If you’re a woman in the workplace, you know the deck is rarely stacked in your favor. For example, promotions are harder to come by. The gender wage gap is real. And power can feel elusive. Psychology professor and researcher, Alison Fragale, has studied the power problem for decades. What she’s figured out is that the solution lies with status. But, as she argues in her book, Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve, if women shift their focus to cultivating status, they get further ahead in solving the power problem. Alison Fragale has unlocked the key to achieving greater status in the workplace. And she shares practical tips on how to get started. It’s a book I’ll be recommending to all my friends Episode Links Why Status and Now Just Power Determines Workplace Success Here’s Why Women Don’t Always Support Women Interview with Vanessa Patrick, The Power of Saying No The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

There are many good reasons to look to others. For example, you might need expert advice or feedback to improve your performance. But there’s one reason not to, and, that is, to determine your self-worth. When you look to someone else to define you or tell you how to live your life, you lose a lot. And if you find it hard to believe you’d ever let someone else influence you in those ways, you’d be surprised. Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who’s worked with elite athletes, artists, and leaders. Through his work, he’s learned that one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way is fear of other people’s opinions. And he’s seen just how crippling those fears can be. That’s why he’s written the book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You. In talking to Michael, I learned how our biology sets us up to place a lot of weight on other people’s opinions. I also learned how social media is designed to reinforce that fear. Fortunately, Michael shared insights on what to do. I walked away feeling empowered. Episode Links Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval Build a Great Team on a Relationship-Based Culture, Not the Myth of Family Interview with Jonathan Rhodes on Getting the Life You Want The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We know how important friendships are. At the very least, for our health and well-being. But we also know how hard it gets to make and keep friends over the course of a lifetime, especially as we move, change jobs, and have families. That’s why Anna Goldfarb’s book, Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections, is so important. We need friendships for good health, and Anna’s book teaches us ways to make, keep, and move on from toxic friends. And she readily shares what to say to build and deepen friendships. I think it’s a terrific book for understanding how to be a better friend. Episode Links Let’s Make This the Golden Age of Friendship The Secret to Modern Friendship, According to Real Friends How to Deal with a Friendship Quiet Season Interview with Kat Vellos The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

For a good part of my life, I believed that focusing on my weaknesses was the key to achieving success. In fact, I didn't realize how much I'd embraced this way of thinking until I began working with an executive coach. Soon after we started working together, my coach made an observation I've never forgotten. She said, "Gayle, you're great at pointing out your weaknesses - all the ways you feel you don't measure up - but I never hear you talk about your strengths." That's when I realized how this way of thinking had become my default setting. I had to work hard to change it. That's why, when I picked up Dan Cable's latest book, Exceptional: Build Your Personal Highlight Reel and Unlock Your Potential, I knew I wanted to have him back on the show. He captured my old way of thinking with his first sentence, "Many of us think the best path to self-improvement is to face the cold truth about ourselves at our worst." Yet, what Dan quickly points out is that, far from motivating us, this relentless focus on identifying and fixing our weaknesses can create a lot of anxiety, along with feelings of overwhelm, even helplessness. That sounds like a far cry from a path to success, right? Dan's a Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Since his last book, Alive at Work, he's been studying what happens when we uncover our strengths through others' eyes, through current and former colleagues, bosses, friends, and family members. Dan's approach is fascinating and his research findings are incredible. Episode Links You Need a Personal Highlight Reel by Dan Cable What You Should Follow Instead of Your Passion by Dan Cable Stop Sleepwalking through Life by Dan Cable and Mel Bradman Alive at Work by Dan Cable Post-traumatic growth What Job Crafting Looks Like by Jane E. Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski Impostor Syndrome Curious Minds at Work Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, you can show your support by: Rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Telling someone about the show. Subscribing so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

Meaningful conversations can be a creative lab space. At their best, they're a place to share perspectives and be heard. They can also be a place to stress test new ideas and catch the limits in our thinking. When conversations work, we gain a stronger connection to the people we work with. We feel like we understand each other better and that we're channeling each other's knowledge and skills to achieve a bigger goal. Yet these kinds of conversations are far too rare. And I don't think it's intentional. I think it's because we don't know how to design them. That's what motivated me to read Fred Dust's latest book, Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication. A former senior partner and global managing director at international design firm, IDEO, Fred's designed these kinds of conversations for hundreds of organizations across multiple industries. Fred gives us permission to make better conversations a priority, and he shares insights on how to do it effectively. Episode Links Where Do Ideas Come From? Fred Dust at Aspen Ideas Active Listening Frank Osborn on Brainstorming Responsive Classroom The Op Ed Project Courtney E. Martin Curious Minds at Work Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, you can show your support by: Rating and reviewing the show on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Telling someone about the show. Subscribing so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

For most of us, networking is a topic that brings up a lot of strong feelings. And most of those feelings aren't all that positive. Ultimately, we know we should network. But just thinking about it can make us uncomfortable. In fact, research shows that many of us associate networking with something dirty. On top of that, we feel guilty for not devoting more time to it. That's why I wanted to interview Marissa King. Author of the book, Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, Marissa is Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of Management and an expert on social networks. Marissa's take on networking is refreshing because she emphasizes the relational aspect. She also provides tools for gauging how we network, so that we can easily see how well our approach is working. Her discussion of networking and her strategies for how to reframe it more positively help us to walk away without feeling icky. At the same time, her tips inspire us to tend to our professional network the way we would our personal one. If you're looking for a fresh take on networking, I think you'll enjoy hearing what Marissa has to say.  Episode Links Shout-out to Heather Cox Richardson for her Letters from an American Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty by Carmen Nobel Do People Mix at Mixers? by Paul Ingram and Michael W. Morris Marissa King's site for assessing your networking approach as convener, broker, or expansionist Self-monitoring How to Build a Better Social Network and the work of Ronald Burt Why Do People Gossip? by Sophia Gottfried and the work of Robin Dunbar Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad Homophily Heidi Roizen Curious Minds at Work Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds at Work If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to show your support: Rate and review on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend, colleague, or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds at Work Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

When challenging situations arise, how do we make the shift from bystander to helper? What are the factors that determine whether or not we take action? And what if helping means disobeying an authority figure? These are the kinds of questions that made me want to read Catherine Sanderson's latest book, Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels, and to interview her on the show. In particular, her discussion of the Milgram Shock Experiment, a study that's always fascinated me, got me thinking more deeply about those pivotal moments when we decide whether or not we're going to speak up or step in, rather than stand by. For some background, the Milgram Shock Experiment was first conducted in the 1960s by Stanley Milgram, a psychology professor at Yale. He wanted to find out how far people would go in obeying an authority figure when their obedience knowingly caused harm to another person. In the study, participants delivered an electric shock to a subject they couldn't see. The voltage increased with every wrong answer given. If they refused to administer the shock, a member of the research team - the authority figure - responded with one of four scripted statements. The electric shocks weren't real, but the participant in the study didn't know that. If they refused to administer the shock, the authority figure would recite one of the four scripted statements, for example, "The experiment requires that you continue," or "You have not other choice but to continue." Aside from statements like these, the authority figure never forced participants to deliver the shocks. Yet every participant did. Not one refused. Even when the person receiving the shocks sounded out in pain with moans, shouts, even pleas to stop, the participants kept going. What Catherine talks about in her book, though, are the many participants who wanted to stop. The ones who communicated, at some point along the way, that they didn't want to continue. That's the moment I'm curious about. What would it have taken for them to disobey authority? And what would I have done in that same situation? Catherine is a professor at Amherst College. She's studied what neuroscientists and psychologists have learned about why we stand by and why we speak up. She's also studied what leaders can do to make it safer for people to speak up, which training programs work best for teaching these skills, and what drives the brave souls who always speak up. Episode Links This week's shout-out goes to Emily Levesque, author of the book, The Last Stargazers Bystander effect Young Children Show the Bystander Effect in Helping Situations Social loafing Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart The Pain of Social Rejection KiVa anti-bullying program Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend, colleague, or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What will the world look like when we're living and working with robots every day? Robots work on assembly lines. They zoom around warehouses. And they even fly planes. Most of us aren't surprised to hear these stories anymore. But how will we work with robots when they're driving our cars or delivering our food? When millions of robots populate our sidewalks, offices, and residential buildings - when they move beyond the factory floor - we'll need to learn how to interact with them, even teach them. Julie Shah, co-author of the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration, believes we'll need to tap into our ability to create, problem solve, and learn from experience, in order to "transfer those insights to machines and integrate machines into our work and our everyday lives." She also believes we'll need to think differently about how we design robots and how we gather and share robot data. In particular, she argues that industry and government will need to work more closely together so they can share information on robot performance. This information will help us make rapid improvements, so we can integrate robots more quickly and safely into society. She explains, "The capability of these systems is so dependent on the data used to train them. Being able to share learnings across companies and across an industry is equally important." Julie Shah is a roboticist who directs the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT, where she is also the associate dean of social and ethic responsibilities of computing. Episode Links Inner Workings: Can Robots Make Good Teammates? by Carolyn Beans Integrating Robots into Team-Oriented Environments by Julie Shah Don Norman Three-body problem You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane Affordance Aviation Safety Reporting System - NASA MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Julie Shah's co-author Laura Major Curious Minds Team You can learn about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What if mathematics could help us rethink gender equality by questioning how society is structured? Women are often told that, to succeed, they need to be more. More competitive. More confident. Even more resilient. In other words, women need to fit themselves into environments created mostly by men. But Eugenia Cheng, author of the book, x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, argues that it's not about what women lack but about how society operates. For her, the question is not, "society is like this, how can women become more successful in it?" Instead, it's about asking "why is society like this in the first place?" Eugenia rejects associating certain traits with traditional, binary gender roles. For example, she doesn't think it's helpful to think of men as more competitive or women as more caring. She disagrees with the notion that there's only one way to achieve success, such as the myth of the resilient individual achiever who's unaffected by criticism. Instead, she argues that we're stronger and more resilient when we "build networks of people to help support [us], rather than just having to be strong all by [ourselves]." Eugenia Cheng is Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and honorary visiting fellow at City University of London. Her previous books include, How to Bake Pi, Beyond Infinity, and The Art of Logic. Episode Links Higher-dimensional algebra Mean, median, mode Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez No Contest by Alfie Kohn Equity: A Mathematician Shares Her Solution by Jory Lerback Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

What's driven our relentless obsession with economic efficiency and who are its winners and losers? For much of the twentieth century, the U.S. economy benefited most individuals and families, no matter their social class. In recent decades, that's not been the case. Roger Martin examines this shift in his latest book, When More is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. He shares data indicating that, while the wealthy continue to prosper, the average American family does not. While Roger is concerned with what lies ahead for these families, he is equally concerned about the future of the U.S. economic system. He says, "What set off the project behind this book is that the median family, who is also the swing voter, is going to give up on capitalism as the system it wants to have run this country." Professor of Strategic Management, Emeritus, at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Roger previously served as Dean and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute. In addition, he's published eleven books, written numerous articles for Harvard Business Review, and has been named the number one management thinker by Thinkers50. Based on his extensive research and his work with hundreds of companies, Roger believes organizational leaders can change things for the better. In this interview, he shares examples of how companies, like Southwest Airlines, have done just that. At the same time, Roger discusses how our longstanding model of the U.S. economy as machine got us here. He points out, "It's kind of an accident. We've done some things based on models we thought were good that have gotten us in places we don't like at all." Episode Links Why Information Grows by Cesar Hidalgo The Persona Project  Wassily Leontief Pareto Distribution David Ricardo and comparative advantage Cristiano Rinaldo Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, here are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.  Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care deeply about complete strangers? From an evolutionary standpoint, we shouldn't be kind to strangers. Yet, history shows, time and again, we are. Scientists see it as a puzzle to solve. Michael McCullough, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, believes it's what sets us apart. He says, "[We] love to talk about ways in which humans are biologically unique, and there's a million ways. But I really do think that our regard for strangers, absolute strangers, is one of them." Michael is author of the book, The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a Moral Code. Drawing on multiple fields, he crafts a story of how our empathy for strangers has changed over time.  He covers a lot of ground, moving from ancient history to modern psychology. Ultimately, he arrives at the pandemic present, where he asks, "How are you going to bring the tools of reasoning, ethics, and science all together to make rational choices about collective courses of action?" A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Michael is also the author of two previous books, To Forgive is Human and Beyond Revenge. Episode Links The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins David Sloan Wilson Group Selection Behavioral game theory Robert Trivers Code of Hammurabi Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

We recognize the biases we hold around race, class, and gender, but what about language? Katherine Kinzler, author of the book, How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do - and What It Says about You, explains, "The language you speak, and the accent or dialect you use to speak it, is such a foundational part of social life." Yet speech and language are often overlooked aspects of social identity. In fact, Katherine's research reveals that the way we speak can "determine who you might connect with, but also the judgments you make about other people, and the judgments they might be making about you." In her book, Katherine discusses how language, accents, and speech influence life experience and outcomes. In particular, they can be tools for social division, discrimination in hiring and firing, and other forms of bias and prejudice. It's one of the reasons Katherine advocates language learning in school. She says, "a lot of times, we think of language [learning] as 'icing on the cake'...nice to have but not really a fundamental part of learning. I think we could do so much more if we changed how we thought about the necessity of more than one language." Katherine Kinzler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. She holds degrees from Yale and Harvard, has written for the New York Times, and was recently named a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum, one of the 50 scientists under 40 working to shape the future. Episode Links Bilingual Brains Better Equipped to Process Information  Neuroplasticity as a Function of Second Language Learning by Ping Li, Jennifer Legault, and Kaitlyn a. Litcofsky Want to be More Rational? Learn Another Language by Rob Smith How Speaking a Second Language Affects the Way You Think by David Ludden How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Found Her Voice by Katy Steinmetz Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World by Olga Khazan Meyer v. State of Nebraska Emotions Shape the Language We Use, but Second Languages Reveal a Shortcut around Them by Beth Daley The War against German-American Culture: The Removal of German-Language from Indianapolis Schools, 1917-1919 Linguistic Insecurity Bilingual Children's Social Preferences Hinge on Accent by Jasmine M. DeJesus, Hyesung G. Hwang, Jocelyn B. Dautel, and Katherine D. Kinzler The Native Language of Social Cognition by Katherine D. Kinzler, Emmanuel Dupoux, and Elizabeth S. Spelke Research: How Speech Patterns Lead to Hiring Bias by Michael W. Kraus, Brittany Torrez, and Jun Won Park Multilingual Environments Enrich Our Understanding of Others by Christopher Bergland Jane Elliott Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. This week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.

How can we escape the time traps that keep us from living our best lives? These are the traps that make us feel like there are never enough hours in the day. They leave us time poor, a term Ashley Whillans talks about in her book, Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life.  Ashley is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and a leading scholar on time and happiness research. She explains the negative impact feeling time poor can have on our health, our productivity, and our relationships.  In contrast, when we prioritize how we spend our time, we gain many positive results, no matter where we reside in the world. Ashley says, "People who value time report greater happiness, less stress, less negative emotion. Doesn't matter where I study this, in India, in Kenya, in the U.S., in Canada, in Denmark, focusing on time is an important path to happiness." Ashley designed tools to help us rethink our relationship with time. These include self-assessments and checklists for making smarter decisions about how we use our time. She explains how incorporating them into our lives can prompt us to ask, "not only how much would that decision cost you, but how much time would it cost." Ashley Whillans is part of the Workplace and Well-Being Initiative at Harvard, and she advises organizations on workplace and well-being strategies. Her work has appeared in publications like, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Wall Street Journal. Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Daniel Gilbert Time poverty Autonomy paradox Time confetti and Brigid Schulte Yes-damn effect Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky Mere urgency effect Psychological safety  Time affluence Time is Tight: How Higher Economic Value of Time Increases Feelings of Time Pressure by Sanford Devoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast

Most of us believe we can make a difference in the world. That we can have an impact. What holds us back from acting on those beliefs are often the doubts. Doubts about our skills, our credentials, even our roles at work. Alex Budak studied the research and interviewed the changemakers, and he argues we can all be changemakers, no matter our resumes. That’s what led him to write his book, Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level. I was inspired by Alex’s book and our conversation. I walked away with a changemaker playbook on the mindset, leadership qualities, and behaviors to make it happen. Episode Links Finding Leadership Treasures in World Cup Trash Stop Waiting for Permission Be the Light Interview with Sheena Iyengar The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

How did we get to a place where life's become an endless treadmill of work? In her latest book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen tackles this question. Her book is for anyone who feels their life has become an endless to-do list. In particular, Petersen describes the plight of today's millennials, a generation she believes is under constant pressure to perform. She explains how, for many millennials, it begins in childhood, when activities originally intended for fun get repurposed for resume building. She argues, "You're taking things that are meant to be leisure, that are meant to be those joyful corners of your life that are not work, and you're turning them into work." Petersen discusses the social and economic forces that have led to this cultural shift, including the demise of labor unions, increasing reliance on contract workers, and the rise of the gig economy. In each case, she points out how companies benefit, while workers struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, she wonders if millennials are the generation that can break the cycle. She muses, "I'm curious if we can refigure our relationship to work. I am curious if millennials are broken, if we are just too far down this road, or if we can take a different road." Anne Helen Petersen is a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed. A former academic, she received a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on the history of celebrity gossip. Her previous books, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud and Scandals of Classic Hollywood, were featured on NPR, Elle, and The Atlantic. Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen Annette Lareau Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can be Done to Improve It by David Weil The Effects of 'Clopening' on Employees: What Employers Can Do by Tom Starner Are You Just LARPing Your Job by John Herrman How Does Your Ugly Garden Grow? by Anne Helen Petersen Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast

Is the onslaught of online information eroding our brain's ability to think deeply and creatively? In 2008, Nicholas Carr, asked the provocative question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Two years later, he delved more deeply into this topic in his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  Writing at the dawn of the smartphone era, Carr was concerned about the shift many of us were making from deep reading to online scanning. It made him question the Internet's impact on our long-term memory and reasoning skills. Carr muses, "we find ourselves...gathering information...but never slowing down to...mull over it...and when we lose...the ability to concentrate and be attentive...we short-circuit memory consolidation and end up with a...shallow mind." In the decade since the book's release, brain researchers have validated a number of Carr's insights. At the same time, many of today's challenges speak directly to his concerns. He argues, "if you look at problems...with...'fake news'...or...the...rush to...dismiss information that doesn't fit into your existing worldview, I think this is...about...[not]...building this rich interconnected set of knowledge...[in] our...minds." Nick Carr has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is also author of the books, The Glass Cage, and Utopia is Creepy. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf Memory consolidation Frederick Winslow Taylor Flynn effect Joseph Weizenbaum Salience network Cynthia Ozick Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What happens in our minds when we dehumanize others, and how can we resist it? These are the kinds of questions David Livingstone Smith, author of the book, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, has found himself asking throughout his career.  Most of us are familiar with events of mass violence in recent history, such as the Holocaust, slavery in America, and the Rwandan genocide. David wants to know what motivates us to commit these atrocities. By studying dehumanization, he's learned what a powerful tool it is. He explains, "If people can convince others that those whom they wish to harm are not really human beings at all, but are, in fact, dangerous animals, then this makes it acceptable to harm them." David helps us unpack dehumanization's building blocks, including the dangerous myths of race science and biological hierarchies. And he shares how each of us can resist the urge to dehumanize. To begin, he urges us to recognize that no one is immune: "If politicians scare us or flatter us into thinking of others as, essentially, less than human, we're all capable of doing terrible things.  David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. He has written or edited eight books, including Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, which won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi Kwame Anthony Appiah The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Caste by Isabel Wilkerson Roger Money-Kyrle The Wall by John Lanchester Cornel West Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What can a simple street address reveal about a person’s identity, race, wealth and power? For many of us, an address is something we don't spend a lot of time thinking about. It may be a string of numbers and letters we type into a GPS. A place we call home. Or just a placeholder where we get our mail. Yet, for others, it can mean much more. A way out of poverty. A signal of economic status. Or an indicator of race and social history. Street addresses can change lives. Deirdre Mask, author of the book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, explains, "Billions of people in the world don't have reliable addresses, and having an address is one of the cheapest ways of lifting people out of poverty." At the same time, Deirdre argues, street addresses don't always change lives for the better. While they can stop epidemics and help the poor get bank accounts, they can also entrench racism and empower authoritarian governments. In this interview, one of the examples we discuss is the negative stereotype associated with streets name for Martin Luther King, Jr. Deirdre asks, "Is it really that MLK streets all deserve this bad reputation or is it that, because we associate MLK streets with Blackness, that we seem them as bad, whether they're nice or not?"  Deirdre is a writer, lawyer, and academic. Her work has appeared in publications like, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Economist. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Addressing the Unaddressed Physician John Snow Zip codes and Robert Moon Empress Maria Theresa Lost in Translation film Learning from the Japanese City by Barrie Shelton The Years that Matter Most by Paul Tough Susan Hiller Hollywood, Florida Paul Laurence Dunbar Nathan Bedford Forrest Shelby Foote Frederick Douglass by David Blight Derek Alderman Sarah Golabek-Goldman and Homelessness what3words.com Maoz Azaryahu The Black Lives Matter Movement is Being Written into the Streetscape by Deirdre Mask Performative Utterances Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we recognize the blind spots that cause us to build less inclusive teams? When we commit to achieving greater diversity in the workplace, we're taking an important step. But we need to see this step as just the beginning in an ongoing journey.  Stefanie Johnson, author of the book, Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams, created the word "inclusify" to call this out. She argues, "People don't experience inclusion just because they were included...it takes thoughtful action and intention on the part of the leader...to create an inclusive environment...that's the idea behind inclusify." To start, we need to recognize the blind spots that get in our way. In her work with managers and boards, Stefanie's found six that come up time and again: the meritocracy manager, the culture crusader, the team player, the white knight, the shepherd, and the optimist. She explains how leaders use concepts like "meritocracy" or "culture" to exclude employees who hold different ideas. And she shares how statements like, "we don't want to lower the bar" make things harder for underrepresented groups: "...women actually are required to have greater experience to earn a board position than men...there are higher standards a lot of times for underrepresented groups. That's why they're underrepresented." By pinpointing blind spots and coupling that knowledge with a commitment to helping diverse employees feel like they belong and can bring their unique selves to work, leaders take more of the steps needed to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations. Stefanie Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work has been featured in the Economist, Newsweek, Time, and on CNN. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links @DrStefJohnson drstefjohnson.com Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt Unconscious bias Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace by Emilio J. Castilla 3 Reasons You Should Stop Hiring for "Culture Fit" by Delisa Alexander Ways to Support the Podcast If you’re a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.  In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we get our staunchest opponents to come around to our way of thinking? When we're trying to convince other people, we often start by sharing our ideas. If they resist our efforts, we usually just push harder. Sometimes it works, but, most of the time, our efforts fail. That's what got Jonah Berger, author of the bestselling book, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind, wondering, what do the most successful change agents do?  He discovered that they think and act more strategically. Rather than pushing harder and ratcheting things up, they act more like catalysts. He explains, "What they do is they lower the barrier to change. They figure out an alternate way to make the same change occur with less energy, not more." Jonah's talked to successful hostage negotiators, substance abuse counselors, and salespeople to learn what they do. From his research, he's discovered five barriers that inhibit change, along with ways to get around them. For example, we often ask for more change than the average person can handle. To counter that, he says, "We have to figure out ways essentially to ask for less. Rather than asking people to make a big change right away, ask for smaller changes." Jonah is Marketing Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He's published more than 50 papers, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He's appeared on Curious Minds twice before to discuss his pervious books, Contagious and Invisible Influence. Curious Minds Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Strategy behind Florida's "Truth" Campaign Thai Health Promotion Foundation - Smoking Kid (1:30 min video) Changing Eating Habits on the Home Front: Lost Lessons from World War II Research by Brian Wansink Gregory M. Vecchi, Ph.D. Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger Dave Fleischer and deep canvassing Study Finds Deep Conversations Can Reduce Transgender Prejudice gong.io Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a family member, friend, or colleague about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What would happen if, instead of reacting to problems, we solved them at the source? That's a question that Dan Heath, author of the book, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, wants us to ask. He believes it's the linchpin of real change. Dan explains, "So often in life, we get trapped in these cycles of reaction...and all of that action starves us of the energy that we need to get upstream and deal with these problems at the root level." He shares enlightening stories of people who've made it a goal to prevent problems, rather than merely react to them. At the same time, he helps us understand how to think and act like they do. To start, he says, we need to confront what he calls our "problem blindness." It's our tendency to accept the unacceptable, just because we've gotten used to it. Instead, he encourages us to "Get real suspicious and curious about recurring problems. If there's something that you've just come to take for granted...customers are always going to call about itineraries...or we're always going to have a high dropout rate...Get suspicious about that!" Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE Center, which supports entrepreneurs fighting for social good. He's also co-author with his brother, Chip Heath, of the bestselling books, Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and The Power of Moments. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Irving Zola Frederick Winslow Taylor Marcus Elliott The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Freshman On-Track Toolkit When do workarounds help or hurt patient outcomes? by Anita L. Tucker How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs by Emma Young Paul B. Batalden The University of Chicago Crime Lab Becoming a Man - Youth Guidance Sally Herndon Ways to Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What are the skills that can help us learn new things more quickly and efficiently? Our ability to learn sets us apart from other species. Yet few of us understand how to maximize this ability. Stanislas Dehaene, Director of the NeuroSpin Brain Imaging Center in Saclay, France, and Professor of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at the College de France, can help. In his latest book, How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine...for Now, he explains how the human brain is designed for learning. Next, he shares exactly what we need to optimize our learning. Sleep is one example. We know it's important, but we may not know just how critical it is for learning. Stanislas explains, "So we re-learn, we replay during sleep, the things we've begun to learn during the day. In this way, we are able to multiple the learning examples." At the same time, we may not be aware of what Stanislas calls "the secret ingredients of successful learning." These are the four pillars that, when present, speed up the learning process, namely, attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation. Finally, Stanislas explains the connections between artificial intelligence and the human brain. Though he's convinced that future AIs will surpass the capabilities of the human brain, he readily shares just how amazing our brains are: "I don't think that the brain is intrinsically better than machines. I think the brain is an extraordinary machine." Stanislas has written extensively on the topic of human learning. His previous books include, Reading in the Brain, Consciousness and the Brain, and The Number Sense. The Team Learn more about host and creator, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf Explicit Memory Creation During Sleep Demonstrates a Causal Role of Place Cells in Navigation by G. de Lavilleon, M. M. Lacroix, L. Rondi-Reig, and K. Benchenane Coordinated Memory Replay in the Visual Cortex and Hippocampus During Sleep by Daoyun Ji and Matthew A. Wilson Error-correction Learning for Artificial Neural Networks Using the Bayesian Paradigm by Smaranda Belciug and Florin Gorunescu Infants Grasp Gravity with Innate Sense of Physics by Joseph Castro  Community-induced Memory Biases in Preverbal Infants by Jennifer M. D. Yoon, Mark H. Johnson and Gergely Csibra Illiterate to Literate: Behavioural and Cerebral Changes Induced by Reading Acquisition by S. Dehaene, L. Cohen, J. Morais, and R. Kolinsky  Seymour Papert Alexander Grothendieck National Education Scientific Council Support Us Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if leaders spent less time building themselves up and more time building up others? When leaders face challenges, they're often encouraged to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Frances Frei, co-author with Anne Morriss of the book, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, agrees that leaders need to take responsibility. But she thinks they should replace the mirror with a window. To do that, leaders must shift away from looking at themselves and, instead, empower their teams. She explains what this looks like: "If I walk into a room, and I'm thinking about me, and everybody else is thinking about me, then I'm not doing a good job. I want to walk into the room and be thinking about everyone else. I want to be thinking about how to unleash greatness in everyone else." As part of unleashing team members' greatness, Frances believes leaders must also grow their team members. And when team members aren't growing, leaders need to understand why. That's where self-assessment tools can be helpful. For example, she shares a tool that can help leaders understand why they may be losing their team's trust. She also shares a tool that helps leaders determine whether a team member's underperformance is a result of their own behavior or organizational bias. When it comes to organizational bias, she points out that when "there are demographic patterns associated with who's thriving, it's super clear whose fault it is...no question the firm is doing something. Not on purpose. They're probably hitting something with their tail, but we have to fix it." Frances Frei is a Professor at Harvard Business School, and she recently served as Uber's first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy. She regularly works with companies on organizational transformation, including embracing diversity and inclusion as levers for improved performance. Her TED Talk on Building Trust has been viewed four million times. Curious Minds Team Head here to learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli.  Episode Links Valerius Maximus Emma Dench The Connector Manager by Sari Wilde and Jaime Roca Lesbians in Tech 1844 Conway Ekpo Black Male Lawyers Grace Hopper AnitaB.org Stacy Brown-Philpot Harvard Business School Gender Initiative The Field Method at Harvard Business School Youngme Moon Ways to Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the biggest barrier to our success wasn't a lack of confidence but overconfidence? We tend to associate a high degree of confidence with success. In fact, most of us believe it's a requirement for achieving our goals. Yet extensive research led Don Moore, author of the book, Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely, to conclude that "the evidence for that relationship...is shockingly weak." Instead, Don argues, it's about striking a balance between under confidence and overconfidence, and he shares a helpful technique called probabilistic thinking to help us do just that. To illustrate this point, he explains how he and his fiance used this approach to plan their wedding. After realizing that their guest list far exceeded the 125 chairs available in the reception venue, they knew they needed a strategy. Rather than remove names from the list, they estimated the likelihood of each guest attending. That helped them decide how many invitations to send. Don explains, "We went through that long list, summing up the probabilities across individuals. It got us to 127, so we sent out the invitations right away. The actual number who said 'yes' was 126, so we found one more chair and were happily married." Don Moore is a Professor of Management of Organizations at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is also co-author of the book, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, and he's written for publications like, The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. The Curious Minds Team You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links Max Bazerman 5 Tips for Calibrating Your Confidence by Laura Counts The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki The Intelligence Trap by David Robson Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Too Optimistic about Optimism Why Decisions Fail by Paul Nutt Simple Ways to Support Curious Minds Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

