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Human Potential Lab — Education
Human Potential Lab

For eleven years and 478 episodes, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman hosted The Psychology Podcast, one of the most listened-to psychology shows in the world, with more than 30 million downloads. Human Potential Lab is what that show has become.

The questions have moved. What is a mind? What makes something conscious? What happens to being human when the things we build start to look like minds themselves? Too much of the work is happening out of public view. In this new show, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman sits down with the scientists, philosophers and technologists working at the frontier — the people whose work is actively deciding what we could become as a species.

Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist and the founder of the Center for Human Potential. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and an M.Phil. from Cambridge, has taught at Columbia, NYU and the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author or editor of twelve books, including Transcend, Ungifted, Wired to Create and Rise Above. New episodes every other week from October 28, 2026.

Copyright: © 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia

Latest Episodes:

[Rerun] Kristin Neff on The Healing Power of Self-Compassion Sep 12, 2019

Show notes

A pioneering researcher in the psychology of self-compassion, Dr. Kristin Neff provides deep insight into the incredible healing power of being your own ally. In this episode, we cover some immediately useful ways to practice self-compassion and gain its many benefits. Self-compassion has been linked to reductions in anxiety, physical pain, depression and the stress hormone cortisol. It’s been shown to increase motivation, improve a mastery mindset, and enhance well-being. There’s a great deal of levity in this episode as we discuss how we can benefit from learning to care for ourselves the way we care for others.

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

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[Rerun] Robert Greene on The Laws of Human Nature Sep 05, 2019

Show notes

Today we have Robert Greene on the podcast. Robert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, The Art of Seduction, and Mastery, and is an internationally renowned expert on power strategies. His latest book is The Laws of Human Nature.

In this episode we discuss:

What is human nature?
How to transform self-love into empathy
The deep narcissist vs. the the heathy narcissist
Abraham Maslow’s encounter with Alfred Adler
How to confront your dark side
Returning to your more authentic self
How people who are one-sided are concealing the opposite trait
The importance of not taking yourself too seriously
How to see through people’s masks
The importance of assessing people’s actions over time
Why toxic types have a peculiar sort of charm
Healthy people-pleasers vs. toxic people-pleasers
How to get in deep contact with your purpose
The importance of becoming aware of the “spirit of the generation”
How to confront your mortality and open your mind to the sublime

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[Rerun] Brené Brown on Creativity, Courageous Vulnerability and Wholehearted Living Aug 29, 2019

Show notes

We are especially grateful (and giddy) to be sharing this episode with our listeners! Brene Brown’s work really gels with our core interests here on The Psychology Podcast, and the resulting conversation contains some enthusiastic and empirically informed banter that is sure to inform and delight. We geek out over some counter-intuitive findings, like how incredibly compassionate people have a tendency to set the most boundaries and say “no.” We discuss the power of being vulnerable and how the data suggests that it is one of the best predictors of courage. We chat about how trying to be cool is the enemy of truly being cool, how we can enrich future generation’s learning with wholehearted living, and how ignoring our creativity defies our essential nature. It’s ~45 minutes of two experts in the field sharing data, and themselves, and it’s one of our favorite episodes yet.

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[Rerun] Susan Cain on The Quiet Revolution: Unlocking the Power of Introverts Aug 22, 2019

Show notes

Best-selling author Susan Cain shares her personal philosophy and the research that started a movement to empower introverts! For this episode, we wanted to share ourselves – We discuss our values, epiphanies and perspectives on the good life. We also shed light on introversion across a range of topics, including vocations, testing and the differences between scientific and cultural conceptualizations of introversion.

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David Vago || Mind the Mindfulness Hype Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

Today it’s a delight to have David Vago on the podcast. Dr. Vago is Research Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He also maintains an appointment as a research associate in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. David aims to clarify adaptive mind-brain-body interactions and their therapeutic relevance in health-care settings. In this context, David has been specifically focusing on the study of mindfulness-based interventions in clinical settings, and the basic cognitive and neuroscientific mechanisms by which mindfulness-based practice function.

In this episode we discuss:

What is contemplative science?
History of the idea of “contemplation”
Including intuition under the umbrella of contemplative practice
The aim of mindfulness
Pop writers on mindfulness vs. scientists of mindfulness
What do we know after 25 years of mindfulness research?
The link between mindfulness and how we cope with pain
The link between mindfulness and reducing anxiety
The link between mindfulness and improving depression
How there are a lot of crap studies out there on mindfulness
What are the potential adverse effects of mindfulness?
Why it’s difficult to look at the link between mindfulness and cognitive outcomes
Mindfulness and its impact on impulse control
The impact of mindfulness on attention
The need for better measures of outcomes in mindfulness research
The link between mindfulness and creativity
The false narrative about mindfulness and mind wandering (and the default mode network)
The relationship between mindfulness and wisdom
The main challenges of investigating mindfulness through neuroscience
Why mindfulness is not the end all and be all
The usefulness of taking an evidence-based approach to looking at the benefits of mindfulness

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Christian Miller || How Good Are We, Really? Aug 08, 2019

Show notes

Today it’s great to have Christian Miller on the podcast. Dr. Miller is A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and Director of the Character Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton World Charity Foundation. He is the author of over 75 papers as well as the author of Moral Character: An Empirical Theory, Character and Moral Psychology, and most recently, The Character Gap: How Good Are We?

