Can We Always Trust Our Emotions to Lead Us in the Right Direction?

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Can we always trust our emotions to lead us in the right direction? Can we rely on them? They do seem like this finely tuned system. And yet we can all think of moments when our emotions led us to do things that we later regretted. What we need to do, and i've a chapter on that, is learn how to regulate emotion.

We all strive to think rationally. But it doesn’t always do us much good. Cutting-edge science has revealed that if we want to sharpen our thinking, we need to feel our feelings. That science is the subject of “Emotional,” a new book by theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow. In this episode, he sits down with science writer Annie Murphy Paul to discuss where emotions come from, how they motivate us, and what we can do to control them.

Episode Recommendations:

RATIONALITY: Steven Pinker’s Love Song to Critical Thinking

FEELING & KNOWING: Unlocking the Secrets of Consciousness (with Antonio Damasio)

EXTENDED MIND: Want to Get Smarter? Try Thinking Outside of Your Brain (with Annie Murphy Paul)

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