This year, we witnessed a solar eclipse. Walking the streets of my neighborhood that day, looking through my solar eclipse glasses and sharing them with others, I felt a profound sense of awe. And I saw that awe, that wonder, reflected in the faces of the people around me. For one or two hours, we were part of something bigger than ourselves. And that experience took us out of ourselves. It softened and connected us. Experiences like that are what made me want to read Dacher Keltner’s latest book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. In this conversation, we talk about what awe is, how it works, and why it matters. We also talk about how to build more awe into our lives. Episode Links Here’s Why You Need to Be Cultivating Awe in Your Life An Awe Walk Strengthen Your Leadership with the Science of Awe Interview with Norman Farb author of Better in Every Sense The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What if the way we engage in politics today works against the changes we seek? One-third of Americans say they spend at least two hours a day on politics. But according to Eitan Hersh, author of the book, Politics is for Power: How to Move beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change, most of that time is spent consuming news, posting to social media, and signing online petitions. Eitan labels these kinds of isolated, predominantly online behaviors "political hobbyism," and he contrasts them with the kinds of activities that can drive real change. He explains that politics "...is about getting power for the things you care about, working with others, having goals, having strategies, and that's just not what's going on for most people who are cognitively engaged in politics." Eitan's book is a primer for anyone who wants to effect political change. In it, he shares inspiring stories of ordinary people working to change the world through everyday political participation.  He also shares steps he's taken to overcome his own political hobbyism and the empathy he has for others like him. He says, "They start thinking of all the excuses in their head for why they shouldn't do things differently: 'I don't have time.' 'I'm not very ideological.' Or whatever their excuses are. Hey, I know those excuses -- those are mine! Here's how I kind of got past them." Eitan Hersh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. He researches and teaches on the topics of civic participation, U.S. elections, and voting rights. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @eitanhersh Political Hobbyism: A Theory of Mass Behavior by Eitan D. Hersh We All Really Need to Do Hard Things - the story of Lisa Mann - by Eitan Hersh Changing the Conversation Together (CTC) a deep canvassing organization 7 Questions with Dave Fleischer on Deep Canvassing Lilliana Mason You're More Powerful Than You Think by Eric Liu Angela Aldous story as discussed in Power, Friendship, and Some Democratic Rules by Russell Arben Fox Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam Linked fate Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if we transformed the word weird from an insult to a badge of honor? When we call someone "weird," it's rarely positive. Growing up as a self-described "weirdo," Olga Khazan, author of the book, Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, decided to explore the upside of being an outsider. Olga interviewed dozens of successful people who'd been labeled "weird" at some point in their lives because of characteristics like their profession, race, religion or sexual orientation. She chose to speak with "people who had struggles and some challenges because they are so different from everyone around them...people who it wasn't such a clear-cut, straight to the top trajectory." What Olga noticed was that some "weirdos" readily shrugged off the label, while others found it harder to overcome. That got her curious about the outsiders who thrived, the ones who were more creative, adaptable, and resourceful. What set them apart? In describing what helped these outsiders succeed, Olga reveals a number of traits. One of them centers on how effective they are at convincing others to listen to their ideas. She says, "If you want to get someone to buy into a crazy idea you have, a really weird idea, you [have] to give them a normal idea first." Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she covers health, gender, and science. She has written for publications like, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Forbes, and was a two-time recipient of the International Reporting Project's Journalism Fellowship. She was also winner of the 2017 National Headliner Awards for Magazine Online Writing. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @olgakhazan https://olgakhazan.com/ Rule Makers, Rule Breakers by Michele Gelfand Henri Tajfel, influential social psychology researcher in the areas of prejudice and social identity theory Let Your Workers Rebel by Francesca Gino The Behavioral Immune System: How Unconscious Fears of Infection Shape Many Aspects of Our Psychology by Mark Schaller Vivienne Ming Idiosyncrasy Credit Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the podcast. Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How much of a role can asking others for help play in achieving our goals? It turns out, quite a bit. In fact, research shows that we're more likely to achieve success if we make asking for help a part of our strategy. Yet, according to Wayne Baker, author of the book, All You Have to Do Is Ask: How to Master the Most Important Skill for Success, most of us rarely do. There are a number of reasons why. One of the most common is our fear that we'll be seen as incompetent. Another is our assumption that we'll be rejected when we ask. Yet research reveals what tends to happen is the opposite. Wayne explains, "The research shows very clearly that even strangers are very likely to help...so, you start with the assumption that most people will help you if they can, and they want to help you." In this interview, Wayne describes tools we can use to get better at asking for help. He even shares the story of putting one of these tools to work for a very special ask of his own -- his tenth wedding anniversary. In fact, his ask led to him giving his wife a surprise ring on national television. Wayne explains, "I had it in my pocket, and I asked them for permission to give it to her. And they let me do it, on air. It was amazing...It was just this incredible experience." Wayne Baker is Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. He is also faculty director of the Center for Positive Organizations and co-founder and board member of Give and Take. His writing has appeared in publications like, Harvard Business Review, Chief Executive Magazine, and MIT Sloan Management Review. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @DrWayneBaker https://allyouhavetodoisask.com/ Heather Currier Hunt of IDEO Center for Positive Organizations Givitas - Give and Take Amy Edmondson Troika Consulting Reciprocity Ring Stand-up Meeting: The Definitive Guide On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B by Steve Kerr Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes, or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the podcast. If You Enjoyed This Interview, You Might Also Like: Andy Molinsky on Overcoming Your Fears Amy Edmondson on Maximizing Team Performance Chip Conley on Bringing Wisdom to Work Other Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if knowing how successful people see the world could help us achieve our goals? When we see people achieving their goals, we may be tempted to give up. We tell ourselves they have advantages we lack, like more time, and maybe even traits we lack, like a better work ethic. While both may be true, what if there's a different reason they succeed, one that has to do with how they see their goals? That's what Emily Balcetis, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University and author of the book, Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, set out to discover. For example, in an innovative study of visualizing goals in order to choose which ones to pursue, she asked women to shop in a different kind of store. She explains that, "On the shelves, they saw paper bags with labels...hours for a work week...[number of] kids...compensation packages...all different facets of life that they had thought about in that survey were now made concrete." Emily learned that making deliberate and strategic choices about how we visualize our goals can dramatically improve our chance of achieving them. Her findings reveal four visual tactics we can use to do just that. One of these, "narrow your focus," is something elite runners do. In a study on exercise, Emily taught participants this skill and the results were fascinating. Emily shares that, "People who were taught to narrow their focus of attention...took more steps when they went out for each...walk, they moved faster in the same of time, and they went out more often for walks or runs in the week that followed." Emily's work has been featured in The Atlantic, Scientific American, NPR, and Forbes. She's received awards from organizations like, the International Society for Self and Identity and the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Anish Kapoor Hal Hershfield Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Pre-Commitment by Dan Ariely Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes, or wherever you subscribe. Tell one friend or family member about the podcast. If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy: Laura Huang on Finding Your Edge Wendy Wood on the Science of Habits John Zeratsky on Creating Time for Work that Matters Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Listening improves our relationships, health, and workplaces. So how can we get better at it? Think about the last time someone listened to you, a time when you felt heard. Those moments matter more than we realize. In fact, research shows that, over time, not feeling heard has a negative impact on our physical and mental well-being. Curious how many people have someone in their lives who listens to them, Kate Murphy, author of the book, You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters, decided to ask. What she found surprised her: "Well, I asked hundreds of people on five continents...who listens to you?...and there was almost always, without exception, a pause, a hesitation. They had to really think about it. And many times, they didn't have anyone." In this interview, Kate shares why most of us are poor listeners and the negative impact this can have on our relationships, our careers, and our health. One simple tip she provides is to rethink our questions. She explains, "What do you do for a living?...What part of town do you live in? What school did you go to?...[T]hose...questions...aren't really designed to help you get to know the other person. You're trying to rank them in the social hierarchy." As a result, she contends, "the other person, they shift into the mode of their script and their resume...and...that is a soul-sucking conversation." Kate Murphy is a Texas-based journalist who has written for publications like, The New York Times, The Economist, Texas Monthly, and many more. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Barry McManus The Power of Human by Adam Waytz Closeness communication bias Negative capability Naomi Henderson 3 Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe, so you never miss an episode. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member. If You Liked This Interview, You Might Also Enjoy Jennifer Eberhardt on the Impact of Hidden Racial Bias Hal Gregersen on Why Questions are the Answer Mahzarin Banaji on the Hidden Biases of Good People Dacher Keltner on the Power Paradox Some Places to find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What actions would you take if you knew how important friendships were for your health? Most of us recognize that friendships play an important role in our lives. Yet few of us realize how crucial they are for our health and well-being.  In this interview, Lydia Denworth, author of the book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond, shares fascinating research on the science of friendship. She argues that, "Friendship is as important as diet and exercise for both our psychological and physical health." In our conversation, Lydia explains ways of assessing whether our friendships are healthy. She also describes the neuroscience of friendship. For example, she discusses a remarkable study where researchers looked at participants' brain patterns while watching snippets of different videos. Their analysis yielded a surprising finding, as Lydia explains, "Just by looking at the brain processing, they could predict who was friends with who." Lydia Denworth is a contributing editor for Scientific American, writes the Brain Waves blog for Psychology Today, and is the author of two previous books, Toxic Truth and I Can Hear You Whisper. Her work has appeared in publications that include, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Host and Producer You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links: John Bowlby and Robert Hinde Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey The Social Brain Lisa Berkman Framingham Heart Study and Alameda County Study James House John T. Cacioppo and Steve Cole Social Neuroscience Evolutionary Mechanisms for Loneliness Popular by Mitch Prinstein Amboseli Baboon Research Project and Jeanne Altmann and Susan Alberts The Amazing Monkey Island in Puerto Rico - Cayo Santiago Your Brain Reveals Who Your Friends Are What Makes a Good Life TED Talk with Robert Waldinger and Arlie Bock If You Liked This Episode You Might Also Enjoy: Episode 150: Marc Brackett on Permission to Feel Episode 148: Adam Waytz on the Power of Human Episode 90: Dan Heath on Creating Moments that Matter Episode 84: Mitch Prinstein on How Popularity Shapes Our Lives 3 Ways to Support the Podcast: Subscribe Tell a friend or family member about the podcast or an interview you enjoyed Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

