Psycholinguistics podcasts

Psychologist Steven Pinker joins Shankar Vedantam to explore why people communicate indirectly despite learning that honesty is desirable. The conversation examines hedging, softened wording and meanings left unstated, and considers the role these patterns play in human relationships.

Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

Cory Shain discusses efforts to map language processing in individual brains with greater precision. Combining measurements from different recording methods, the research aims to explain how people understand and produce language and to inform future technologies for restoring communication.

Hosted by Nicholas Weiler