Curious Minds at Work

How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care deeply about complete strangers? From an evolutionary standpoint, we shouldn't be kind to strangers. Yet, history shows, time and again, we are. Scientists see it as a puzzle to solve. Michael McCullough, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, believes it's what sets us apart. He says, "[We] love to talk about ways in which humans are biologically unique, and there's a million ways. But I really do think that our regard for strangers, absolute strangers, is one of them." Michael is author of the book, The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a Moral Code. Drawing on multiple fields, he crafts a story of how our empathy for strangers has changed over time.  He covers a lot of ground, moving from ancient history to modern psychology. Ultimately, he arrives at the pandemic present, where he asks, "How are you going to bring the tools of reasoning, ethics, and science all together to make rational choices about collective courses of action?" A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Michael is also the author of two previous books, To Forgive is Human and Beyond Revenge. Episode Links The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins David Sloan Wilson Group Selection Behavioral game theory Robert Trivers Code of Hammurabi Curious Minds Team You can learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Support Curious Minds If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google podcasts Overcast

We recognize the biases we hold around race, class, and gender, but what about language? Katherine Kinzler, author of the book, How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do - and What It Says about You, explains, "The language you speak, and the accent or dialect you use to speak it, is such a foundational part of social life." Yet speech and language are often overlooked aspects of social identity. In fact, Katherine's research reveals that the way we speak can "determine who you might connect with, but also the judgments you make about other people, and the judgments they might be making about you." In her book, Katherine discusses how language, accents, and speech influence life experience and outcomes. In particular, they can be tools for social division, discrimination in hiring and firing, and other forms of bias and prejudice. It's one of the reasons Katherine advocates language learning in school. She says, "a lot of times, we think of language [learning] as 'icing on the cake'...nice to have but not really a fundamental part of learning. I think we could do so much more if we changed how we thought about the necessity of more than one language." Katherine Kinzler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. She holds degrees from Yale and Harvard, has written for the New York Times, and was recently named a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum, one of the 50 scientists under 40 working to shape the future. Episode Links Bilingual Brains Better Equipped to Process Information  Neuroplasticity as a Function of Second Language Learning by Ping Li, Jennifer Legault, and Kaitlyn a. Litcofsky Want to be More Rational? Learn Another Language by Rob Smith How Speaking a Second Language Affects the Way You Think by David Ludden How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Found Her Voice by Katy Steinmetz Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World by Olga Khazan Meyer v. State of Nebraska Emotions Shape the Language We Use, but Second Languages Reveal a Shortcut around Them by Beth Daley The War against German-American Culture: The Removal of German-Language from Indianapolis Schools, 1917-1919 Linguistic Insecurity Bilingual Children's Social Preferences Hinge on Accent by Jasmine M. DeJesus, Hyesung G. Hwang, Jocelyn B. Dautel, and Katherine D. Kinzler The Native Language of Social Cognition by Katherine D. Kinzler, Emmanuel Dupoux, and Elizabeth S. Spelke Research: How Speech Patterns Lead to Hiring Bias by Michael W. Kraus, Brittany Torrez, and Jun Won Park Multilingual Environments Enrich Our Understanding of Others by Christopher Bergland Jane Elliott Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. This week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.

Ashley Whillans, Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School, discusses the negative impact of feeling time poor on our health, productivity, and relationships. She shares tools to help us rethink our relationship with time and highlights the importance of prioritizing how we spend our time for greater happiness. The podcast explores time traps such as technology and overcommitment, the intersection of psychological safety and asking for more time in the workplace, valuing time over money in decision-making, and the impact of the pandemic on our relationship with time.

How did we get to a place where life's become an endless treadmill of work? In her latest book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen tackles this question. Her book is for anyone who feels their life has become an endless to-do list. In particular, Petersen describes the plight of today's millennials, a generation she believes is under constant pressure to perform. She explains how, for many millennials, it begins in childhood, when activities originally intended for fun get repurposed for resume building. She argues, "You're taking things that are meant to be leisure, that are meant to be those joyful corners of your life that are not work, and you're turning them into work." Petersen discusses the social and economic forces that have led to this cultural shift, including the demise of labor unions, increasing reliance on contract workers, and the rise of the gig economy. In each case, she points out how companies benefit, while workers struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, she wonders if millennials are the generation that can break the cycle. She muses, "I'm curious if we can refigure our relationship to work. I am curious if millennials are broken, if we are just too far down this road, or if we can take a different road." Anne Helen Petersen is a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed. A former academic, she received a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on the history of celebrity gossip. Her previous books, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud and Scandals of Classic Hollywood, were featured on NPR, Elle, and The Atlantic. Curious Minds Team Learn more about creator and host, Gayle Allen, and producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen Annette Lareau Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can be Done to Improve It by David Weil The Effects of 'Clopening' on Employees: What Employers Can Do by Tom Starner Are You Just LARPing Your Job by John Herrman How Does Your Ugly Garden Grow? by Anne Helen Petersen Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Podcasts Overcast