As we increasingly equate human worth with productivity, what does it mean to do nothing? That's the question Jenny Odell explores in her book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. In it, she deftly draws on the work of artists, laborers, and writers, past and present, to discuss how others have grappled with this question. In attempting to clarify what she means by doing nothing, Jenny asks, "What's the difference between being allowed to be open...observant...reflective versus...constantly express[ing]...one's rage and anger...what if there's a part of you that deserves to remain unspoken, unarticulated in the moment?" In this conversation, Jenny offers ways to resist the attention economy, but she's careful to avoid easy answers. Though she acknowledges how privilege gives some of us more options to resist than others, she emphasizes how all of us, privileged or not, operate within this productivity-obsessed system. The fallout from our always-on culture is often exhaustion and anxiety, both of which Jenny sees in her students. She explains, "I can tell my students, 'Oh, just get better at time management.' That might help in some ways, but it's not going to help the...problem of this culture of productivity that was never humane to begin with." Jenny Odell is an artist, writer, and educator who teaches at Stanford University. She has been an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department, and she has exhibited her art all over the world. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast Subscribe so you'll never miss an episode Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe Recommend the podcast to a friend or family member The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Eyeo Festival 2017 - Jenny Odell Gordon Hempton Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman Getting Back Together by Robert Houriet Walden Two by B. F. Skinner Thomas Merton Pilvi Takala - The Trainee Tehching Hsieh Diogenes Bartleby, the Scrivener Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 1934 West Coast Longshoreman's Strike Laborfest David Hockney 4'33" by John Cage Peter Stephen Berg, bioregionalist Rebecca Solnit Janet Delaney, photographer iNaturalist app If You Liked This Interview, You Might Also Enjoy: Cal Newport on Digital Minimalism Emily Esfahani Smith on Creating a Meaningful Life Tim Wu on Reclaiming Our Attention Matthew Crawford on Individuality in an Age of Distraction Other Places to Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What happens when you actively shape how you're seen, rather than leaving it to chance? At some point, many of us have felt overlooked, underestimated, or even ignored in our work. We may have responded by putting our heads down and working that much harder, in the hope that someone would finally recognize our talents and skills. Yet working harder can leave us feeling frustrated, especially when our efforts fail to change other people's perceptions. Harvard Business School Professor Laura Huang explains, "A lot of times, we think our hard work is going to speak for itself, but often we find that it doesn't. Even when we've proven ourselves and shown the ability to...provide value...we continue to have to guide the perceptions of others." Laura is author of the book, Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage. In this interview, she explains why we need to shape how others see us. She asserts, "People are perceiving and making attributions...all the time. If you realize...somebody's making an incorrect attribution about you, changing that...is...difficult. It's more difficult than if you...direct [it] from the get go." Laura has been named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40. Her work has been featured in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Nature. Episode Links @LauraHuangLA When Its Okay to Trust Your Gut on a Big Decision Dave Dahl of Dave's Killer Bread Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You by Heidi Grant If you Liked This Episode, You Might Also Enjoy: Brian Gunia on a Fresh Approach to Negotiation Rob Walker on the Art of Noticing Heidi Grant on the Science of Asking for Help Dan McGinn Performing Under Pressure Andy Molinsky on Overcoming Your Fears Other Places to Find the Show Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast Host and Producer You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating Tell a friend or family member about the podcast If you haven't already, please subscribe

