All In The Mind

Why do people lie? Why do relationships fall apart? Can trauma change your brain?

Every week on All in the Mind, award-winning journalist Sana Qadar explores the psychology behind the biggest questions in our lives — how we think, feel and behave.

Featuring leading experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross, you’ll hear personal stories and practical insights that will leave you thinking long after the podcast ends.

Whether it’s debunking pop psychology trends or translating the latest neuroscience research, more than 100,000 listeners join Sana each month to learn the best strategies for surviving life with your mental health intact.

All in the Mind is created for ABC’s Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was awarded Best Health and Wellness podcast at the 2026 Australian Audio Awards

Latest Episodes:

Schizophrenia: Personal confrontations and a philosophical investigation Sep 18, 2010

Show notes

Philosopher, poet and writer Dr Paul Fearne had his first psychotic episode as a young university student, and continues to take medication. 'To live is to take a leap into a sea of daggers, each one stabbing the fabric of your being', he wrote in his diary at the time, now published as a rare glimpse inside psychosis. From Freud to Wittgenstein, his experience inspired a unique PhD investigation into the philosophical questions posed by schizophrenia.

It's on the tip of my finger! Sign language, deaf culture and the brain Sep 11, 2010

Show notes

LA comedian CJ Jones is a master storyteller in sign language. San Diego scientist Stephen McCullough studies the neurobiology of sign language. Both are deaf. Sign language is revealing surprising insights into the evolution of all human languages in the brain. From finding the word on the 'tip of the finger' to the bilingual brains of speakers and signers -- join two performers and two scientists with unique stories from the frontiers of deaf culture.

Climate change and behavioural change: what will it take? Sep 04, 2010

Show notes

Climate change is on and off the political agenda in Australia. Whether an emissions trading system or a carbon tax win the day, one big barrier stands in the way of change: human nature. How we think about the problem can trump what we actually do -- right down to shorter showers and turning off the lights. Leading environmental psychologists are now taking on the climate change challenge.

Crazy Like Us - The Globalisation of the American Psyche Aug 28, 2010

Show notes

'Would you like fries with that?' America's big brands and fast food outlets have become the dominant signatures of globalisation. But is mental illness becoming another? Is West best when it comes to the diagnosis, definition and treatment of mental illness? Ethan Watters unearths a disturbing trend, which could inform how we respond to disasters like the devastating Pakistan floods.

AS Byatt: woman of letters and ...science! Aug 21, 2010

Show notes

Booker prize winning novelist AS Byatt has a thing for words. But do you know about her passion for science? In neuroscience she's discovered what she's always sensed about the workings of her own head as a writer -- and you must hear what's going on in her unique mind! She joins Natasha to discuss snail brains, mirror neurons and more for National Science Week.

Challenging Stereotypes: culture, psychology and the Asian Self (Part 2 of 2) Aug 14, 2010

Show notes

We can't escape our cultural heritage, and yet it's more malleable than you might think. It's there in everything we do and say -- from the boardroom tables of big business to conversations with your GP. How are scientists getting inside our cultural mindsets to study them? Brain scans have entered the fray.

Challenging Stereotypes: culture, psychology and the Asian Self (Part 1 of 2) Aug 07, 2010

Show notes

As East and West meet across the boardroom tables of big business, there's growing interest in how culture shapes the psyche and Self. If you're born into a collectivist or individualistic society, do you think differently? This week, controversial research on self-esteem. Do East Asians need less of it to feel good about themselves?

Special Series (Part 3 of 3) Up the Line to Goodna: Patient rights and staff fights Jul 31, 2010

Show notes

As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. During a time of major institutional and cultural upheaval, the Office of the Patient's Friend opened its doors in 1977, the first patient advocacy service to operate within the confines of an Australian psychiatric hospital. Part advocate, part whistle-blower - running the service has taken a might of steel and a heart of gold. 30 years later, Nadia Beer only recently retired from the role.

Special Series (Part 2 of 3) Up the Line to Goodna: stories from inside the asylum Jul 24, 2010

Show notes

As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series All in the Mind unearths stories from people who lived and worked there. A nurse reflects on life in the asylum during World War II before the dramatic arrival of modern medications, and two sisters reminisce on growing up at Goodna with their matron aunt in the 1930s. Very different insights from opposite sides of the ward walls. (Rebroadcast)

Special Series (Part 1 of 3) Up the Line to Goodna: stories from inside the asylum Jul 17, 2010

Show notes

As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest and oldest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. In this series, All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there. From a nurse who worked there from the 1940s - to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice. Warts and all recollections of madness, care and abuse. (Rebroadcast)

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

All In The Mind

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected