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:

Deep listening: working with Indigenous mental distress Dec 22, 2007

Show notes

'How do I get them to talk?' Hinted-at events, listening to the silence, roundabout stories. Mental health and other professionals inexperienced at working with Indigenous clients struggle with the limits of their cultural awareness, with language barriers and with the historical legacies of mistrust and misunderstanding. Cultural competency is more than sharing a joke. So what is it? And how can psychologists, doctors and others acquire it?

Human Rights and psychiatry (Part 2 of 2): Who speaks for the chained and incarcerated? Dec 15, 2007

Show notes

Chained in a concrete cell, involuntarily medicated, and isolated. Leading psychiatrist Vikram Patel has amassed a series of shocking photos from asylum settings around the globe -- some taken by 'inmates'. He's challenging his own profession to take action. And, the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Will it make a difference? In a historic process, self-identified 'psychiatric survivors' have been closely involved in its development.

Human Rights and psychiatry (Part 1 of 2): Should doctors be involved in interrogation or torture? Dec 08, 2007

Show notes

They know the machinations of the mind better than many. So do mental health professionals have a legitimate role in the interrogation of prisoners of war or detainees, in the interests of national security? The American Psychiatric Association and Australia's equivalent have said 'no way'. The peak body for US psychologists have taken a different position. Torture, tough interrogation or treatment - where do the boundaries blur for healers who have taken the Hippocratic Oath?

Brain surgery on the wireless! One year on [Part 2 of 2] Dec 01, 2007

Show notes

Brain Surgery - Live on the Wireless!

Brain surgery on the Wireless! (Part 1 of 2) Nov 24, 2007

Show notes

Don your gown and mask, and prepare yourself. Natasha Mitchell takes you into the operating theatre of leading neurosurgeon Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld at the Alfred Hospital, and inside the head of Kia, his patient, as she has an arteriovenous malformation extracted from her frontal lobes. A repeat chance to catch this rare audiophonic insight into a craft of impressive dexterity, patience and courage. And, on next week's show, 11 months after the surgery, we meet Kia again for an update on life post-op. Surviving major brain surgery has been the easy bit.

The political brain Nov 17, 2007

Show notes

As Australians stand in front of the cardboard voting booth next week what's going on in our minds? In choosing the future direction of the nation -- do we weigh up policies and promises with a rational mind, or are we emoting with our pencils? And new research has sent the left and right of the scientific community on a political bender with the idea that we're neurologically wired to support our team. All in the Mind probes your political brain.

Dr Mindfulness: science and the meditation boom Nov 10, 2007

Show notes

Quieten your mind. Attend to the moment. Mindfulness-based meditation is being touted as beneficial for any number of afflictions: from anxiety to asthma; social phobia to psoriasis. But what is it, and how can science scrutinise subjective states of mind? Three scientists at high powered institutions discuss how they've turned a personal passion into a professional investigation.

Mind meets matter: stress, schizophrenia, immunity and heart disease Nov 03, 2007

Show notes

Are we really more vulnerable to colds when we're stressed? Does depression increase your risk of heart disease? Could a bad bout of the flu during pregnancy cause schizophrenia in your child? Science has long struggled with the question of whether states of mind influence the body, and vice versa. But the historic mind-body divide is being challenged as cardiologists, immunologists and neuroscientists meet across the lab bench.

The Stuff of Thought with Steven Pinker Oct 27, 2007

Show notes

Why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function? What do linguistic taboos do to your brain? How are new words born? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self-confessed verbivore. To him language offers a window into the human mind and how it works. He joins Natasha Mitchell in a feature interview to argue there's nothing mere about semantics.

Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world? Part 2 of 2 (The Prinzhorn Collection) Oct 20, 2007

Show notes

Germany's extraordinary Prinzhorn collection of art was drawn from 19th and 20th century asylums. Psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn was on a quest to find a 'more authentic' art, made by minds liberated from the constraints of rationality. Avant-garde artists turned to the works for inspiration, but the collection went on to be exploited by the Nazis in their horrifying campaign against 'degenerate' art, and those with mental illness. Prinzhorn curator Thomas Roeske joins Natasha Mitchell to discuss the difficult history of art, ethics and asylum.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

All In The Mind

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected