Hidden Brain Recent episodes of Hidden Brain podcast can now be found at hiddenbrain.org. Hidden Brain helps curious people understand the world-– and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain's host Shankar Vedantam reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.

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A conversation about life's unseen patterns

Patty Ramge leans against her Ford Pinto in 1978. Since then, the car has become one of the most infamous vehicles in American history, known for a design that made it vulnerable in low-speed accidents. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive hide caption

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Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Social psychologist Keith Payne says we have a bias toward comparing ourselves to people who have more than us, rather than those who have less Marcus Butt/Getty Images/Ikon Images hide caption

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Finding Meaning At Work: How We Shape And Think About Our Jobs

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A young Maya Shankar. Courtesy of Maya Shankar hide caption

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Courtesy of Maya Shankar

Derek Amato became a musical savant after a traumatic accident. Derek Amato hide caption

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Derek Amato

You 2.0: Fresh Starts

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In The Heat Of The Moment: How Intense Emotions Transform Us

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Actors reading during the recording of an episode of the radio soap opera "Musekeweya" in Kigali, produced by the NGO Radio La Benevolencija. Twice a week, people all around Rwanda gather in groups to listen together. Stephanie Aglietti/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Romeo & Juliet In Rwanda: How A Soap Opera Sought To Change A Nation

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At seventeen years old, Fred Clay was sentenced to prison for a crime he did not commit. Various flawed ideas in psychology were used to determine his guilt. Ken Richardson/Ken Richardson hide caption

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Ken Richardson/Ken Richardson

Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves, yet he also wrote that "all men are created equal." How did he square the contradictions between his values and his everyday life? ericfoltz/Getty Images hide caption

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Economist Amir Sufi says debt plays a bigger role in recessions than we typically recognize. erhui1979/Getty Images hide caption

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The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases

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Olutosin Oduwole at his home in New Jersey in 2016. Shankar Vedantam /NPR hide caption

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Graduating High School During A Recession Could Be A Good Thing, Study Finds

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