Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? This week, we revisit a conversation with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more elusive the harder we chase it, and what we can do instead to build a lasting sense of contentment. Then, we bring you the latest edition of our segment "Your Questions Answered." Behavioral scientist Alison Wood Brooks answers listener questions on how to be a better conversationalist — from what to do when the other person isn't contributing, to how to stop others from interrupting.Miss our original episodes with Alison Wood Brooks? They're called "We Need to Talk" and "The Conversations that Bring Us Closer." Do you have follow-up questions, thoughts, or ideas about the pursuit of happiness after listening to our conversation with Iris Mauss? If you'd be comfortable sharing your thoughts with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at ideas@hiddenbrain.org. Use the subject line "happiness." Thanks!
Political differences can be a minefield among family and friends, trade tensions. new tariff threats from Donald Trump. "Elbows Up' and calls to “Buy Canadian", there's a shift happening —not just policy, but how many Canadians relate to their neighbours south of the border. It's changing what many people buy, where we travel - even how we talk to American family, friends and coworkers.Our question: What conversations are you having with Americans? How are the Canada-US relationships going in your life?
Mark Carney hasn't been on the job for long, but a lot has already happened during his time in office. The trade dispute with the U.S. continues. Donald Trump announced new tariffs on Thursday. He ended the consumer carbon tax, passed Bill C-5 - aimed at fast-tracking 'nation-building' projects, and he has made pledges to end barriers to interprovincial trade by Canada Day and to boost military spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035, an increase that could cost $150 billion per year.Our question: What grade are you giving Prime Minister Mark Carney, so far?
This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert set out in search of order and balance in the world around us, and ask how symmetry shapes our very existence -- from the origins of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror.Along the way, we look for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton to peer inside our brains, and turn up an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979.EPISODE CITATIONS:Videos - Back in the day, when we first aired this episode, the film collective Everynone, filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante and Julius Metoyer III were inspired with our yearning for balance, and aimed to visually reveal how beautiful imperfect matches can be.Radiolab Presents: Symmetry (https://youtu.be/zEQskIsHKT8)Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter/X and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The Gulf States and China are spending billions to build stadiums and buy up teams — but what are they really buying? And can an entrepreneur from Cincinnati make his own billions by bringing baseball to Dubai? SOURCES:Simon Chadwick, professor of afroeurasian sport at Emlyon Business School.Derek Fisher, high school basketball coach, former N.B.A. coach and player.Kash Shaikh, chairman, C.E.O., and co-founder of Baseball United.Rory Smith, football correspondent at The Observer. RESOURCES:"China Keeps Building Stadiums in Africa. But at What Cost?" by Elian Peltier (New York Times, 2024)."Manchester Off-Shored: A Public Interest Report on the Manchester Life Partnership Between Manchester City Council + The Abu Dhabi United Group," by Richard Goulding, Adam Leaver, and Jonathan Silver (Centripetal Cities, 2022)."Manchester City's Cozy Ties to Abu Dhabi: Sponsorship Money – Paid for by the State," by Rafael Buschmann, Nicola Naber, and Christoph Winterbach (Spiegel International, 2022)."China Renews Its ‘Belt and Road’ Push for Global Sway," by Keith Bradsher (New York Times, 2020). EXTRAS:"What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
First up on the podcast, Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox joins host Sarah Crespi to celebrate the 2-year anniversary of ScienceAdviser with many stories about the amazing water bear. They also discuss links between climate change, melting glaciers, and earthquakes in the Alps, as well as what is probably the first edible laser.
Next on the show, freelance producer Elah Feder talks with Tatiana Feuerborn, a postdoctoral fellow in the cancer genetics and comparative genomics branch of the National Institutes of Health, about the evolutionary history of the Greenland sled dog. Her team’s work sequencing 98 genomes from modern and ancient sled dogs reveals the canine’s current diversity and suggests approaches for conservation.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
Authors: Sarah Crespi; Elah Feder; Christie
Wilcox
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Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to know whether life is driven more by skill or chance. She found some answers in poker — and she’s willing to tell us everything she learned. SOURCES:Maria Konnikova, author of The Biggest Bluff. RESOURCES:“Gender Differences in Performance Predictions: Evidence from the Cognitive Reflection Test,” by Patrick Ring, Levent Neyse, Tamas David-Barett, and Ulrich Schmidt (Frontiers in Psychology, 2016).“The headwinds/tailwinds Asymmetry: An Availability Bias in Assessments of Barriers and Blessings,” by Shai Davidai and Thomas Gilovich (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2016).“The Two Settings of Kind and Wicked Learning Environments,” by Robin M. Hogarth, Tomás Lejarraga, and Emre Soyer (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2015)."The Limits of Self-Control: Self-Control, Illusory Control, and Risky Financial Decision Making,” by Maria Konnikova (Columbia University, 2013).“Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement” by J.B. Rotter (Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 1966). EXTRAS:The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win, by Maria Konnikova.Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by Maria Konnikova.The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova.Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern."This Year’s World Series Of Poker Is Different," by Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova (2025).
