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Latest Episodes:

Roy Baumeister || Overcoming the Power of Bad Mar 26, 2020

Show notes

“Life has to win every day, death only has to win once.” — Roy Baumeister

Today it’s great to have Roy Baumeister on the podcast. Dr. Baumeister is currently professor of psychology at the University of Queensland and is among the most prolific and most frequently cited psychologists in the world, with over 650 publications. His 40 books include the New York Times bestseller Willpower. His research covers self and identity, self-regulation, interpersonal rejection and the need to belong, sexuality and gender, aggression, self-esteem, meaning, consciousness, free will, and self-presentation. In 2013 he received the William James award for lifetime achievement in psychological science (the Association for Psychological Science’s highest honor), and his latest book, co-authored with John Tierney, is called “The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It”.

In this episode we discuss:

How the human brain has a tendency to focus on the bad
Why bad is processed more thoroughly than good
The latest research on ego depletion
Roy’s take on the replication crisis
Why falsely accused people have trouble repairing their reputation
Why the bad gets so much more publicity than the good
Early career researchers and the lack of incentive for exporation
Why we are wired for bad
The importance of the Pollyanna principle
Roy’s words of wisdom for those with anxiety over the Coronavirus
“The rule of 4”
Why are hell fearing religions more popular than those preaching a benevolent message?
Gordon Allport’s distinction between mature and immature religion
The riskiness of drawing too much on the self
Roy’s thoughts on the best route to the good life
Ways we can see the bigger picture
The “negative Golden Rule”
How to get on the “low-bad diet”

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Max Lugavere || Heal Your Mind, Strengthen Your Body, and Become Extraordinary Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

Today it’s great to have Max Lugavere on the podcast. Max is a filmmaker, health and science journalist and the author of the New York Times best-selling book Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life, which is now published in 8 languages around the globe. He is also the host of the #1 iTunes health podcast The Genius Life. Lugavere appears regularly on the Dr. Oz Show, the Rachael Ray Show, and The Doctors. He has contributed to Medscape, Vice, Fast Company, CNN, and the Daily Beast, has been featured on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, and in The Wall Street Journal. He is a sought-after speaker and has given talks at South by Southwest, TEDx, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Biohacker Summit in Stockholm, Sweden, and many others. Max is excited to release his sophomore book, The Genius Life: Heal Your Mind, Strengthen Your Body, and Become Extraordinary, a lifestyle guide to living happily and healthily with proven, research-based lifestyle tactics.

What is “nutritional psychiatry”?
The importance of preserving protein in your body
How longevity and nutrition is a continually evolving science
Environmental toxins that we are exposed to on a daily basis
The influence of the environment on emotional instability
The “three Ps” of detoxification
The importance of consuming a “nutrient dense diet”
The importance of sweating regularly
The potential of house plants to purify the air
The dangers of tap water
The dangers of consuming processed foods
The importance of whole foods
How to make your gym sessions more efficient
How exercise is a form of medicine
How the right tools in your toolkit can alleviate depression and anxiety
The importance of taking a whole body approach

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Carol Dweck || The Latest Science of Growth Mindset Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

Today it’s a real honor to have Carol Dweck on the podcast. Dr. Dweck is a leading researcher in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford. Her research examines the role of mindsets in personal achievement and organizational effectiveness.

Dr. Dweck has also held professorships at Columbia and Harvard Universities, has lectured to education, business, and sports groups around the world, has addressed the United Nations, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and has won 12 lifetime achievement awards for her research. Her best-selling book Mindset has been widely influential and has been translated into over 25 languages.

In this episode we discuss:

Carol’s earliest research on “incremental” vs. “entity” beliefs
Carol’s dream of “bottling” the mindsets that lead people to persevere
The limitations of Carol’s earlier studies
The two big developments in studying growth mindset
Growth mindset exercises
The “Big Mama” of growth mindset studies
The underwhelming effect size of educational interventions
How lower-achieving students benefit more from growth mindset interventions
The conditions under which growth mindset interventions don’t work
The role of teacher mindset on teaching effectiveness
The relationship between growth mindset and other outcomes in life
How growth mindset doesn’t invalidate the existence of giftedness
Why every child should be challenged
Why we shouldn’t cut out gifted and talented programs
How praising gifted students for effort can backfire
The relationship between mindsets and IQ
How having a fixed mindset can sometimes lead to increased performance
Cross-cultural differences in mindsets
Criticism that growth mindset claims have been overblown
Carol Dweck’s dream of improving the sustainability of growth mindset interventions (Dweck’s “next big Mount Everest”)
Why mindset is not a “miracle maker”
What Carol Dweck is most excited about in terms of future directions

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Coleman Hughes || The Humanity of Race Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

“There are very few people who have nothing of any value to say.” — Coleman Hughes

Today it’s great to have Coleman Hughes on the podcast. Coleman is an undergraduate philosophy major at Columbia University and a columnist for Quillette magazine. His writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and the Spectator.

