It’s so easy, especially these days, to numb out. To get bored. To move through life on autopilot. There is even a scientific term for this: habituation. Today we’re talking to a researcher who co-authored a new book about the neuroscience of habit and how to wake up again. To make things exciting. Or as she says, to “

This Stanford psychologist has evidence that being a cynic is bad for your health, and offers a non-corny alternative.  Dr. Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He’s the author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured Wo

Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar talks about how to get comfortable with uncertainty in an ever-changing world.  It seems like a design flaw in our species that we live in a world of constant change yet most of us are not comfortable with uncertainty.  In this episode, we talk to Maya Shankar about how to get better at

Smart and practical strategies for living, in Maria's words, wonder-smitten by reality. Maria Popova thinks and writes about our search for meaning — sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children's books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian (born in

Our guest today is James R. Doty, a neurosurgeon who has just written a whole book about the science of manifestation – although, as you’ll hear him admit, there’s very little ‘magic’ involved in his process.  James R. Doty, M.D. is a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, compassion researcher, inventor, entrepreneur,

A neuroscientist’s strategies to help you remember what really matters, and how mood, multitasking and other people can impact our memories Charan Ranganath is a professor at the Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology and director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis.  He is