What happens when you teach an AI to write knock-knock jokes, recipes, and pick-up lines? It's a rare week that goes by without someone talking about the power, and the perils, of artificial intelligence. But if you're not an expert in machine learning, how do you separate fact from fiction? That's where Janelle Shane's expertise comes in. Janelle is the author of the book, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place. As she describes how an AI learns, she reveals the gap between what researchers strive to do and what's currently possible. Janelle explains, "The AI in science fiction is almost exclusively this kind of human level, general AI, that's really smart, at least as smart as a human, and then the stuff we have in the real world is a lot simpler." Janelle runs amusing AI experiments, in order to learn how machine learning works and where its limits begin. She shares stories of what happened when she trained AIs to tell knock-knock jokes, invent new recipes, and write pick-up lines. Along the way, she describes the ups and the downs of working with AIs to solve problems: "The pro is you might get an answer that you didn't expect. The con is also that you might get an answer that you didn't expect." Janelle's work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Slate, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many more. In addition, she keeps readers up to date on recent projects and AI hilarity on her website, aiweirdness.com. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links aiweirdness.com Erik Goodman Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind by Susan Schneider An AI Expert Explains Why There's Always a Giraffe in Artificial Intelligence GPT-2 An Artificial Intelligence Predicts the Future On the Life Cycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang If You Enjoyed this Episode, You Might Also Like: Kartik Hosanagar on How Algorithms Shape Our Lives Susan Schneider on the Future of Your Mind Adam Waytz on the Power of Human Kat Holmes on the Power of Inclusive Design Caroline Criado Perez on Invisible Women Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if our success was less about channeling willpower and more about building sustainable habits? Too often, when we think about goals we've failed to achieve, we blame it on a lack of willpower. Yet research has shown when we rely primarily on willpower, we're bound to fail. Willpower takes energy, and it's when our energy stores are at their lowest that we need it the most. That's when we default to our old habits, the ones we most want to change. They require a lot less energy because they've become automatic.  If that's the case, what can we do? Wendy Wood, author of the book, Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick, can help. Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, she's studied the science of habits for decades.  To begin, Wendy argues we need to give ourselves the time we need to develop new habits. We need time for our habits to become unconscious. She explains that, "People who have high levels of self-control, they don't report being distracted by temptations. They don't even see the temptations anymore because they are on autopilot." Drawing on decades of research, Wendy shares concrete ways we can form new habits. One of these involves environment, especially proximity. For example, researchers found that people who drove around three miles to the gym went five times as often as those who traveled five miles. Wendy shares, "It's not like the people who went five times a month were necessarily more motivated. The big difference here is the distance they had to travel. So making it easy for you to repeat a behavior seems to be key." Wendy has written for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Time magazine, and on NPR. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @ProfWendyWood http://goodhabitsbadhabits.org/ Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey If You Like This Episode, You Might Also Enjoy: James Clear on Making and Breaking Habits Chris Bailey on Overcoming Distraction John Zeratsky on Creating Time for Things that Matter Laura Vanderkam on Getting More Done Morten Hansen on Working Smarter Sean Young on the Science of Changing Your Life Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Social connections are one of the keys to a happy and healthy life, yet few of us learn how to build them. If we’re lucky, we have family and friends who model them. But even then, our biology equips us with cognitive biases that can get in the way. Fortunately, award-winning science writer David Robson has studied the research. He shares what he’s learned in his latest book, The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network. In this conversation, he talks about the biases we hold and how we can overcome them. It’s a terrific resource for rethinking your approach to social connection. Episode Links How Learning about the Science of Shyness Helped Me The Big Idea: Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Being a Mess Interview with Marissa King on Social Networks and Social Chemistry The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

We all have trouble changing our habits, but the problem isn't us. It's our systems. Whether we want to adopt good habits or avoid bad ones, we need to think beyond willpower or setting bigger goals. According to James Clear, author of the book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, we need to design a system of small, repeatable habits. James challenges us to ask, "How can we make...small changes...little one percent improvements...and in the process of integrating them...into a larger system, end up making some really remarkable progress?" In this interview, James shares findings from the latest research, in order to teach us how to design simple systems that support game-changing habits. In particular, he explains how we can leverage our environments and even our addictive tendencies to our advantage. And he helps us see how a commitment to daily habit change, no matter how small, can lead to a new identity: "Every action you take is like a vote for the person you want to become...doing one pushup or writing one sentence or reading one page...cast[s] a vote for being that kind of person, for reinforcing that identity." James is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, and on CBS This Morning. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links @JamesClear Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Hooked by Nir Eyal The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey Point and Call video Habit Scorecard How to Improve Your Health and Productivity Without Thinking Stick with It by Sean Young The Mistake Smart People Make: Being in Motion vs Taking Action Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can recognizing, understanding, and managing our emotions contribute to our happiness, success, and well-being? Emotions play a big role in our lives. Yet, for most of us, they're viewed as something to ignore or overcome. For these reasons, we often have little experience identifying our feelings. We say we're stressed out, when what we may actually be feeling is frustration, anger, or even disappointment. While the distinction between stress and frustration may seem slight, it's actually enormous. Marc Brackett, author of the book, Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive, explains: "Imagine how many of us...don't really have clarity about what we're feeling, and feel uncomfortable talking about those feelings, don't know how to regulate them. It's a disaster really. It's why so many people are unhappy." Marc shares a tool to help us more accurately identify our emotions, so that we can work with them more effectively. This tool is part of a framework he's developed to help us live fuller and happier lives. He shares that his bigger goal for this work is to "create an emotion revolution," in order to "ensure that everyone has permission to feel." Marc is the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. He's published over a hundred scholarly articles on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, and performance, and he consults regularly with organizations like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links @marcbrackett marcbrackett.com RULER Mood Meter Emotional Agility by Susan David Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three things you can do to support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family about the podcast. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe.  Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

In a world where empathy is in decline, how can we learn to care more? If you sense we're less empathetic today than decades past, you're right. Studies show there's been a 48 percent decline in empathy between 1979 and 2009. Though human beings are wired to care about each other, we need the right conditions for those feelings to grow. Jamil Zaki, author of the book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, argues that a shift to online interactions and urban living has made relationships more "narrow, transactional, and anonymous." He explains that in this kind of environment, it's "really not great soil for empathy to grow." But there is hope. Jamil's research reveals that empathy is a skill we can develop through training and that this training can leave us feeling not only more empathetic, but also kinder. Dedicated practice can also change the brain. Jamil shares that it can grow "parts of the brain...associated with the experience of empathy." Jamil Zaki is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links @zakijam The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot Carol Dweck Tania Singer London taxi drivers and brain science Gordon Allport Contact hypothesis Emile Bruneau Nicholas Epley When Cops Choose Empathy by Jamil Zaki Jason A. Okonofua Elizabeth Levy Paluck Jeremy Bailenson Eve Ekman Kari Leibowitz Three Ways to Support the Podcast First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the show wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the very tech that connects us is taking away our need to interact? Technology connects us to more people than ever before. Yet, as Adam Waytz, author of the book, The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create a Better World, points out, the data shows we're interacting with one another a whole lot less. We can turn to our apps for restaurant recommendations and our social media platforms for insights into our friends' lives. And we can do all this without ever having to directly communicate with anyone. Adam believes this lack of human interaction is taking its toll. He contends that, "...people are becoming less engaged with each other, which then manifests in things like income inequality, political polarization...treating people as more members of a market economy...versus members of a community." To counter these tendencies, he believes we need to bring more meaning to work. In particular, he recommends, "Getting people to think about the way their work impacts other people..." Doing so helps people "...feel like their work matters and ultimately make[s] them feel more human, even as we see automation creeping around us."  Adam is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and a social psychologist at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.  The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links adamwaytz.com What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limit of Markets by Michael J. Sandel Social Empathy: The Art of Understanding Others by Elizabeth Segal Mistakenly Seeking Solitude by Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How would our decision-making change if we shifted focus from the present to the future? Instant gratification comes easily to us. But when we delay tackling long-term problems associated with things like, health, climate, or society, we cheat our future selves. Bina Venkataraman, author of the book, The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age, argues that it doesn't have to be this way. Mining related research from the fields of biology, psychology, and economics, Bina shares steps we can take to make wiser decisions. For example, she invites us to look more closely at the kinds of data we're gathering. She explains, "So often we're measuring a lot of immediate results...And that's true whether you look at our sensors that track the steps we take, small fluctuations in temperature or the stock market, or test scores for kids in school." Yet, she argues that this kind of data is "not always a great proxy of what we actually want to accomplish in the long run." Instead, she explains that it's when we telescope out that we see what's at stake. But only if we make it a habit to do so. And though it's a habit that's hard to master, Bina believes we have a choice. She shares, "we're actually not cursed to this recklessness...Is it going to be easy in every case? No. Can we do it right away? No. But the book is really a roadmap for how we do that as a society. And I think it's cause for a king of optimism, an engaged optimism." Ultimately, she exults, "we have the power to do things differently." Bina Venkataraman is the incoming editorial page editor at The Boston Globe. She worked as a journalist for The New York Times and served as senior advisor for climate change innovation in the Obama White House. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by clicking here. Episode Links @binajv Mental time travel Hal Hershfield Thomas Suddendorf Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions that Matter the Most by Steven Johnson Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University Aging booth app Elke Weber Dear Tomorrow with Jill Kubit and Trisha Shrum Vijay Mahajan Walter Mischel Implementation intention or if-then and Peter Gollwitzer Ronnie Bardah Eagle Capital Management Pre-mortem Social discount rate Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: (1) subscribe so you'll never miss an episode; (2) tell a friend or family member - you'll always have someone to talk to about the interview; and rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe - you'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How does work change when we have five generations in the workplace at once? For the first time in history, there are five different generations working alongside one another in the workplace. In some organizations, that makes for a potential 60-year age difference among employees and, for that reason alone, it makes sense that there might be generational divides and misunderstandings. Lindsey Pollak, author of the book, The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, is quick to point out that being born to a particular generation doesn't necessarily mean we'll feel the way we're depicted. In fact, she argues, "It doesn't guarantee that you will behave that way or that will be your personal preference." Yet she argues that the likelihood is high they'll hold similar perspectives because of the era in which they entered the workforce: "[there] will be common understandings." Lindsey challenges us to rethink millennial stereotypes and reflexive views of older workers. For example, she talks about how leaders can reframe knee-jerk reactions to millennials' career aspirations, in order to respond more effectively. They can ask, "What are you eager for? Maybe it's leadership skills which I can help you get elsewhere without the next job. Maybe it's more learning and I can help you engage in training and development." Lindsey has served as an official ambassador for LinkedIn, a Millennial workplace expert for The Hartford, and as chair of Cosmopolitan's Millennial Advisory Board. Lindsey is also author of the books, Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World and Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders. The Host Head here to learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli. Episode Links @lindseypollak Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott Neil Howe and William Strauss -- Generational Theory Lindsey Pollak TEDx Talk: It's about Time We Stop Shaming Millennials Project Oxygen: re:Work User Manuals and Workplace Teams and How to Create a Personal User Manual Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe. You'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Overcast Google Play

What does artificial intelligence mean for the future of machine consciousness and the human mind? Every week, artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role in the products that we use. Think of Siri, Alexa, Netflix and Spotify. But are we seriously considering what the future holds when it comes to the role AI will play in our lives? Susan Schneider, author of the book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, asks the questions that companies often don’t. Among those discussed in this interview are: Could AIs become conscious? and, What does it really mean for humans to merge with AIs using brain implants or other devices? In this interview, she shares her concerns: “If you enhance your brain in radical ways would you still be you, or would you basically be changing yourself in such incredibly radical ways that you are no longer the same person you were before?” Susan believes we should be asking these kinds of questions now, before these technologies become mainstream. She argues that if we don’t, important aspects of human life may be decided by people who design first and ask questions later. She says, “Think of Anthony Hopkins’ character in Westworld. In a way he’s a consciousness engineer. He made decisions, together with other characters, to create or not create sentient beings.” Susan Schneider is a philosopher and cognitive scientist. Currently, she’s the NASA Chair at the Library of Congress and the Director of the AI, Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Financial Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian. Her books include The Language of Thought, The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, and Science Fiction and Philosophy. The Host Head here to learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli. Episode Links @DrSueSchneider Singularity Transhumanism Ray Kurzweil Philosophical zombie John Searle Chinese Room thought experiment NASA, Astrobiology and Paul Davies, Seth Shostak, and Steven Dick A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence by Karthik Hosanagar Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom Derek Parfit The Postbiological Universe by Dr. Steven Dick, NASA The Mind is the Software of the Brain by Ned Block Merging with AI Would Be Suicide for the Human Mind by Susan Schneider, FT Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe. You'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Overcast Google Play

