a child so cute you want to pinch it’s cheeks really hard? Why do we have these odd, powerful, opposite feelings? It’s called “cute aggression” and we’ll try to explain it in this episode. Resources I Asked a Neuroscientist […]