In this episode we discuss:

Coleman’s initial plan in life to become a trombonist
Coleman’s early childhood education
Coleman’s transformation of his thinking about race
Coleman’s nuanced thoughts on intersectionality
Why we set up a norm against racial stereotyping
Is reverse-racism legitimate?
How the main message of the civil rights movement is often ignored today
Coleman’s humanistic perspective on race
Coleman’s criticism of the woke mindset
What makes sense about the woke mindset
Looking at things from the perspective of police officers
Understanding the causes of the underrepresentation of African Americans in gifted education programs
The moral imperative to enhance cognitive development of people in the bottom of society
How racial categories can mislead us
How people underrate the value of local programs and community to solve problems of racism
Why policy shouldn’t look at racial disparities
The important distinction between culture and race
Why focusing on racial disparities (assuming that racial disparities are a proxy for well-being) is a mistake
Coleman’s vision for the good society

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Nir Eyal || How to Be Indistractable Feb 27, 2020

Show notes

Today it’s really great to have Nir Eyal on the podcast. Nir is formerly a Lecturer in Marketing at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and also taught at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. His first book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, was an international bestseller. His current book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, reveals the Achilles’ heel of distraction and provides a guidebook for getting the best of technology without letting it get the best of us. Nir blogs at: NirAndFar.com

In this episode we discuss:

The one superpower that Nir would want
The root cause of distraction
What really motivates us
How distraction starts from within
How time management is pain management
What is the role of boredom in distractibility?
How to raise indistractible kids
How to remove the external trigger of kids
The critical question that people should ask
How can you prevent distraction with pacts?
How we can use precommitments to keep ourselves focused
How people overuse of the word “addiction”
The stigmatization of ADHD
Treating a kid’s use of technology the same way we think of a swimming pool
How children are “hypocrisy detection devices”
The importance of setting a good example for children
Self-determination theory and the rise of cell phone use
Can too much concentration, and too little daydreaming, be a bad thing?

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Lori Gottlieb || Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

Today we’re excited to have Lori Gottlieb on the podcast. Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and is the co-host of iHeart’s upcoming “Dear Therapists” podcast, produced by Katie Couric. She is also a TED speaker, a member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind, and advisor to the Aspen Institute. She is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, CNN, and NPR’s “Fresh Air.” Learn more at LoriGottlieb.com or by following her @LoriGottlieb1 on Twitter.

In this episode we discuss:

The fundamental themes of human existence
Irvin Yalom’s influence on Lori Gottlieb
Why we feel isolated in our experiences
The loneliness crisis on college campuses
How the internet helps us numb
How to know when social media has become an addiction
Why happiness as a goal is a disaster
SBK analyzes Lori Gottlieb
Why we are often scared to do things that excite us
Why there is no “hierarchy of pain”
The hierarchy of pain and the social justice movement
Why is it so hard for us to change when we know what to do?
Why we don’t let ourselves be happy
The importance of self-compassion
The most important factor in the success of therapy
What makes for a boring patient?
Why feelings sometimes don’t care about facts
Common myths of therapy
“Part of us wants something and there’s another part of us that goes against the thing we want”
Why “our feelings need air”
How numbness is a state of being overwhelmed by too many feelings
The importance of seeing your own agency and the choices you have

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

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Jonathan Mooney || Normal Sucks Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

“The only normal people are the people you don’t know very well.” — Jonathan Mooney

Today we have Jonathan Mooney on the podcast. Jonathan is a dyslexic writer and speaker who did not learn to read until 12 years old. He faced a number of low expectations growing up— was told he would flip burgers, be a high school drop out and end up in jail. Needless to say these prophecies didn’t come to pass. Today, he speaks across the nation about neurological and physical diversity, inspiring those who live with differences and advocating for change. Mooney’s work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, HBO, NPR, and ABC News, and his books include The Short Bus, Learning Outside the Lines, and most recently, Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines.

