What is our purpose, both individually and collectively? What lies in the balance of who we are now and who we will become? 

In Part Two of this episode, the Surgeon General and Shankar Vedantam, host of “Hidden Brain,” go deep into conversation about our individual and national quest for meaning and purpose. 

This episode becomes deeply personal as both host and guest reveal their family’s hopes for coming to America, and the unimaginable ways in which those dreams were realized. They find themselves asking where else on earth has what America can offer? And how can we remember and reinforce our ideals at moments the noise becomes too great? 

(03:23)    How can we encourage young people to dream about the future? 

(09:21)    How can we bring freshness and curiosity to our daily lives? 

(11:57)    What does it mean to be a tourist in our own lives? 

(15:28)    What is the power of having purpose in our lives? 

(22:39)    What’s the difference between goals and purpose? 

(25:39)    How would Dr. Murthy bolster America’s sense of purpose? 

(28:58)    What is the enormous possibility that the United States offers? 

(30:16)    What story of America did Dr. Murthy see in the crowd at his swearing in ceremony? 

(32:51)    Who are Shankar Vedantam’s Unsung Heroes? 

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  

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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.