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” The idea is that pursuing your passion will feel invigorating — almost magical. But passions can easily wane over time. This week, behavioral scientist Jon Jachimowicz looks at how to keep our passions alive, and how to channel old passions into new pursuits.Do you have follow-up questions for Jon Jachimowicz, or ideas that you'd like to share after listening to this episode? If you'd be willing to share them with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at ideas@hiddenbrain.org. Use the subject line "passion."And a reminder that our live tour is underway! Shankar is traveling across the U.S. and Canada to share some of the key ideas he's learned in the first decade of the show. To see if we're coming to a city near you, please visit hiddenbrain.org/tour.
According to a survey, four out of ten people said they were planning to leave their jobs earlier this year. So whether you decided to quit your job to follow your passion, left the corporate world for a more quiet life, or maybe you're weighing the decision to quit right now, how did you know it was the right time to leave your job? How did that decision change your path?
The job picture is bleak for young people right now. Canadian youth between the ages of 15 to 24 are facing the highest unemployment rate since the mid-90's, the only exception —the pandemic years. According to numbers from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the jobless rate for young people has been rising faster here in the past two years than any other major economy. How are you seeing this play out in your own life, or with your friends and family?Our question: How are you affected by youth unemployment? What’s your summer job search story?
Have you heard On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial? It’s awesome and you should, and now you will. In this episode they tell the story of shortwave radio: the way-less-listened to but way-farther-reaching cousin of AM and FM radio. The medium was once heralded as a utopian, international, and instantaneous mass communication tool — a sort of internet-before-the-internet. But, like the internet, many people quickly saw the power of this new technology and found ways to harness it. State leaders turned it into a propaganda machine, weaponizing the airwaves to try and shape politics around the world. And as shortwave continued to evolve, like the internet, it became fragmented, easily accessible, and right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and cult leaders found homes on the different shortwave frequencies. And even today - again, like the internet - people with money are looking to buy up this mass-communication tool in the hopes of … making more money. This is episode one from the second season of The Divided Dial a limited series from On The Media. Listen on Spotify (https://zpr.io/hKCcFEGTLb5a)Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://zpr.io/tQ86YmEmiivR)Listen on the WNYC App (iTunes, Android)Listen to the full Divided Dial series (https://www.onthemedia.org/dial)Follow On The Media on Instagram @onthemedia The Divided Dial was supported in part by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference. SOURCES:Cory Booker, senior United States Senator from New Jersey. RESOURCES:"'When Are More Americans Going to Speak Up?'" by The New Yorker Radio Hour (2025)."Cory Booker’s Marathon Floor Speech," (2025)."Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show," by Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz, and Deepa Seetharaman (Wall Street Journal, 2021)."Tucked Into the Tax Bill, a Plan to Help Distressed America," by Jim Tankersley (New York Times, 2018).United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good, by Cory Booker (2017)."But What Did Cory Booker Actually Accomplish in Newark?" by J.B. Wogan (Governing, 2013). EXTRAS:"Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System," by Freakonomics Radio (2025)."The United States of Cory Booker," by Freakonomics Radio (2016).
First up on the podcast, U.S. aid helped two African countries rein in HIV. Then came President Donald Trump. Senior News Correspondent Jon Cohen talks with producer Kevin McLean about how in Lesotho and Eswatini, treatment and prevention cutbacks are hitting pregnant people, children, and teens especially hard.
This story is part of a series about the impacts of U.S. funding cuts on global health, supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Next on the show, host Sarah Crespi is joined by Robin Wordsworth, the Gordon McKay Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. They discuss the challenges and potential of microbes to grow plastics, drugs, and food on the surface of Mars or other bodies in the Solar System.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Jon Cohen
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