In this episode we discuss:

The main aims of the Character Project
Christian’s attempt to integrate positive psychology research with philosophy
Replication of the famous Milgram experiment
Fairness norms among infants
Can we draw boundaries around the notion of “moral character”?
What factors predict whether people help?
How we’re a mixed bag between the poles of compassion and callousness
What Christian’s research has discovered about people’s tendency toward helping, hurting, lying and cheating
Can we make humans better?
How SBK and Aristotle are on the same page

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

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Brian Nosek || Implicit Bias and Open Science Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

oday with have Brian Nosek on the podcast. Nosek is co-Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Open Science (http://cos.io/) that operates the Open Science Framework (http://osf.io/). The Center for Open Science is enabling open and reproducible research practices worldwide. Brian is also a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2002. He co-founded Project Implicit (http://projectimplicit.net/), a multi-university collaboration for research and education investigating implicit cognition–thoughts and feelings that occur outside of awareness or control. Brian investigates the gap between values and practices, such as when behavior is influenced by factors other than one’s intentions and goals. Research applications of this interest include implicit bias, decision-making, attitudes, ideology, morality, innovation, and barriers to change. Nosek applies this interest to improve the alignment between personal and organizational values and practices. In 2015, he was named one of Nature’s 10 and to the Chronicle for Higher Education Influence list.

In this episode we discuss:

The genesis of Project Implicit
The current state of the field of implicit bias
Overuses of the Implicit Association Test (IAT)
The common desire people have for simple solutions
The potential for misuse of the IAT for real-world selection
How hard it is to study human behavior
What the IAT is really capturing
How the degree to which the IAT is trait or state-like varies by the topic you are investigating
Cultural influences on the IAT
Brian’s criticism of implicit bias training
The latest state of the science on implicit bias
How our ideologies creep in even when we are trying to be unbiased
The difference between implicit attitudes and conscious attitudes
What would an equality of implicit associations look like?
Why bias is not necessarily bad
The genesis of The Reproducibility Project
What are some classic psychological studies that haven’t replicated?
The importance of having compassion for the scientist
The importance of having the intellectual humility of uncertainty
The importance of cultivating the desire to get it right (instead of the desire to be right)
What is open science?
What is #BroOpenScience?
How hostility on social media can cause us to lose the view of the majority
The importance of balancing getting it right with being kind to others

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

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Michael Pipich || Owning Bipolar Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

“Don’t be afraid. You are not alone.” – Michael Pipich

Today we have Michael Pipich on the podcast. Pippich is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist, and has treated a wide range of mental disorders and relationship problems in adults and adolescents for over 30 years. Michael is also a national speaker on Bipolar Disorder and has been featured on radio and in print media on a variety of topics. His latest book is Owning Bipolar: How Patients and Families Can Take Control of Bipolar Disorder.

In this episode we discuss:

The main characteristics of bipolar disorder
The three main types of bipolar
The suicidal potential among bipolar
Michael’s three-phase approach to treat patients with bipolar
The benefits of mania
The link between bipolar and creativity
How people with bipolar can thrive
Taking responsibility for your bipolar
How loved ones and family members can support those with bipolar
Linkages between bipolar and the different types of narcissism
Reaching out to help others

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

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Gleb Tsipursky || A Science-Based Guide to Truth Seeking Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

Today we have Dr. Gleb Tsipursky on the podcast. Dr. Tsipursky is passionate about promoting truth, rational thinking, and wise decision-making. He is a tenure-track professor at Ohio State, serves as the volunteer President of the nonprofit Intentional Insights, is a co-founder of the Pro-Truth Pledge, and the author of a number of a number of books, most notably the #1 Amazon bestseller The Truth Seeker¹s Handbook: A Science-Based Guide. He is currently working on a book on relationships and cognitive bias.

In this interview we discuss:

Gleb’s humble worldview
How humans are not adapted to evaluate reality clearly
“The backfire effect”
How to make better choices aligned with reality
When should we rely on our gut?
How we so often fall prey to the “fundamental attribution error”
Ways we can recognize the thinking errors that prevent us from seeing reality more clearly
How friends can be the enemies of wise choices
The irrationality of political decisions
The importance of differentiating between the truth and personal values
How Gleb derives his personal values
Why people lose so much money in the stock market
Why you don’t want to invest in a mutual funds
Why the mainstream media be careful when they criticize conservatives
The one thing Trump got right in Charlottesville
How to convince your enemies to collaborate with you
How Gleb escaped the darkness of mental illness through his rational approach to living
How we can protect our happiness against emotional traps
Gleb’s “Pro-Truth Pledge” (https://www.protruthpledge.org)
How you can live the life you want to live

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cara Santa Maria || Clinical Psychology and Social Justice Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

Today it’s great to have Cara Santa Maria on the podcast. Cara is an Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster. She is a correspondent on National Geographic’s flagship television series Explorer, and she is the creator and host of a weekly science podcast called Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. Cara also co-hosts the popular Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, and hosts the new podcast Fixed That for You. Additionally, she co-authored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book with her podcast co-hosts and is the spokesperson for National Geographic’s Almanac 2019. Cara is a founding member of the Nerd Brigade and cofounded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp.

In this episode we discuss:

The importance of studying the good death from a multidisciplinary perspective
The challenges working with at-risk adolescent youth
What it was like for Cara to shift focus from public science communicator to graduate school
Cara’s focus on social justice and diversity within her clinical psychology research
How depression and anxiety look different in different cultures and among different languages
Barriers to accessibility to studying psychology through a social justice lens
Cara’s personal hurdles as a woman in science
Cara’s personal experience with Neil deGrasse Tyson
The real meaning of free speech
How #BelieveAllWomen and due process are not diametrically opposed to each other
The importance of taking into account base rates when reasoning about the prevalence of sexual abuse
The importance of being as unbiased as possible when encountering individuals
Balancing #BelieveAllWomen with #NotAllMen
The need for a multi-pronged approach to making social change
What to do when social justice narratives conflict with the data
The importance of existential-humanistic psychology

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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