27 episodes and counting. Every episode comes with a free downloadable PDF cheatsheet summarising the key points, added weekly. Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts to get notified of new releases.
Do you believe that what happens to you is within your control, or largely down to chance? The answer to that question shapes how you respond to stress, setbacks and illness.
Stress is not something that simply happens to you. How you interpret and respond to a stressful situation is just as important as the situation itself.
Two people can experience the same stressful event and respond in completely different ways. One develops depression; the other seems unaffected. Why?
What happens when trauma is not a single event, but the air someone has breathed their entire life?
Why does a sound, a smell or a flash of light have the power to pull someone back into the worst moment of their life, years after it happened?
Not all stress comes from outside events. Some of the most corrosive stress arises from within, when we are pulled in opposite directions at the same time.
Can a single life event make you physically ill? Research suggests it can, and the evidence is more precise than you might expect.
We all talk about feeling stressed, but what is actually happening inside the body when stress strikes?
Can the same emotion mean something different depending on who is feeling it, or where in the world they live?
Can the same physical sensation produce completely different emotions? Schachter and Singer proved that it could.
What if your fear and your racing heart arrive at exactly the same moment, neither one causing the other?
Have you ever noticed your body reacting before your mind catches up?
Why do some people thrive after trauma, while others struggle to recover? The answer might come down to which of their fundamental needs are being met.
Have you ever known something was bad for you and done it anyway? That tension has a name.
Why do some people thrive under pressure while others freeze? And why does a reward sometimes make us less motivated, not more?
Why do you reach for food when you are hungry, or feel restless when you have been sitting still too long?
Is personality written in your biology? Hans Eysenck believed so, and he spent decades building a scientific case for it.
What if the stories, myths and symbols that appear across all human cultures are not a coincidence?
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Conscientious or spontaneous? The way we answer these questions reveals a lot about personality.
Can personality be measured like height or weight? Or is every person so unique that general rules simply do not apply?
Why do smart people make bad decisions? The answer often comes down to the mental shortcuts our brains rely on.
If you do not have a word for something, can you still think about it?
Eyewitness testimony has sent innocent people to prison. Memory is not a recording, it is a story we tell ourselves.
Memory is not like a hard drive. It is a reconstructive process that is far more complex, and far more fascinating.
Right now, your brain is ignoring thousands of pieces of information to focus on these words.
Your brain is not a camera. It is an active interpreter, constantly making predictions and filling in gaps.
Most of us hear a sound and instantly know where it is coming from and what it means. But what happens when that process goes wrong?
New episodes and cheatsheets are added weekly — check back soon.