Years before he got diagnosed with Parkinson's, Joy Milne noticed her husband's characteristic scent had changed. The discovery that she could smell his illness has opened up a new field of research.
In 1973, five black students and five white students were told to go around the room and say what they really thought about people of the other race. It bonded them in ways they never expected.
Feelings seem to spread contagiously between friends, partners or groups. Why are we so easily influenced by one another's emotions? A new video from Invisibilia explains what's going on.
Walter Mischel had an idea that became a pop culture touchstone. He wanted to see if preschoolers seated in front of a marshmallow could delay their gratification. What did the experiment really mean?
In this episode of the Invisibilia podcast, our hosts explore how it feels to be "in between," including the story of one woman who spends so much time daydreaming that it interferes with her life.
When Somalia decided to start a reality show with a singing competition, there was a major problem. Singing in public could bring on the wrath of al-Shabab.
Imagine trying to play the piano or button a shirt, while one hand does something else, entirely of its own volition. Invisibilia explored this phenomenon. More stories are coming in the new season.
Sigmund Freud thought dreams were all about wish fulfillment and repressed desire. But scientists now think they're linked to memory processing and consciousness. And they're often quite mundane.
Surgery that severs the link between brain hemispheres reveals that those halves have way different views of the world. We ask a pioneering scientist what that tells us about human consciousness.
Since ancient times, philosophers and scientists have viewed emotions as innate. In the latest Invisibilia, a psychologist argues that emotions spring from the sum of our experiences, not just wiring.
How do the belief systems, cultural traditions and ideas shape your view of how a woman should exercise her rights? Tell us with the hashtag #FeminismInMyCountry.
This week the NPR program Invisibilia talks with a guy who despised our mindless worship of celebrities. So he devised an elaborate prank. It succeeded in ways he never would have anticipated.
A shy woman becomes a brave warrior princess. A man calls on Captain America to help him lose 45 pounds. In costume role play they become part of a community where they can transform themselves.
When we invented shoes, we slipped a surface between ourselves and the world. Ever wonder if this is the moment mankind fell from grace? No? Well, for better or worse, NPR's Colin Dwyer has.
Cass Frankenstein started wearing sunglasses to protect himself from bullies. Decades later, he still wears them. Some friends and relatives say that holds people at bay. But he says it's worth it.
NPR's Alix Spiegel, co-host of the podcast and program Invisibilia, tells the story of a robbery that was halted when a woman decided to respond to the threat in an unexpected way — with kindness.
William Kitt was living on the streets, abusing drugs and very sick when Broadway Housing Communities in New York offered him a room. Thirteen years later, he's thriving. His art tells the tale.
More than half of prisoners released from prison are rearrested within a year. Cognitive therapy can help prisoners change the thinking that gets them in trouble, like "I'll never back down."
Jason Comely was terrified of being rejected. The only cure, he figured, was to get rejected on purpose, once a day. It started to hurt less and less. And then it actually started to become fun.
Iggy Ignatius bet that immigrants from India would long to live with other Indians in his Florida condos. He was right. Psychologists say intimations of mortality make us want to be with our own kind.
Jason Comely's fear of rejection was so strong that he'd become completely isolated. So he set out to get himself rejected at least once a day, every day. Funny thing is, it worked.