Is the onslaught of online information eroding our brain's ability to think deeply and creatively? In 2008, Nicholas Carr, asked the provocative question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Two years later, he delved more deeply into this topic in his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  Writing at the dawn of the smartphone era, Carr was concerned about the shift many of us were making from deep reading to online scanning. It made him question the Internet's impact on our long-term memory and reasoning skills. Carr muses, "we find ourselves...gathering information...but never slowing down to...mull over it...and when we lose...the ability to concentrate and be attentive...we short-circuit memory consolidation and end up with a...shallow mind." In the decade since the book's release, brain researchers have validated a number of Carr's insights. At the same time, many of today's challenges speak directly to his concerns. He argues, "if you look at problems...with...'fake news'...or...the...rush to...dismiss information that doesn't fit into your existing worldview, I think this is...about...[not]...building this rich interconnected set of knowledge...[in] our...minds." Nick Carr has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is also author of the books, The Glass Cage, and Utopia is Creepy. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf Memory consolidation Frederick Winslow Taylor Flynn effect Joseph Weizenbaum Salience network Cynthia Ozick Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What happens in our minds when we dehumanize others, and how can we resist it? These are the kinds of questions David Livingstone Smith, author of the book, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, has found himself asking throughout his career.  Most of us are familiar with events of mass violence in recent history, such as the Holocaust, slavery in America, and the Rwandan genocide. David wants to know what motivates us to commit these atrocities. By studying dehumanization, he's learned what a powerful tool it is. He explains, "If people can convince others that those whom they wish to harm are not really human beings at all, but are, in fact, dangerous animals, then this makes it acceptable to harm them." David helps us unpack dehumanization's building blocks, including the dangerous myths of race science and biological hierarchies. And he shares how each of us can resist the urge to dehumanize. To begin, he urges us to recognize that no one is immune: "If politicians scare us or flatter us into thinking of others as, essentially, less than human, we're all capable of doing terrible things.  David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. He has written or edited eight books, including Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, which won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi Kwame Anthony Appiah The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Caste by Isabel Wilkerson Roger Money-Kyrle The Wall by John Lanchester Cornel West Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What can a simple street address reveal about a person’s identity, race, wealth and power? For many of us, an address is something we don't spend a lot of time thinking about. It may be a string of numbers and letters we type into a GPS. A place we call home. Or just a placeholder where we get our mail. Yet, for others, it can mean much more. A way out of poverty. A signal of economic status. Or an indicator of race and social history. Street addresses can change lives. Deirdre Mask, author of the book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, explains, "Billions of people in the world don't have reliable addresses, and having an address is one of the cheapest ways of lifting people out of poverty." At the same time, Deirdre argues, street addresses don't always change lives for the better. While they can stop epidemics and help the poor get bank accounts, they can also entrench racism and empower authoritarian governments. In this interview, one of the examples we discuss is the negative stereotype associated with streets name for Martin Luther King, Jr. Deirdre asks, "Is it really that MLK streets all deserve this bad reputation or is it that, because we associate MLK streets with Blackness, that we seem them as bad, whether they're nice or not?"  Deirdre is a writer, lawyer, and academic. Her work has appeared in publications like, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Economist. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Addressing the Unaddressed Physician John Snow Zip codes and Robert Moon Empress Maria Theresa Lost in Translation film Learning from the Japanese City by Barrie Shelton The Years that Matter Most by Paul Tough Susan Hiller Hollywood, Florida Paul Laurence Dunbar Nathan Bedford Forrest Shelby Foote Frederick Douglass by David Blight Derek Alderman Sarah Golabek-Goldman and Homelessness what3words.com Maoz Azaryahu The Black Lives Matter Movement is Being Written into the Streetscape by Deirdre Mask Performative Utterances Ways to Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we recognize the blind spots that cause us to build less inclusive teams? When we commit to achieving greater diversity in the workplace, we're taking an important step. But we need to see this step as just the beginning in an ongoing journey.  Stefanie Johnson, author of the book, Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams, created the word "inclusify" to call this out. She argues, "People don't experience inclusion just because they were included...it takes thoughtful action and intention on the part of the leader...to create an inclusive environment...that's the idea behind inclusify." To start, we need to recognize the blind spots that get in our way. In her work with managers and boards, Stefanie's found six that come up time and again: the meritocracy manager, the culture crusader, the team player, the white knight, the shepherd, and the optimist. She explains how leaders use concepts like "meritocracy" or "culture" to exclude employees who hold different ideas. And she shares how statements like, "we don't want to lower the bar" make things harder for underrepresented groups: "...women actually are required to have greater experience to earn a board position than men...there are higher standards a lot of times for underrepresented groups. That's why they're underrepresented." By pinpointing blind spots and coupling that knowledge with a commitment to helping diverse employees feel like they belong and can bring their unique selves to work, leaders take more of the steps needed to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations. Stefanie Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work has been featured in the Economist, Newsweek, Time, and on CNN. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here.  Episode Links @DrStefJohnson drstefjohnson.com Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt Unconscious bias Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace by Emilio J. Castilla 3 Reasons You Should Stop Hiring for "Culture Fit" by Delisa Alexander Ways to Support the Podcast If you’re a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe.  In the next week, tell one person about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we get our staunchest opponents to come around to our way of thinking? When we're trying to convince other people, we often start by sharing our ideas. If they resist our efforts, we usually just push harder. Sometimes it works, but, most of the time, our efforts fail. That's what got Jonah Berger, author of the bestselling book, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind, wondering, what do the most successful change agents do?  He discovered that they think and act more strategically. Rather than pushing harder and ratcheting things up, they act more like catalysts. He explains, "What they do is they lower the barrier to change. They figure out an alternate way to make the same change occur with less energy, not more." Jonah's talked to successful hostage negotiators, substance abuse counselors, and salespeople to learn what they do. From his research, he's discovered five barriers that inhibit change, along with ways to get around them. For example, we often ask for more change than the average person can handle. To counter that, he says, "We have to figure out ways essentially to ask for less. Rather than asking people to make a big change right away, ask for smaller changes." Jonah is Marketing Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He's published more than 50 papers, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He's appeared on Curious Minds twice before to discuss his pervious books, Contagious and Invisible Influence. Curious Minds Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links The Strategy behind Florida's "Truth" Campaign Thai Health Promotion Foundation - Smoking Kid (1:30 min video) Changing Eating Habits on the Home Front: Lost Lessons from World War II Research by Brian Wansink Gregory M. Vecchi, Ph.D. Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger Dave Fleischer and deep canvassing Study Finds Deep Conversations Can Reduce Transgender Prejudice gong.io Support the Podcast If you're a fan of the show, there are three simple things you can do to support our work: Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a family member, friend, or colleague about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What would happen if, instead of reacting to problems, we solved them at the source? That's a question that Dan Heath, author of the book, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, wants us to ask. He believes it's the linchpin of real change. Dan explains, "So often in life, we get trapped in these cycles of reaction...and all of that action starves us of the energy that we need to get upstream and deal with these problems at the root level." He shares enlightening stories of people who've made it a goal to prevent problems, rather than merely react to them. At the same time, he helps us understand how to think and act like they do. To start, he says, we need to confront what he calls our "problem blindness." It's our tendency to accept the unacceptable, just because we've gotten used to it. Instead, he encourages us to "Get real suspicious and curious about recurring problems. If there's something that you've just come to take for granted...customers are always going to call about itineraries...or we're always going to have a high dropout rate...Get suspicious about that!" Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE Center, which supports entrepreneurs fighting for social good. He's also co-author with his brother, Chip Heath, of the bestselling books, Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and The Power of Moments. Curious Minds Team Learn more about Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer and Editor, Rob Mancabelli, here. Episode Links Irving Zola Frederick Winslow Taylor Marcus Elliott The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Freshman On-Track Toolkit When do workarounds help or hurt patient outcomes? by Anita L. Tucker How Iceland Got Teens to Say No to Drugs by Emma Young Paul B. Batalden The University of Chicago Crime Lab Becoming a Man - Youth Guidance Sally Herndon Ways to Support the Podcast Rate and review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you subscribe. Tell a friend or family member about the show. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Where to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast