Deeply Human

Sleep May 06, 2022

Is insomnia really a problem of modern life... or is the struggle for sleep older than you think?

It's a common lament: this new world of smartphones and constant connectivity makes it nearly impossible to get enough sleep. But Shakespeare's characters were up all night, sleepwalking, and freaking out about their daily lives. Just how have our sleeping patterns really changed since the invention of the electric light?

Dessa dives deep into the science of sleep to find out what we need, what we're missing, and why it can be so hard to get a full night's rest.

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Born With It Apr 29, 2022

Why are we so judgemental about how others beautify themselves?

Do you wear eyeliner? Dye your hair? Ever gone under a laser, needle, or knife? When it comes to beautification, how far do you think is too far? And why are there such strong moral overtones to our conversations about where to draw the line?

From Instagram Face to pretty privilege, the male gaze to “anti-feminism”, cultural appropriation to the capitalist machine - a tour of the cosmetic cuts surprisingly deep.

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Hate Apr 22, 2022

Why do we hate one another - and how can we stop?

How and when does conflict metastasize into hatred? Dessa picks apart the science of hostility, with help from a criminologist who identifies the tipping point between prejudice and hate, and an Israeli psychologist who's studied one of the longest conflicts in the world today.

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Stuff Apr 15, 2022

Why do you have all that stuff?

What drives us to get and keep so much stuff - even objects that we rarely, if ever, use? Psychologists working on cortisol levels found that living in a messy or cluttered home may correlate to higher rates of depression and that conspicuous consumption may be affecting our well-being. When does your stuff start to own you?

Dessa talks with experts about how animal hoarding behaviors compare with our own, and speaks to a money-saving guru who might make you rethink your relationship to things.

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Pulling Rank Apr 08, 2022

Why do we form social hierarchies?

From corporate ladders to military chains of command, formal caste systems to playground pecking orders, humans are particularly sensitive to social status. And we display our rank in all sorts of ways, even without realizing it - through our posture, vocal pitch, and patterns of eye contact.

Join Dessa to learn how social hierarchies are formed, how they might be dismantled, and the many ways in which they color our daily exchanges.

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Divisible Love Apr 01, 2022

Why do you love the way you do?

We're expected to love only one romantic partner at a time. But we can love more than one parent, sibling, and friend - so why do so many cultures demand monogamy in romance? Is it time to reconsider the old model?

Dessa speaks with a philosopher, an economist, and sexpert Dan Savage to talk about love, sex, and commitment.

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Faded Mar 25, 2022

Why do we use intoxicants?

Whether it’s booze, weed, opiates, or even caffeine, the drive to catch a buzz seems almost universal for members of our species. For big parts of the world, drinking alcohol plays a huge role in our social lives, in religious rituals, and in some eras it was even a prerequisite for civic engagement.

Find out how the phrase “take him down a peg or two” was derived from a drinking game, which animals consume alcohol, and hear from the professor inventing an alcohol substitute.

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Faded Mar 25, 2022

Why do we use intoxicants?

Whether it’s booze, weed, opiates, or even caffeine, the drive to catch a buzz seems almost universal for members of our species. For big parts of the world, drinking alcohol plays a huge role in our social lives, in religious rituals, and in some eras it was even a prerequisite for civic engagement.

Find out how the phrase “take him down a peg or two” was derived from a drinking game, which animals consume alcohol, and hear from the professor inventing an alcohol substitute.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crowds Mar 18, 2022

Why do crowds move us?

Being part of a crowd can embolden us: we might raise our voices in protest at a march, or snort-laugh more at a sold-out comedy gig. But in the popular imagination, big crowds are often associated with danger - with hysteria and violence. From the Hajj to a heavy metal concert, how does being surrounded by others change our behavior?

Dessa talks with a psychologist, a mathematician, an activist, and a legendary DJ to find out how we are moved by crowds.

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Dress Codes Mar 11, 2022

Why do we care so much about what people wear?

An etiquette adviser, a civil rights lawyer, and an Iranian activist walk into a podcast studio…

Think twice before dismissing fashion as frivolity. Dress codes are about power - and they’re sometimes contentious enough to incite anger, legal battles, and even violence.

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Nakedness Mar 04, 2022

Why aren’t you naked?

Unless you’re reading this in the shower, sunbathing on a progressive beach, or as a fresh born babe, you’re probably wearing clothing - even if it’s hot out. Some people would rather risk death than stand totally naked in front of their peers.

Dessa tracks the topic from fig leaves to fur coats, colonialism to app user agreements, to find out why our sense of modesty is so pervasive.

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Dance Feb 25, 2022

Why do our bodies react to rhythm?

From rain dances to raves, dance has been a social tool for sexual selection and community cohesion. Dessa explores the neuroscience of music and movement, learns how dance therapy is used to treat motor disorders, and takes a lesson in butoh - the Japanese form sometimes called the Dance of Darkness.

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Accents Feb 18, 2022

Heyo, why do you talk like that?

Do French babies cry in French? Our accents may start to take shape well before we learn our first words. Dessa investigates why we speak the way we do - how our accents and dialects serve us; hamper us; and might even, in rare cases, lead to life-or-death consequences.

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Trailer: Season Two Jan 31, 2022

Monogamy, sleep deprivation, high fashion, and avant-garde Japanese dance—that’s right Deeply Human is coming back with a bang. In season 2, Dessa, speaks to psychologists, animal behaviorists, mathematicians, historians, and one legendary DJ to ask the evergreen question: why do you do what you do? Why does music animate our bodies? Why are we so keen to form social hierarchies? Why do humans use intoxicants? We’re talking about everyone’s favorite topic—you.

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Death May 24, 2021

It’s time to talk. It is never too late for a rigorous conversation about death activism, the guillotine and the ferocity of human love — unless, of course, you are dead already.

It is time to meet the death doulas who can help you through this, and learn why a “good death” might not be a good thing, and why it might be time to sit down with a pen and a pad and do a little thinking about your own exit.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Deja Vu May 17, 2021

What if everything you experienced felt like you had already lived it before? Meet the people for whom déjà vu is every day.

It’s that moment when you mix up past and present, the real and the imagined, and you can no longer trust your senses. How is it that the world is the same but the experience is completely weird? It’s like tasting your own tongue. What is going on in the mechanics of your mind?

Welcome to Déjà Ville, a virtual world designed to induce déjà vu in order to understand what happens when memory and our senses, our past and our present, all get scrambled up together.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Teenage Brain May 10, 2021

The experiences of being a teenager are deep and lasting — first break-ups, fierce arguments with parents, that time a friend tried to skateboard off the roof. Why is that time of life experienced so intensely and remembered so vividly?

Dessa finds that many answers lie in neuroanatomy and the way our brain wires itself as we grow. She meets teens and a brain scientist to find out why the rollercoaster highs and lows of teenage life might be good for us in ways adults just don’t get.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Sad Music May 03, 2021

Listening to sad songs is a weird, counterintuitive thing to do. Why listen to something that moves you to tears?

As someone who’s sensitivity to sad songs sometimes means pulling over until the tears clear, Dessa mulls major versus minor, explores what melody has in common with the sound of human crying, and quizzes a fellow songwriter about the power of screaming. Do sad songs reveal some secrets about empathy?

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Menopause Apr 26, 2021

If you think you’re too young to learn about menopause, you’re wrong. Prepare to be both surprised and entertained — and maybe even become a kinder son or daughter.

Our understanding of menopause has changed dramatically, and it’s our distant relatives the whales that may help explain what it’s for. And Dessa has a heart-to-heart with her dad about her grandmother, exploring the parts of our lives we should share more, generation to generation.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Spooked Apr 19, 2021

Why, when we’re alone, do we sometimes feel like we’re not? Why are we eager to find signs of life in our surroundings — to see faces in clouds, or to get creeped out when the house creaks at night?

Dessa investigates some of the most mystical, disorienting and disturbing experiences a person can have. She discovers that neuroscience, the study of our brains, might just help explain this big, important chunk of being human.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Mirror Mirror Apr 12, 2021

Our ideas of what’s beautiful are tied to symmetry. Symmetry attracts. Why? What’s so compelling about faces that are the same on both sides of that nose in the middle?

To study symmetry we dive into the world of asymmetry – where things are different. Dessa talks with a professor who studies right- and left-handedness, a graphic designer who explains the appeal of a bit of asymmetry and a woman who grew up with a distinctly asymmetrical face – and ended up in a very surprising profession as a result.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Standing Line Apr 05, 2021

Budging. Cutting in line. Skipping. Butting. Doesn’t it make your blood boil? The standing line evokes strong feelings about justice — breaking what we see as the rules for waiting in line can arouse anger and even violence that feel totally out of proportion to the length of our wait. Why are we such raging moralists when it comes to waiting our turn?

Dessa finds out what standing in line can reveal about social status and hidden power dynamics — and that the serpentine line in her local supermarket is a good thing.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Sex Mar 29, 2021

Most female mammals schedule their sex life into just the couple of days in their cycle when they’re fertile. So why do humans do it whenever the mood strikes? (Well, in theory, at least.)

To find out, Dessa explores stinky t-shirt tests and all sorts of things we’d better not mention here. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Lying Mar 22, 2021

High-stakes lies have all sorts of consequences: perjurers are imprisoned and slanderers are sued. But when your coworker asks your opinion on his new haircut, a little lie feels obligatory. You lie much more than you’re probably aware of — but is that a bad thing?

Dessa finds out why lying can be a dangerous habit. She discovers whether polygraph machines really work, and why a professor of psychology rejoiced when a hidden camera caught his three-year-old son fibbing.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Pain Mar 15, 2021

Hurting, pain and suffering might just be some of the most important things that make you who you are. That pain, though, may be almost invisible to those around you.

Suffering is often private and difficult to discuss. You can’t hold your pain up to the light for someone else to examine or drape it around their shoulders to see how it might fit. Yet our experience of pain can change the way we think about ourselves and others.

In an effort to understand how suffering works, Dessa gets burned — literally — and talks pain scales, placebos and the grade school game of sticking gum wrappers to your forehead.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

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Dating Mar 08, 2021

We spend a lot of time looking for love — but have we got that wrong? Is love something you discover, or something you’d be better off growing into? It’s all down to choice…but not too much!

Dessa finds answers in the supermarket cereal aisle and the brain scans carried out by a biological anthropologist, which is basically someone who puts your life in the context of everyone else’s. Think you’re special? Think again. Plus Dessa hears some words of wisdom from her mom on how best to navigate the wilderness of dating aps.

Listen and love deeper.

Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

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Introducing: Deeply Human Feb 10, 2021

Musician, writer and science fiend Dessa explores the hidden motors that drive human experience and behavior. Why do we get déjà vu? Why are we attracted to symmetrical faces? Why do we listen to music that makes us sad? Why is the female orgasm still such a mystery to sex researchers?

Here are tender and moving personal stories as well as the latest scientific and psychological understanding of human nature. All combined at times with fits of laughter and just plain puzzlement. Deeply Human finds out what we all want to know: why do you do what you do?

Subscribe for free now, so you'll be the first to hear Deeply Human when episodes launch Monday, March 8.

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