Is there a certain type of leader whose management approach gets more from their teams? Gartner, a research and advisory firm, recently conducted a study of thousands of managers and employees. They wanted to find out if there were certain types of management practices that had the greatest impact on employee growth and development. In this interview, Sari Wilde, co-author of the book, The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Built Exceptional Talent – and Others Don’t, shares their findings. Sari explains that what the researchers learned surprised them: not only did one management type have an outsize impact, but it was also a type they never would have predicted. They named it the Connector Manager. According to Sari, this type of leader not only provides targeted feedback and coaching, but also readily “connects employees to others, either within the team, or across the organization, who might be better suited to provide the right kind of coaching and development.” Sari also shares key characteristics of Connector Managers, as well as some of the tools they use in their work. For example, she describes one tool managers can use to assess employee motivation. It’s one Sari found so insightful that she used it with her team. Today, it frames how they do their work: “[The team’s] top five motivators were things like growth, achievement, transparency, inclusion, so that has changed the way that I communicate, the way I run my team meetings.” Sari is a Managing Vice President at Gartner where she leads global teams focused on creating research and products to improve outcomes. She’s been studying organizations for more than 15 years, advising executives at hundreds of Fortune 500 companies on their leadership and talent management practices. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson Sari Levine Wilde Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Does college have a greater impact on the lives we lead than we ever imagined? Is college still a tool for upward mobility or is the system engineered to advance the wealthy? Paul Tough, author of the book, The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, answers this question and more. For example, he explains differences in how many rich and poor students choose their colleges and how those choices impact lifetime earnings. He also discusses how financial aid really works: “College wants us to think that financial aid is this very linear process where colleges decide who they want to admit, and then they give them the aid that they need and it’s a very straightforward process….But that’s not true.” Though he discusses how the system of higher education is broken, he also offers insights on how to fix it. He explains that a hundred years ago, the U.S. government saw how technological advances made it necessary for young people to have a high school education to compete for jobs. They tackled that problem by creating a system of free, public high schools. Paul sees parallels today: “Clearly a high school degree is not enough to compete in the current labor marketplace….Kids need more education. But we have not … pulled together to say well we’re going to solve that problem. Instead we’re saying to these young people, you’re on your own.” Paul is a contributing writer to New York Times Magazine where he’s written extensively about parenting, education, poverty, and politics. His writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Esquire, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Paul’s previous books include: Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why, and How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @paultough Raj Chetty and article about him: The Economist Who Would Fix the American Dream Caroline Hoxby and articles on her work: The College Board Tried a Simple, Cheap, Research-Backed Way to Push Low-Income Kids into Better Colleges. It Didn’t Work and The Nudges That Didn’t Work Anthony A. Jack and his book: The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez David Laude and his interventions to support college students at the University of Texas The High School Movement in the U.S. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if advice we get to “follow your passion” is more complicated that it seems? Steve Magness is co-author with Brad Stulberg of the book, The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life. Steve coaches some of the world’s top distance runners and has propelled numerous athletes to Olympic trials, world championship teams, and the Olympics. He has been a featured expert in Runner’s World and the New York Times. When faced with the choice of what to do with our lives, we’re often told, “follow your passion.” Steve believes this advice can be overwhelming, incomplete, and, ultimately, defeating. That’s why he and Brad decided to study the topic. They wanted to demystify it. Along the way, they learned that passion not only fuels big accomplishments, but it can also be problematic. They share that, “passion and addiction are close cousins.” In this interview, Steve shares ways to develop our passion and insights on how failure can play a role in our search. He also gives tips on how to sustain our passion for the long haul by doing things like focusing on what we can control, rather than what our competitors are doing. He contends, “We can’t control what other people do and where that bar is. But what we can control is making the comparison point a previous version of yourself.” The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net Episode Links @stevemagness and https://www.scienceofrunning.com/ @BStulberg and https://www.bradstulberg.com/ Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein Instead of “Finding Your Passion,” Try Developing It, Stanford Scholars Say Les Passions de l’Ame: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion Shalane Flanagan Obey the 24-Hour Rule Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

There are many good reasons to look to others. For example, you might need expert advice or feedback to improve your performance. But there’s one reason not to, and, that is, to determine your self-worth. When you look to someone else to define you or tell you how to live your life, you lose a lot. And if you find it hard to believe you’d ever let someone else influence you in those ways, you’d be surprised. Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who’s worked with elite athletes, artists, and leaders. Through his work, he’s learned that one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way is fear of other people’s opinions. And he’s seen just how crippling those fears can be. That’s why he’s written the book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You. In talking to Michael, I learned how our biology sets us up to place a lot of weight on other people’s opinions. I also learned how social media is designed to reinforce that fear. Fortunately, Michael shared insights on what to do. I walked away feeling empowered. Episode Links Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval Build a Great Team on a Relationship-Based Culture, Not the Myth of Family Interview with Jonathan Rhodes on Getting the Life You Want The Team Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support the Podcast If you like the show, please rate and review it on iTunes or wherever you subscribe, and tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe Click here and then scroll down to see a sample of sites where you can subscribe.

What if our IQ scores reveal far less about intelligence and reasoning than we think? We often assume that people with high IQ scores are more intelligent. We may even believe they’re able to think more critically and make wiser decisions. But is that true? In this interview, David Robson, author of the book, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, reveals that people with high IQ scores can actually be more prone to mental mistakes and that they don’t necessarily make wise decisions. He compares their intelligence to a car with a fast engine and tremendous power that, without “…a GPS, and good steering and reliable brakes…could actually be quite dangerous. It can drive you in the wrong direction. It can drive you off a cliff. It could just drive you around in circles.” David explains the origins and limitations of IQ testing, particularly how it overlooks other forms of intelligence, like creative, practical, and cultural intelligence. He also shares the evolutionary dynamics that explain poor decision making, as well as the advantages of measuring people’s ability to engage in wise reasoning: “The wise reasoning scores were actually very good at predicting how happy [people] were, how likely they were to suffer from depression, whether they were satisfied with the people around them – you know all of these really important things in their life.” David is an award-winning science journalist who specializes in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. He was a features editor at New Scientist and is currently a senior journalist at BBC Future. His writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @d_a_robson davidrobson.me Kary Mullis Lewis Terman Flynn effect Robert Sternberg Cultural Intelligence and Soon Ang Keith Stanovich and dysrationalia Daniel Kahneman Dan Kahan Curse of knowledge Farsighted by Steven Johnson Igor Grossmann and wise reasoning Philip E.Tetlock and superforecasting Silvia Mamede Adam Galinsky Richard Feynman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How is our lack of social empathy affecting millions of people in surprising, unexpected ways? To maintain and deepen our relationships with other individuals, we need empathy. To craft policies that effectively serve entire groups, we need what Elizabeth Segal, author of the book, Social Empathy: The Art of Understanding Others, refers to as social empathy. Yet for most of us, social empathy is a blind spot, one with often devastating consequences when it comes to public policies in areas like, education, healthcare, and politics. For example, Elizabeth points to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how a lack of social empathy delayed fixing the collapsed levees: “The public policies were never put in place because the people who had the power to make those policies didn’t live in those neighborhoods, particularly the poorest neighborhoods.” To counter this blind spot, Elizabeth explains that we need to understand what social empathy is and how it operates. In this interview, she shares how our biology and experiences influence and shape this capacity, along with what we can do to cultivate it. For example, she describes a teaching experience that sparked social empathy in her students: “They started to learn in a small way that life is different when you’re poor than when you’re not.” Elizabeth is Professor of Social Work at Arizona State University. She’s also author of the book, Social Welfare Policy and Social Programs: A Values Perspective, and co-author of Assessing Empathy. The Team You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Outgroup Bias The Power of Human by Adam Waytz The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki How Toyota Turns Workers into Problem Solvers by Sarah Jane Johnston Social Empathy Center Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds Podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if you design a product or service that prevents certain people from using it? These kinds of mismatches are everywhere: a computer mouse that works only for the right-handed; credit-card-only payment systems that exclude those without credit; and even game controllers for gamers who can’t use their hands. Inclusive design advocate, Kat Holmes, explains, “The design of the controller is an indicator of who gaming is for and who it is not for…to think that one little piece of plastic shaped in a particular way is a gateway requirement to who can and can’t participate…starts to become a really absurd idea.” When this kind of exclusionary design scales, it can shape entire industries and markets. And for many designers, these outcomes are unintended. That's why Kat Holmes, UX designer and author of the book Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, is a champion of inclusive design. In fact, she's developed a framework for design teams, so that more people can participate. Kat argues that inclusive design should be a priority, not an afterthought. In addition to all the ways it helps people, it’s often been a smart business decision. To that end, Kat shares all the ways design teams can make this an ongoing part of the creative process: “…whether it’s the team…the work environment, the tools…the assumptions, all of these things are…opportunities for either balancing towards exclusion or towards inclusion.” Kat served as Principal Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft and in 2017 was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Today she serves as Director of User Experience Design at Google. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @katholmes The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda World Health Organization on disabilities John Porter, UX Designer at Microsoft Susan Goltsman and the Emergence of Inclusive Design A Brief History of Closed Captioning (it all started with Julia Child) Pellogrino Turri and The Technology of Compassion Vint Cerf Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast