Cognitive Psychology podcasts

Sana Qadar speaks with cognitive neuroscientist Reuben Rideaux and English professor Sophie Gee about how using AI may affect thinking, memory and creative work. They examine cognitive offloading, the potential contributions of AI tools, and which parts of intellectual activity benefit from continued human engagement.

Hosted by Sana Qadar

Psychologist Martin Seligman continues his discussion of learned helplessness by examining how people interpret discouraging thoughts and develop a sense of agency. The conversation explores ways of recognizing possibilities and building confidence in the capacity to influence future events. This is the second part of the interview, following the episode published on 21 September 2026.

Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

Sana Qadar explores the cognitive processes involved in reading and the effects of narrative fiction with Genevieve McArthur, Lili Yu and Raymond Mar. The episode considers literacy difficulties, reading research and the relationship between stories, cognition and wellbeing, alongside readers' personal experiences.

Hosted by Sana Qadar

Psychologist Martin Seligman joins Hidden Brain to discuss learned helplessness and why some people act on opportunities while others believe their actions cannot change outcomes. The conversation examines how interpretations of setbacks influence later behaviour and how optimism can help people recover a sense of agency. Seligman is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Hosted by Shankar Vedantam and published by Hidden Brain Media on 21 September 2026, this is the first part of How to Make a Difference. The official episode page provides a public audio player.

Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

Linguist Deborah Tannen examines how differences in conversational style create unintended conflict in families, friendships and workplaces, and how greater awareness can improve communication. This release revisits an earlier interview with Tannen, a professor at Georgetown University, and adds a new Your Questions Answered segment in which Emma Levine addresses listener questions about the psychology of lying. Hosted by Shankar Vedantam and published by Hidden Brain Media on 14 September 2026. The official episode page offers public audio, research references and a transcript, with a warning that the transcript may reflect an earlier version.

Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

Psychologist Anthony Klotz discusses how unexpected experiences interrupt familiar routines and change the way people make decisions about their lives. He examines how these moments can clarify personal goals and future choices. In a later conversation, psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis answers listeners’ questions about creative breakthroughs.

Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

Masud Husain explains the neuroscience of motivation, dopamine, effort, and reward, together with research on apathy, dementia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive resilience.

Computer scientist and cognitive scientist Melanie Mitchell discusses why artificial intelligence does not think or reason like humans, how developmental and comparative psychology can improve machine-cognition experiments, and six principles for testing AI competence, robustness, and failure modes.

Ralph Adolphs explains how the brain creates emotions including fear, joy, and awe, and discusses evidence-based approaches to emotion regulation. The episode connects neural mechanisms with attention, decision-making, and bodily state.

Andrew Huberman and Fei-Fei Li discuss how artificial intelligence works, spatial intelligence, human cognition, creativity, learning, health and human agency.

Nature reporters discuss the chemical signal used by naked mole-rat queens to maintain reproductive hierarchy and how people reason when learning unfamiliar games.

Marc Berman discusses evidence on how exposure to natural environments affects cognition, mood and wellbeing. The conversation contrasts time spent in natural settings with indoor, screen-based and urban environments, and examines the emerging field of environmental neuroscience. It considers how nature may support cognitive performance as well as psychological, physical and social wellbeing.

Hosted by Sean Carroll

James Harrison presents his proposed account of hypnosis as mental foraging, relating changes in attention and internal state to memory and prediction. The conversation explores interoception, engagement with the external world and memory reconsolidation as possible ways to explain hypnotic experience.

Hosted by Paul Middlebrooks

Vibeke Riiser-Larsen and Erik Tunstad discuss rationality, critical thinking and tools for evaluating arguments and evidence. Conversation in Norwegian.

Jan-Ole Hesselberg discusses decision research and the factors that shape everyday choices and professional judgments. Conversation in Norwegian.

Hilde Østby discusses how memories are formed, reconstructed and sometimes distorted. Conversation in Norwegian.