Stanford Psychology Podcast - Stanford Psychology

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184 - Tamar Schapiro: What Philosophy Can(not) Tell us About Children, Adults, and the Root of All Evil Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

In this week’s episode, Julie and Adani chat with Tamar Schapiro, professor of philosophy at MIT! Tamar is interested in a wide range of things, from what it means to make good decisions in everyday life to ethical theory and the history of ethics (especially Kant and the British Moralists). We discussed Tamar’s work on why we treat children differently from adults, dig into whether and how reactivity might be the root of all evil, and close with some practical life advice based on Tamar’s own journey through philosophy and life!

Tamar’s faculty webpage: https://philosophy.mit.edu/schapiro
Tamar’s recent book, Feeling Like It: a Theory of Inclination and Will: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862932.001.0001
Tamar’s paper, Childhood and Personhood: https://access.heinonline.com/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/arz45&i=593

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on The Philosophy of Childhood: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/childhood/

Julie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hengj/

Adani: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

183 - William Damon: How to Live a Purposeful Life Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

This week, Katia Kriakova has a conversation with William Damon, a professor at Stanford University. He is one of the world's leading researchers on human development across the lifespan and has pioneered the scientific study of purpose in life. In this conversation, we explore how we can make our own lives more purposeful and expand purpose beyond ourselves.

William Damon’s book on purpose: The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life

William Damon’s paper: The Psychology of Purpose: A Comprehensive Approach

William Damon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdamon/

Katia Kriakova’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/

Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanford-psychology-podcast/

182 - Bill Burnett: How to Design a Meaningful Life Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

This week, Katia has a conversation with Bill Burnett, an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He is the co-founder of Stanford's Life Design Lab and also the co-author of Designing Your Life and How to Live a Meaningful Life. In this conversation, Bill shares how we can live in alignment with our values and compass, how prototyping can help us embrace uncertainty, and how to design a life that is more meaningful to us.

Designing Your Life Website: https://designingyour.life/

Bill Burnett’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-burnett-4225401/

Bill Burnett’s Books:

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day

Katia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/

Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

181 - Nomisha Kurian: Critical Hope for the Future of Children & AI Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

Adani chats with Nomisha Kurian, Assistant Professor in Education Studies at the University of Warwick, Associate Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research in Digital Education. Nomisha has been at the forefront of research on children’s safety and well-being, elucidating what it means for up-and-coming AI technologies to support children’s development and align with their best interests. She has also advised the UK Government Open Innovation Team, spearheaded policy briefs, and previously researched children’s rights law at Yale University. We discuss how a recently-viral NYT article relates to Nomisha’s frameworks for developmentally aligned AI, why we should have “critical hope” for the future, and learn more about the exciting things she’ll be releasing later this year!

NYT feature – “What Parents in China See in A.I. Toys”: https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000010595407/china-ai-toy-chatbot.html

Nomisha’s framework on developmentally aligned AI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00009-z
Nomisha’s further work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wT89nlAAAAAJ
Nomisha’s children’s book: https://nosycrow.com/book/university-of-cambridge-think-big-artificial-intelligence/

Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

180 - Andrew Lampinen: Translating Cognitive Psychology to AI Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Elizabeth chats with Dr. Andrew Lampinen as a part of our Alumni in Industry series. Andrew is currently a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic. Prior to joining Anthropic, he worked as a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, and before that he earned his PhD here at Stanford and researched how humans are able to learn new things rapidly. His work bridges cognitive science and artificial intelligence, often with a focus on how the complex behaviors and representations of models, agents, or humans emerge from their learning experiences or data. In this episode, Dr. Lampinen shares his experiences in academia and industry and offers an insightful perspective on how these two research landscapes may be similar and different.

Andrew's website: https://lampinen.github.io/

Elizabeth’s: website: imelizabeth.github.io

Elizabeth’s BlueSky: @imelizabeth.bsky.social

Podcast BlueSky @StanfordPsyPod.bsky.social

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

179 - Cynthia Osborne: Translating Evidence Into Early Childhood Policy Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

Adani chats with Cynthia Osborne, Professor at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center. Prof. Osborne’s work focuses on translating developmental science into effective, evidence-based policies for families and young children in the U.S. We discuss what the field of Early Childhood Policy entails, the ongoing work that Prof. Osborne and the Impact Center conduct, and why the first three years of childhood are so critical. Prof. Osborne also tells us about her path into her current work, how she built the Impact Center’s wonderful team, and what advice she would pass on to students seeking to bridge research and policy!

Cynthia Osborne’s page: https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/cynthia-osborne/
Cynthia Osborne’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tRc8EmMAAAAJ
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center: https://pn3policy.org/
Policy Impact Calculator: https://pn3policy.org/policy-impact-calculator/
Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap: https://pn3policy.org/pn-3-state-policy-roadmap-2025/

Adani’s website: https://stanford.edu/~aabutto/
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

178 - Julia Nolte: Why We Avoid Difficult Decisions Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

This week, Enna chats with Dr. Julia Nolte, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at Tilburg University. Julia’s research examines how information management, risk perception, and decision-making change across adulthood. She is particularly interested in what keeps people, especially older adults, from making well-informed and high-quality decisions, and how we can better support people in making choices that align with their goals and values.

In our conversation, Julia discusses how her early interest in theater sparked her interest in psychology, how she came to study aging and decision-making, and what her work can teach us about information avoidance, decision-making, and the very human challenge of choosing between imperfect options.

Julia’s Website: https://www.julianolte.org/

Julia’s X: @Dr_Julia_Nolte

Julia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-nolte-8aa02b158/

Julia’s Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361073X.2025.2473849

Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/

Enna’s X: @EnnaYuxuanChen

Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

177 - Alison Gopnik: How Can Understanding Childhood Help Us Build Better AI? (REAIR) Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

In this re-air (but more timely than ever!) episode from 2021, Anjie chats with Alison Gopnik, Professor at the Department of Psychology and Affiliate Professor at Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Alison is not only a great cognitive scientist and philosopher who has made many groundbreaking contributions to the field, but also a great science communicator. Alison authored multiple bestselling books, including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, The Gardener, and the Carpenter. She also writes widely about cognitive science and psychology for multiple national outlets including the NYT, the Atlantic, and so on. In this episode, we discussed one of her recent review pieces on the role of childhood in solving the explore-exploit dilemma, a challenge to contemporary artificial intelligence.

Alison's lab website: https://www.gopniklab.berkeley.edu/
Alison's paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0502
Alison's Twitter: @AlisonGopnik

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

176 - Elizabeth Bonawitz: How to Have Fun While Studying How Children Learn so Much From so Little May 29, 2026

Show notes

Adani chats with Elizabeth Bonawitz, Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth’s work focuses on basic theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. She uses computational, behavioral, and neural methods to study a broad variety of things within cognitive development, from children’s curiosity and belief revision to their exploration and play. We discuss Elizabeth’s view of cognitive development research and, most importantly, the secret formula behind her great academic paper titles and funny talks. Elizabeth also tells us about her path into science and what she’s most excited for next!

Elizabeth’s lab page: https://ccdlab.hsites.harvard.edu/people/elizabeth-bonawitz
Elizabeth’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MA7j1gkAAAAJ
Susan Carey’s paper, ‘Science Education as Conceptual Change’: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00046-5

Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Adani’s Bluesky @adani

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

175 - Nicholas Epley: A Little More Social May 14, 2026

Show notes

Nick Epley is the John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He studies social cognition—how thinking people think about other thinking people—to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. Nick is one of the “World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors” by Poets and Quants. He just published his second book for a popular audience called "A Little More Social."

In this episode, Eric and Nick talk about "undersociality," the key idea in his latest book. Are we being less social than is good for us? How can we learn to connect, especially when it feels effortful? Can we be too social as well? How can we learn more about ourselves when we connect with others? What are the methodological limitations of Nick's work?

Book: https://sites.prh.com/a-little-more-social

Nick's Website: https://www.nicholasepley.com/

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

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