In this episode we discuss:

What is normal?
How the creation of special ed was originally an act of inclusion
The unintended complications of creating a special education program
Jonathan’s story growing up in special ed
The twice-exceptional (2e) movement
How giftedness comes with a “complicated brew” of assets and challenges
The importance of recognizing the 2e within ourselves and sharing that with the world
The importance of not hiding the things that make us different, but celebrating those things
How Jonathan once took on many personas to hide his differences
How the average got conflated with the impossible ideal in society
The value judgement that is placed on IQ from a cultural perspective
Going from “How smart are you?” to “How are you smart”?
Jonathan feeling deficient because he was different
How Jonathan went on a journey driving a school bus across the United States and listened to people with atypical brains and bodies
The value of human fallibility
The Eye to Eye mentoring program
How the private sector corporate diversity policies can make difference by including atypical brains and bodies as part of diversity initiatives

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

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Paul Bloom || The Joy of Suffering and the Downside of Empathy Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

Today it's great to have Paul Bloom on the podcast. Dr. Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. Dr. Bloom is also author or editor of seven books, including Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

In this wide-ranging and provocative episode we discuss:

Paul's graduate research with Steven Pinker
Is language the result of biological evolution or cultural evolution?
What "hardwired" really means
Why innate mechanisms require environmental input
The necessity of bias
Some potential downsides of empathy
The case for rational compassion
Cognitive empathy vs. affective empathy
Did Hitler have the capacity for empathy?
The joy of suffering
Why do we choose to suffer?
The fundamental human need for exploration
The human need to overcome challenges
Would some people be content watching Netflix and smoking pot all day?
The relationship between income and happiness
The importance of spending money well
The psychology of expectation and pleasure
If someone offer you more money, should you take it?
Relief vs. pleasure
Does enjoying something depend on how much we think we will enjoy something?
Art and authenticity
Art and value judgements
Would Tarzan believe in God?
Are babies basically good?
Why religion is so pervasive
Are babies moral?
How a powerful moral sense is responsible for an extraordinary amount of evil in the world
Is moral grandstanding always bad?
Why not everything is virtue signaling

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Cory Muscara || Stop Missing Your Life Jan 02, 2020

Show notes

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Today it’s great to have Cory Muscara on the podcast. Cory is an international speaker and teacher on the topics of presence and well-being. He believes that when people are deeply fulfilled, they are a better force in the world for other beings, the environment, and their communities. For several years he taught mindfulness-based leadership at Columbia University and currently serves as an assistant instructor of positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012, Cory spent 6 months in silence living as a monk in Burma, meditating 14+ hours per day, and now aims to bring these teachings to people in a practical and usable way, presenting to schools, organizations and healthcare systems, as well as through workshops and retreats for the general public. Named by Dr. Oz as one of the nation’s leading experts on mindfulness, his meditations have now been heard more than 10 million times in over 100 countries. Cory is host of the popular daily podcast, Practicing Human, and the author of Stop Missing Your Life: How to Be Deeply Present in an Un-Present World. In this episode we discuss: <ul> <li>Cory’s transformation from frat boy to monk</li> <li>Can monks be self-actualizing?</li> <li>The importance of not being enslaved by certain parts of you</li> <li>How to overcame pain through mindfulness</li> <li>The emotional body vs. the sensation body</li> <li>The process of detaching sensations from the labels we put on them</li> <li>Equanimity and allowing life to happen</li> <li>How equanimity is more about our internal experience than our external experience</li> <li>The “pain box”</li> <li>How to soften the “pain wall”</li> <li>Dispelling the myth of the “real you”</li> <li>Barriers to real connection</li> <li>What it means to be fully seen and accepted</li> <li>The importance of radical acceptance</li> <li>How the more parts of you that are brought in and accepted the more you feel as though the wholeness of you is accepted and seen</li> <li>The "scrollercoaster" meditation</li> <li>How we can take control of technology and take back our lives</li> </ul>

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Marc Brackett || Become an Emotion Scientist Dec 19, 2019

Show notes

“Emotion skills are the key to unlocking the potential inside each one of us. And in the process of developing those skills, we each, heart by heart, mind by mind, create a culture and society unlike anything we’ve experienced thus far— and very much like the one we might dare to imagine.” -- Marc Brackett

Today it's great to have Marc Brackett on the podcast. Dr. Brackett is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. His research focuses on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. Marc is the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based, systemic approach to SEL that has been adopted by over 2,000 preschool to high schools across the United States and in other countries. He has published 125 scholarly articles and received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins award for his research on social and emotional learning. He also is on the board of directors for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Marc consults regularly with corporations like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google on integrating emotional intelligence principles into employee training and product design and is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a digital emotional intelligence learning system for businesses. His research has been featured in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today, Good Morning America, and NPR. He is the author of Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help our Kids, Ourselves, and our Society Thrive, published by Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan, which has been translated into 15 languages.

In this wide-ranging episode we discus

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