Best selling author and social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson discusses motivational styles and how we can ensure people understand who we truly are. It’s a particularly actionable episode, where the listener can learn strategies aimed at effective communication, habit formation and making better motivational decisions.

In this raw and uncut episode, Mark Manson imparts his wisdom on the art of not giving a fuck. According to Manson, the key to living a good life is “not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important”. In this interview, we learn about this unique art form, and all of the counterintuitive ways that giving less fucks in your life actually frees you up to get more of what you truly value. You’ll learn how the acceptance of one’s negative experience can itself be a positive experience, the benefits of suffering, the futility of searching for happiness, the ways that emotions are overrated, and how to distinguish between good values and unproductive values. You’ll also be inspired to learn that you are not as special as you think you are, and that you are wrong about everything. As if that wasn’t motivating enough, you’ll also learn to accept your mundane existence, and the inevitability of death. This was a fun, wise, and at times, rather profound, interview. Note: In the spirit of Mark’s message, this entire interview is uncensored and unedited, which means that Scott shows extreme vulnerability in a way that he hasn’t before in past episodes. Fuck it.

“Cognitive neuroscientist Kent Kiehl discusses his research and personal experience working with “those without conscience.” Scott and Kent demystify the historically fascinating illness as it relates to criminal activity, genius, evil, flourishing, the brain, gender and treatment."

Five time international bestselling author Robert Greene shares his thoughts on creativity, finding your calling, social intelligence and his latest book about what it means to be a ‘Master’ of your craft.

Psychologist Dr. Todd Kashdan shares some unconventional research on how we can harness “negative” psychological characteristics to live whole, successful and fulfilling lives. Topics include the dark triad, emotional experimentation, mindfulness, education, evolution and what it means to live well.

Today I’m really excited to have Kati Morton on the podcast. Morton is as an entrepreneur, YouTube creator, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in Santa Monica, CA. Morton has built a global mental health online community, and is author of the book “Are U OK?: A Guide to Caring for Your Mental Health.”

In this episode we discuss:

• What’s the difference between mental health and mental illness?
• Breaking down the stigma of mental illness
• What should you look for when looking for a therapist?
• What are some warning signs of a terrible therapist?
• What’s the best way to deal with a toxic co-worker?
• What's the link between vulnerable narcissism and borderline personality disorder?
• How do you know if you need mental help?
• What are some of the most validated forms of therapy available today?
• How do you break up with friends that you’ve outgrown?
• The importance of healthy assertiveness
• How a very small no can equate to a very large yes
• How can you get more mental help when you need it?

Today we have one of the world's most preeminent attachment scientists, Dr. R. Chris Fraley, on the podcast! Fraley is a Professor at the University of Illinois's Department of Psychology and received the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award in 2007 for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of Individual Differences. In this episode of The Psychology Podcast, we take a deep dive into a few of Chris' many interesting research areas: attachment processes in close relationships, personality dynamics, and development.

Some of the questions we explore are: How are attachment styles measured? How does research on attachment styles differ between children and adults? What are the implications of individual differences in adult attachment styles? How does this relate to internal working models theory? How does all of that relate to one's own motivational account? What are the roles of nature vs. nurture in the development of attachment styles?

Dr. Elaine Aron is one of the world’s foremost experts on the highly sensitive person. She ought to be – she was its first researcher! In this episode, we cover this fascinating concept as it relates to a broad swath of psychological concepts like self-esteem, gender, love, leadership, personality, genetics and more. Roughly 20% of the population can be classified as highly sensitive, so all of us likely know someone (or are someone) with this trait. Also, Scott performs a statistical analysis live on air – it’s a first and a lot of fun!

Today I’m really excited to have James and Suzann Pileggi Pawelski on the podcast. James is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he cofounded the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman. Suzie is a freelance writer, Psychology Today blogger, and well-being consultant specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Together, James and Suzie are co-authors of the newly-released book “Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts”. They also give Romance and ResearchTM workshops together around the world.

In this episode we discuss:

• What people get wrong about relationships
• What the "relationship gym" is
• How to cultivate "Aristotelian love"
• The specific ways positive psychology can help you be happy with a partner
• The role of gratitude in relationships
• How to sustain passion in a relationship

James Clear studies successful people across a wide range of disciplines to uncover the habits and routines that make them the best at what they do. In this episode, we speak with James about his behavioral psychology background to uncover practical advice on how to flourish. The conversation is light and pleasant, while the content is deep and immediately useful for people looking to live better through science. Topics include habit formation, identity crafting, self-quantification and personal well-being. Enjoy and tell us what you think in the iTunes comments section!

Vanessa Van Edwards is a self-described “recovering boring and awkward person,” whose latest book, Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People, provides simple ways to decode people and level-up your relationships and networking abilities. It’s an especially practical episode, which features a handful of actionable strategies to be more effective in the social realm. We discuss research surrounding charisma, eye contact, hand gestures, relaxing one’s voice, and conquering social anxiety! To learn more about Vanessa, visit her website scienceofpeople.com.

Check out the #1 one recipe and fresh ingredient delivery service Blue Apron – get your first three meals free, with free shipping by signing up through blueapron.com/tpp

This week we're excited to have Robert Wright on The Psychology Podcast. Robert is the New York Times best-selling author of Nonzero, The Moral Animal, The Evolution of God, and most recently Why Buddhism is True. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Time, Slate, and The New Republic, and has taught at The University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, where he also created the online course Buddhism and Modern Psychology. Robert draws on his wide-ranging knowledge of science, religion, psychology, history and politics to figure out what makes humanity tick.

In this episode we cover:

• How "taking the red pill" from The Matrix can be likened to the practice of mediation,
• How and why "our brains evolved to delude us",
• If and how Buddhism gets you more in touch with "reality", including the bottom-up processes of cognition,
• Whether or not one can take parts of the practice too far,
• How Buddhism can be beneficial for seeing beauty where you didn't before,
• Why our default state of consciousness isn’t necessarily good,
• How this book might infer that evolutionary psychology is not a complete explanation for many human tendencies,
• Why many feelings are illusions and how we know when they are,
• Why it's true that "the more we engage a 'module' the more power it has",
• Robert's interpretation of what the Buddha really meant by the "non-self", and how this does or does not conflict with one's sense of identity.

In our conversation, Robert offers Buddhism as a solution for finding and sustaining happiness, exploring the interplay between Buddhist practices and evolutionary psychology in an unprecedented way. You may also find this episode interesting if you're curious about whether it's possible to see the world "accurately" or whether that's even best for one's well being. Enjoy!

Note to Psychology Podcast listeners: This happens to be the 100th episode of The Psychology Podcast. Thank you for your support! It's been a fun journey so far, and we're looking forward to the next 100 episodes!

It is an honor to have Dr. Steven Hayes, the father of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" (ACT), on the podcast this week. In this wide ranging episode, we learn about the "third wave" of cognitive behavioral therapies, and how to have greater psychological flexibility-- the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior when doing so serves valued ends. We will learn the 6 core ACT processes, and how they can help you stop fighting the battles within your own head and live a more vital life. The message from today's podcast is that you can choose to live a vital life. This episode will teach you how! Enjoy, and please join in the discussion below.

Modern day philosopher Alain de Botton has become world renown for his ability to provide compelling real world answers to some of life’s biggest questions. For this episode of The Psychology Podcast, we cover the philosophy and science of a range of topics, including what it means to have a “normal” relationship, the origins of the desire for religion, the pervasive lack of systematic thinking about happiness, how the illusion of perfection creates problems, existential crises and much more. We get a bit cheeky with a high brow discussion of the human condition. Fair warning that this episode does include some discussion of sex and pornography as they relate to well-being.

“The happiest person is the person doing good stuff for good reasons.” 

— Kennon Sheldon

Dr. Kennon Sheldon is a psychologist at the University of Missouri who studies motivation, goals, and well-being, from both a self-determination theory and a positive psychology perspective. He has authored or co-authored multiple books, including “Optimal human being: An integrated multi-level perspective”. Dr. Sheldon has been cited more than 30,000 times, and in 2010, he was named one of the 20 most cited social psychologists.

In this wide-ranging episode we discuss:

• How Ken went from aspiring musician to leading research on goals
• Whether the pursuit of happiness is worth it
• Is happiness in your genes?
• The link between goals and happiness
• The what and why of motivated goal pursuit
• The basic needs of self-determination theory
• Deprivation vs. growth needs
• Self-concordance theory
• The link between values and happiness
• How much can we use science as a guide to values?
• Are there some ways of being more conducive to happiness than others?
• How to get in touch with your OVP (organismic valuing process)
• Marrying positive psychology and humanistic psychology
• The relationship between personal goals and personal projects
• How to know when to change your goals
• The good life: well-being or well-doing?

Sharon Salzberg is a NYT best-selling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West. She also cofounded the Insight Meditation Society and is the author of 9 books, the most recent being Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection.

In this episode of The Psychology Podcast, we get to learn about why Sharon has devoted her life to these ideas, how meditation has impacted her consciousness, what characterizes "real love", what differences exist between the modern-scientific notions of attachment and Buddhist notions of nonattachment, what Loving Kindness practice is, how you can love someone even if you don't like them (and why you should), how to extend compassion to people who are already self-satisfied, why an important component of self-love is accountability, empathy burnout, how stories play a role in love, why love isn't a state, why excitement vs. familiarity in romantic relationships is perhaps a false paradox, and how mindfulness can help you reframe even the most emotionally difficult situations.

Sharon also takes us through her RAIN model for mindfulness:

R -recognize

A - acknowledge

I - investigate

N - nonidentification

Enjoy!

Links:

Buy Sharon's new book Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

Follow Sharon on Twitter

Find Sharon's meditations on:

The Insight Timer meditation app (iOS and Android) 

[Book] Eric Fromm's Art of Loving (mentioned)

It’s great to have Dr. Robert Leahy on the podcast today. Dr. Leahy completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School under the direction of Dr. Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy. Dr. Leahy is the past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, past president of the International Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy, past president of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy (NYC), and a clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill-Cornell University Medical School.

Dr. Leahy has received the Aaron T. Beck award for outstanding contributions in cognitive therapy, and he is author and editor of 25 books, including The Worry Cure, which received critical praise from the New York Times and has been selected by Self Magazine as one of the top eight self-help books of all time. His latest book is The Jealousy Cure: Learn to Trust, Overcome Possessiveness, and Save Your Relationship.

Topics:

• Why Dr. Lahey wrote The Anxiety Cure
• The new science of jealousy
• How jealousy differs from envy
• Why jealousy evolved
• What is the downside of intense jealousy?
• Why we don’t want to get rid of jealousy
• Are men and women equally jealous?
• The relationship between attachment style and jealousy
• What if there really is a reason to be jealous?
• What are some practical techniques that people can use to cope with their jealousy?
• The importance of normalizing jealousy

Psychologist Dr. Todd Kashdan shares some unconventional research on how we can harness “negative” psychological characteristics to live whole, successful and fulfilling lives. Topics include the dark triad, emotional experimentation, mindfulness, education, evolution and what it means to live well.

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. 

We’re making a real effort to improve the show for our listeners and would hugely appreciate 15 seconds of your time filling out this short survey: http://survey.libsyn.com/psychologypodcast (Email is not required).

“I firmly believe there is no person, no group, no behavior, no thing that is objectively evil. Perhaps evil only really exists in our fears.” -- Julia Shaw

Today it’s great to have Dr. Julia Shaw on the podcast. Dr. Shaw is a psychological scientist at UCL. She is best known for her work in the areas of memory and criminal psychology. In 2017 Dr. Shaw co-founded the memory science and artificial intelligence start-up Spot. Spot helps employees report workplace harassment and discrimination, and empowers organizations to build a more inclusive and respectful work environment. In 2016 she published her bestselling debut book "The Memory Illusion", which has appeared in 20 languages and in 2019 she published her second international bestseller "Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side".

Note: This episode goes down a lot of taboo alleys. The dark side of human nature  is a fascinating topic, but there may be some issues that you'd rather not hear about. Please review the list of topics before listening to this episode.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Julia got into criminal psychology
• How we all do “reality crafting”
• The depths of human hypocrisy
• Why we don’t always act in accord with our own morality
• Julia Shaw’s criticism of the label “evil”
• The neuroscience of “evil” and Hitler’s brain
• Your brain on porn
• How kink is stigmatized in our society
• Can you be a feminist and engage in BDSM?
• The “deviant sexual interests” scale
• The prevalence of rape fantasies
• Pedophiles vs. ephebophiles
• Why “curiosity shaming” limits discussion and understanding
• The science of beastiality and what makes one animal sexier than another animal
• Why we shame vegans
• Rape culture and how systems fail and lead to harm
• What we can do to reduce sexual violence in society
• The bright side of your dark side
• How we can use the dark side to be a hero (the heroic imagination)

Today it’s great to have Dr. Rex Jung on the podcast. Dr. Jung is an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, and a clinical neuropsychologist in private practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A graduate of the University of New Mexico, he has practiced neuropsychology in Albuquerque since 2002. His clinical work now centers around intraoperative testing of patients undergoing awake craniotomy to remove tumors within eloquent brain tissue – work with particular relevance to the study of individual differences. He has contributed to over 100 research articles across a wide range of disciplines, involving both clinical and normal populations, designed to assess brain-behavior relationships. He is the Editor of the Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity. His work has been featured on CNN, BBC, NOVA, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and National Geographic.

In this episode we discuss:

• Rex’s earlier work on the neuroscience of intelligence
• The distributed brain model of intelligence
• Rex’s investigation of Scott’s brain
• How the brain can compensate for disability
• How our intelligence can change over time
• Limitations of IQ tests for measuring intellectual potential
• The limits of neuroplasticity
• The genetics of intelligence
• The creative brain
• How the neuroscience of creativity is sometimes the inverse of the neuroscience of intelligence
• The “default network” of mental simulation 
• The human capacity to “simulate or try out ideas before you buy them”
• The beautiful architecture of the brain
• The neuroscience of genius
• Rex’s work on awake craniometries (neurological testing while a patient is awake and a tumor is being removed)

Today it’s great to have Dr. Steven Hayes on the podcast. Dr. Hayes is a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. The author of forty-three books and more than six hundred scientific articles, he has served as president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and is one of the most cited psychologists in the world. Dr. Hayes initiated the development of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and of Relational Frame Theory (RFT), the approach to cognition on which ACT is based. His research has been cited widely by major media, including: Time magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Men’s Health, Self, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Salon.com.

In this episode we discuss:

• Steven Haye’s journey to studying the science of liberation
• The lessons you can learn from your own pain and suffering
• How you can apply psychology to human prosperity
• Some limitations of the CBT approach (“CBT gone bad”)
• How we all have a “dictator within”
• Scott and Steven roleplay an ACT session
• How to apply ACT principles to dieting
• How Steven defines values
• The definition and importance of “psychological flexibility”
• How to get out of the “anxiety trap”
• How to pivot to what you really want
• How consciousness connects us to the infinite
• The 6 things that get in the way of pivoting
• The social/environmental side of ACT 
• “What does it gain us to give up on people?”
• ACT and social transformation
• What is love?

Dr. Elaine Aron is one of the world’s foremost experts on the highly sensitive person. She ought to be – she was its first researcher! In this episode, we cover this fascinating concept as it relates to a broad swath of psychological concepts like self-esteem, gender, love, leadership, personality, genetics and more. Roughly 20% of the population can be classified as highly sensitive, so all of us likely know someone (or are someone) with this trait. Also, Scott performs a statistical analysis live on air – it’s a first and a lot of fun!

A leader in the psychology of human mating, and an expert on both the cultural and biological foundations of love, Helen Fisher shares science-backed information on attraction, mate selection, infidelity, the neuroscience of love and the effects of culture on our biology. There’s a wealth of interesting facts here and some surprising insight into humanity’s quest for romance. We LOVED this episode!

A leading expert in the psychology of savantism for over 40 years and the scientific advisor for the film Rain Man, Darold Treffert is a wellspring of knowledge on this fascinating yet often misunderstood condition. In this episode we cover the brain anatomy of savantism, its causes and some of the incredible abilities of famous savants like Kim Peak, who memorized thousands of books verbatim (down to the page number)! We feel fortunate to have had this chance to learn so much about such an interesting topic from one of the most well respected researchers in the field. Please enjoy and tell us what you think!

Psychologist Dr. Todd Kashdan shares some unconventional research on how we can harness “negative” psychological characteristics to live whole, successful and fulfilling lives. Topics include the dark triad, emotional experimentation, mindfulness, education, evolution and what it means to live well.

Angela Duckworth researches self-control and grit, which is defined as passion and perseverance for long term goals. Her research has demonstrated that there are factors that can be more predictive of success than IQ. In this episode we cover some of her findings on grit, including academic and popular misconceptions of this work. We also discuss research on standardized testing, self-control and more.

Today we have Dr. Jordan Peterson on the podcast. Dr. Peterson has taught mythology to lawyers, doctors and business people, consulted for the UN Secretary General, helped his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia, served as an adviser to senior partners of major Canadian law firms, and lectured extensively in North America and Europe. With his students and colleagues at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Dr. Peterson has published over a hundred scientific papers. Dr. Peterson is also author of two books: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief and 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which is a #1 bestseller.

In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss the following topics:

– Why “learned irrelevance” is incredibly important

– Why creativity requires keeping a childlike wonder

– How hallucinogens clear the “doors of perception”

– The “shared vulnerability” model of the creativity-mental illness connection

– The neuroscience of openness to experience

– The personality of personal correctness

– The practical implications of gender differences

– The function of the state in helping to make sure there is equality of individual expression

– How agreeableness and conscientiousness orient us differently in the social world

– The difference between pathological altruism and genuine compassion

– The link between pathological altruism and vulnerable narcissism

– The difference between responsibility and culpability

– How to help people take responsibility and make their lives better

Links

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Jordan Peterson- What the State is For

Jordan Peterson- Future Authoring Program

Decreased Latent Inhibition Is Associated With Increased Creative Achievement in High-Functioning Individuals

Creativity and Psychopathology: A Shared Vulnerability Model

Openness to Experience and Intellect Differentially Predict Creative Achievement in the Arts and Science

Openness/Intellect: The Core of the Creative Personality

The Evolutionary Genetics of the Creativity-Psychosis Connection

Must One Risk Madness to Achieve Genius? 

The Real Neuroscience of Creativity

Personality and Complex Brain Networks: The Role of Openness to Experience in Default Network Efficiency

The Personality of Political Correctness

Default and Executive Network Coupling Supports Creative Idea Production

Gender Differences in Personality Across the Ten Aspects of the Big Five

Men and Things, Women and People: A Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Interests

Is There Anything Good About Men?

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

Pathological Altruism

Vulnerable Narcissism Is (Mostly) a Disorder of Neuroticism

Three time bestselling author and human guinea pig Tim Ferriss discusses how to become top 5% in the world with a new skill in just 6-12 months. Scott and Tim debunk the 10,000 hour rule, discuss general principles for accelerated skill acquisition, consider what it means to live the good life and take a sneak peak at Tim’s new show The Tim Ferris Experiment.

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.

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

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. 

We’re making a real effort to improve the show for our listeners and would hugely appreciate 15 seconds of your time filling out this short survey: http://survey.libsyn.com/psychologypodcast (Email is not required).

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.

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

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 MoralCharacter: 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

Today 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 #BroScience?
• 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

“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

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 nonprofitIntentional 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

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