Unveiling the Hidden Brain

Have you ever had a moment when you’ve wanted to reach out to someone you haven’t seen in awhile, but something stops you, like the worry you’ll say the wrong thing?  Or have you had the experience of assuming that someone who disagrees with you must also dislike you?  

It turns out, our mind can play tricks on us that make it harder to connect.  

Shankar Vedantam, host and creator of the podcast ”Hidden Brain” joins the Surgeon General for a two-part conversation that travels across science and deeper philosophical questions about life.  

In this first conversation, Shankar explains the “hidden brain,” the part of the mind that function outside of our awareness, making unconscious decisions and judgments. They ponder the paradox of how social anxieties keep us from connecting, but how acts of connection and kindness have far greater impact and power than most of us realize.  

Offering both science and personal stories, Shankar and Dr. Murthy help us work through our fears of connecting. And help us close the gap between our values, like kindness, and our actions. 

(04:04)    How does Shankar Vedantam describe the origins of the Hidden Brain podcast? 

(06:18)    How can we understand if our hidden brain is helping us? 

(08:34)    How does our hidden brain keep us from connecting with other people? 

(14:04)    What does it mean to express gratitude to someone else? 

(18:39)    How has Dr. Murthy cultivated his sense of kind and warmth? 

(24:20)    How can we tell a better story about the nature of our humanity? 

(29:36)    How did Shankar Vedantam become a translator of science? 

(33:12)    How do listeners respond to the Hidden Brain podcast? 

(36:12)    How are ideas for Hidden Brain podcast episodes developed? 

We’d love to hear from you! Send us a note at housecalls@hhs.gov with your feedback & ideas. For more episodes, visit www.surgeongeneral.gov/housecalls.   

Shankar Vedantam, Host, “Hidden Brain” Podcast 

Instagram: @hiddenbrain  

X: @hiddenbrain 

Facebook: @hiddenbrain 

About Shankar Vedantam 

Shankar Vedantam is the host and executive editor of the Hidden Brain podcast and radio show. Shankar and NPR launched the podcast in 2015, and it now receives millions of downloads per week, and is regularly listed as one of the top 20 podcasts in the world. The radio show, which debuted in 2017, is heard on more than 425 public radio stations across the United States.  

Vedantam was NPR’s social science correspondent between 2011 and 2020, and he spent 10 years as a reporter at The Washington Post. From 2007 to 2009, he was also a columnist, and wrote the Department of Human Behavior column for the Post.  

Vedantam and Hidden Brain have been recognized with numerous journalism awards, including the Edward R Murrow Award, and honors from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Austen Riggs Center, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Webby Awards, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, the South Asian Journalists Association, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the American Public Health Association, the Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship on Science and Religion, and the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship.  

In 2009-2010, Vedantam served as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. 

Shankar Vedantam speaks internationally about how the “hidden brain” shapes our world and is the author of two non-fiction books: The Hidden Brain: How our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives, published in 2010, and Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain published in 2021, an exploration of deception’s role in human success.