It's Been a Minute

Feeling aggrieved? You're not alone. | It's Been a Minute

I think people just like to fight. Honestly, we love to bicker. We love a little um tension, you know, cuz what are we without it, right?

Mixed Signals

The Looming Public Health Crisis Everyone Is Ignoring, with Dr. Vivek Murthy | Mixed Signals

Social media for many people has become antisocial media. It began perhaps with the intent to build community but instead ended up replacing in-person connections with online connections leading people to focus less on the quality of their relationships and more the quantity of their connections.

TED

The Case for Making Art in a Crisis | Yiyun Kang | TED

We can feel a paper cut, but we cannot feel a collapsing planet. We're drowning in information but starving for meaning. The chain of understanding is broken, leaving our crisis so cold and abstract.

Semafor Americana

How Democrats Learned To Embrace Native American Land Acknowledgments | Semafor Americana

I saw a reluctance among Democrats to say they had done something wrong, that they had been using language that might alienate a voter, that might get them laughed at on Fox News. And in their minds, this was a really pain-free and sensible and tolerant way of saying that they were a diverse party that wanted to represent Native Americans.

Fresh Air

Jia Tolentino on ‘Our Plastic Surgery Nightmare’

The face is traditionally how we come to know each other, how we the first glimpse we have of a person's temperament and soul and life history and disposition. It tells us it answers so many questions. Also, you can tell if a person is tired. You can tell if they're sick. You can tell their emotions. Do they laugh a lot by their laugh lines?

Radiolab

Neither Confirm Nor Deny

Whether it comes from government spokespeople or celebrity publicists, the phrase "can neither confirm nor deny" is the perfect non-denial denial. It's such a perfect deflection that it seems like it's been around forever, but reporter Julia Barton takes us back to the 1970s and the surprising origin story of what's now known as a "Glomar Response."

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars - [Invest Like the Best, EP.482]

The best fundraisers I've seen don't pitch — they teach. They walk into a room and they make you smarter about the space they're operating in, and the ask almost becomes secondary because you're so compelled by what you've just learned.

TED

The Case for Making Art in a Crisis | Yiyun Kang | TED

We're drowning in information but starving for meaning. The chain of understanding is broken, leaving our crisis so cold and abstract. We have lost the connection and the ability to care.

Radiolab

Neither Confirm Nor Deny

The phrase 'can neither confirm nor deny' is the perfect non-denial denial. It's such a perfect deflection that it seems like it's been around forever.

Freakonomics Radio

How a Great Architect Thinks, with Bjarke Ingels | Better in Person

Is the oxymoron really "the secret sauce to everything"? That's the case Ingels makes in this debut episode of our new video show Better in Person, filmed in Stephen Dubner's living room.

TED

The Counterintuitive Secret of Leadership | Jessica Kriegel | TED

People don't change because you implemented new processes. People will act in alignment with what they believe. And so if you want to change their behavior, you have to shift what it is that they believe.

The Prof G Pod

OpenAI’s First Acquisition: How TBPN Built a $30M Media Business

If someone quotes your post with a thoughtful commentary that's filmed in 4K with cinema cameras and the hosts are wearing suits and they print it. They took the time to print out your post. It's just wow. These people went a lot further to say something. I'm at least going to see what they had to say about the thing that I fired off in the shower.

It's Been a Minute

Love vs. Reality. Looking at Love Island | It's Been a Minute

Love Island gives us an opportunity to have some really healthy conversations about sex and dating and I really love that aspect of it. What I haven't appreciated this season and especially last season um because I think it all stems from that. It's starting to feel like there's this default to receive things or receive people in bad faith.

TED

Your Vaccine Questions Deserve Real Answers | Kizzmekia Corbett | TED

It wasn't that he was just reluctant to get himself vaccines or to get his future children vaccinated. It was that he had questions, concerns, misinformation buried deep down, for which he needed an expert like myself to answer without scorn and without judgment.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

Celebrating the 4th with nothing but bangers!

A guy came up to the mic right over there and he said, 'My wife left me because she said I wasn't you.' ... But the gentleman stopped and then he said, 'And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.' And he literally dropped the mic and I thought that kind of covers the whole gamut.

Fresh Air

Best Of: Tennis stars Chris Evert & Martina Navratilova / American Culture Wars

We have such a level of trust that we know whatever we say to each other, it stays there. We know where to give each other the best advice. We know how to. And there is no ulterior motive for no, you know, no playing games. And that's how we like it.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

Celebrating the 4th with nothing but bangers!

A guy came up to the mic right over there and he said, 'My wife left me because she said I wasn't you.' And he literally dropped the mic and I thought that kind of covers the whole gamut.

Fresh Air

Best Of: Tennis stars Chris Evert & Martina Navratilova / American Culture Wars

We have such a level of trust that we know whatever we say to each other, it stays there. We know where to give each other the best advice. We know how to and there's no ulterior motive for no, you know, no playing games. And that's how we like it because I think we both have had so many people say, oh, you're great, this and that, they don't, you know, they don't give you the real story, but we've always been honest with each other on that front.

TED

A Simple Solution to Fix Workplace Miscommunication | Melissa M. Mikus | TED

Employees and executives, 86 percent of them, blame workplace failure on ineffective communication. And US businesses alone lose $1.2 trillion -- trillion dollars -- a year as a result of miscommunication. So this isn't just about being nice and diplomatic. Miscommunication is expensive.

Book of the Day

What to read this summer, according to our NPR colleagues

A lot of the non-fiction on this list takes big intimidating subjects and makes them more approachable, like good non-fiction often does.

Fresh Air

Writer Kennedy Ryan uses romance novels as a vehicle for discourse

I refer to my romance the way I write it, as Trojan horse, you know? I'm smuggling in discourse, I'm smuggling in the conversation I want to have in what, to me, is the most accessible genre in publishing.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most people think that small talk is a waste of time, a polite but ultimately hollow ritual. But when researchers have studied what happens when strangers actually talk to each other, they've found something surprising: people consistently underestimate how much they will enjoy talking with others, and how much others will enjoy talking with them.

Book of the Day

In 'Names Have Been Changed,' a criminal on the run confesses her story on a podcast

I think the way we speak, like you know, the body, the way we actually make the sounds and especially when we're talking to ourselves in, you know, what we would call our natural voices, like that is in some way maybe the most honest part of ourselves coming out.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of deep conversations as something that requires a certain kind of person — an extrovert, perhaps, or someone who is especially empathetic. But research finds that nearly all of us are capable of having meaningful exchanges, and that we consistently underestimate how much strangers want to connect with us.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The most dangerous thing in a company is when people start managing up instead of managing the truth. Once that happens, you lose your ability to course correct, because the information flowing to the people who need to make decisions is filtered through what people think those decision-makers want to hear.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think about connection in terms of talking — sharing our experiences, finding common ground, opening up to one another. But researchers have found that one of the most powerful sources of connection isn't talking at all. It's doing things together, side by side, in silence.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of laughter as a response to something funny. But researcher Robert Provine found that laughter is less about humor than it is about social connection — we are 30 times more likely to laugh when we are with other people than when we are alone.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most people think of listening as a passive activity — something we do while waiting for our turn to speak. But research suggests that feeling truly heard by another person is one of the most powerful experiences we can have. It can change how we think, how we feel about ourselves, and how we relate to others.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The moment you know the truth and you don't say it, you've broken something inside yourself. And I think the accumulation of that over time is what leads to people who are fundamentally not effective leaders, because they've taught themselves to look away from hard things.

TED

Reddit’s Model for a Better Internet | Steve Huffman | TED

Being connected and the feeling of connection are two different things. And so if we want to maintain our humanity on the internet, we're going to have to build it intentionally.

It's Been a Minute

So you've changed. Will it stick?

We're judges of other people's change, and we don't always do it in the most thoughtful, considered way.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

We assume that the people we talk to notice and think about us more than they actually do. And we assume that we know what other people are thinking and feeling — that we can read their minds. But we are often wrong about this.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

We often think of connection as something that requires vulnerability or deep conversation, but research suggests that even brief, seemingly trivial interactions with strangers — a nod from a passerby, a short exchange with a barista — can meaningfully boost our sense of belonging. The problem is that most of us opt out of these moments, assuming the other person would rather be left alone. But studies find we are systematically wrong about this: strangers are far more interested in connecting with us than we predict.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

We tend to think that deep conversations require vulnerability, openness, and a willingness to share our inner lives. But Mastroianni's research suggests something different: that the biggest obstacle to good conversations isn't a lack of openness, but a lack of curiosity. Most of us are so focused on what we want to say that we forget to wonder about the person in front of us.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think about what we say to others. We think about whether our words might hurt or please them, whether we're saying the right things at the right time. But we rarely think about how we listen. We assume we're doing it fine, or well enough. Yet listening is one of the most powerful things we can do for another person.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

We don't just want people to know us — we want to feel known by them. And one of the most powerful ways to feel known is to have someone remember the small details of our lives: the name of our dog, the fact that we hate cilantro, the thing we mentioned once about our complicated relationship with our mother.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of laughter as a response to something funny. But researchers who study laughter say this is backwards: we don't laugh because something is funny; we laugh to connect with other people. Laughter is less about humor and more about relationships.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of listening as a passive activity. We imagine that the goal of a good listener is to be a kind of empty vessel — a mirror that reflects back what the speaker is saying. But research by psychologist Guy Itzchakov and his colleagues suggests this view is mistaken. Good listening, they find, is not passive at all; it is a form of active engagement that changes how the speaker thinks.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of deep conversations as something that requires a close relationship. But research by psychologist Nicholas Epley and his colleagues suggests that even strangers can have meaningful, connecting exchanges — and that we systematically underestimate how much others will appreciate our attempts to go deep.

Compound Interest

How Amazon Business Made Business Buying Smart By Rebuilding Its Consumer Platform For Companies

Our users, our employees want the same sort of visibility, the same sort of clarity when they buy for their personal lives. We want that in our business lives.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of emotional support as something we offer through words — by listening carefully, saying the right things, or giving advice. But researchers have found that simply being in the presence of someone we care about can regulate our nervous system, slow our heart rate, and reduce our sense of pain, even when that person says nothing at all.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

I think the best thing you can do for someone is tell them the truth. And most people don't do that. They tell people what they want to hear. And I think that's actually a disservice to people, because you're robbing them of the opportunity to actually improve.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

We typically think that what creates closeness between people is talking about yourself — sharing your opinions, your experiences, your feelings. But the researchers found that asking questions, and in particular, asking follow-up questions, was just as powerful a tool for creating connection.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of the things we have in common with other people as a source of connection. But Inbar and his colleagues have found something surprising: the things that make us different can be just as powerful — and sometimes more powerful — at bringing people together.

It's Been a Minute

Generative AI's race problem

I don't think that we have a lot of opportunities or enough opportunities to feel meaningfully seen. I can't really blame anybody for saying, 'Oh, this song moves me. This song makes me feel seen.' when we're in a media climate where we don't really have as many opportunities as I would like for us to feel meaningfully seen.

The Daily

Steven Spielberg on the Real Life Evidence That Inspired 'Disclosure Day'

The thing that we need to preserve in our society more than anything else, which is something which I believe is as fragile as democracy, is empathy.

The New York Times

How the World Cup’s Most Famous Voice Gets Ready for “GOOOAL!”

It is incredible how many times I've been stopped and recognized as the man that made people cry, which is really moving.

Fresh Air

'Daily Show' comic Josh Johnson

One of the most connected attributes of the human condition ... is just being flawed. We really connect with people on their faults.

TED

The Love of My Life (and Why I Need to Share It with You) | Ann Patchett | TED

I could see myself becoming that Hari Krishna, wanting to testify about the greatest love in my life, which is reading. So great is my need to share this love that it outweighs my significant need for privacy.