What’s the cost when women are left out of healthcare, education, and public policy data? Data drives decision making in critical areas. Yet, in most cases, as Caroline Criado Perez, author of the book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, points out, women are simply absent from the data. Why is this? Because we operate in a world where deeply ingrained cultural biases treat men as the data default and women as the exception. Caroline explains, “If we look at politics . . . news media . . . films, women represent about 20 percent of the people we see and hear about. . . we are taking in that information and thinking that this is what the world looks like. . . it creates this sense in our heads that we don’t have to collect data on women.” This data gap leads to bad decisions with devastating consequences. What’s even more shocking is that these gaps are hidden in plain sight, in places where it would seem like gender couldn’t possibly matter. For example, when one Swedish town studied which roads got cleared first following a snowstorm, they were surprised to learn their decisions were based on male commuting patterns. The result was that women were getting hurt, and the town was losing money. Caroline reveals that . . . “the cost of the accident and emergency admission was three times the cost of the winter road maintenance. And just by doing this simple switch of the order in which they do the snow clearing, that cost went down dramatically.” Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, and feminist activist and was named Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year. Her first book was titled, Do It Like a Woman. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Pierre Bourdieu Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads by Angie Schmitt The Work that Makes Work Possible by Anne-Marie Slaughter Women Lack Access to Private Toilets Around the World Do the Math: Include Women in Government Budgets Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries Why Women Are No Longer Catching Up to Men on Pay by Ben Casselman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds Podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if achieving our goals is not about willpower but about gratitude, compassion and pride? It’s natural to experience negative emotions, like discouragement, frustration, and even fear when we’re working on something hard. And every time these feelings arise, we may be tempted to overcome them with willpower. But rather than dismissing our emotions, what if we put them to work on our behalf? In this interview, David DeSteno, author of the book, Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride, explains: “Emotions push people to do hard things. And if we’re not utilizing those tools in the right way, we’re kind of fighting this battle with one hand tied behind our back.” In particular, the three emotions David champions are gratitude, compassion and pride. He explains that they not only fuel perseverance, but also “…reduce people’s blood pressure. There’s evidence they will help you sleep better at night. They will increase immune responses. In general, they basically act to destress the body.” David is a Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association where he served as editor in chief of the journal, Emotion. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @daviddesteno http://www.davedesteno.com/ and his Social Emotions Lab at Northeastern University Psychologist Walter Mischel The Grateful Don’t Cheat: Gratitude as a Fount of Virtue by David DeSteno, Fred Duong, Daniel Lim, and Shanyu Kates Hal Hershfield Episode 124 with Liz Fosslien on Emotions at Work on her book Tom Denson, Professor at UNSW in Sydney; he studies aggression David Brooks and resume vs eulogy virtues When Students Feel They Belong, They Thrive by G. M. Walton and G. L. Cohen Classroom Belonging and Student Performance in the Introductory Engineering Classroom Nilanjana Dasgupta, Social Psychologist at UMass Amherst Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Some Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

In a world where empathy is in decline, how can we learn to care more? If you’re sensing that people are less empathetic today than decades ago, your instincts would be right. We are. Though human beings are wired to care about each other, we need the right conditions for those feelings to grow. Jamil Zaki, author of the book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, argues that an increase in online interactions and urban living has made relationships more “…narrow, transactional, and anonymous.” He explains that in this kind of environment, it’s “…really not great soil for empathy to grow.”   His research reveals that empathy is a skill we can develop through training and that this training can leave people feeling not only more empathetic, but also kinder. In addition, Jamil shares that this kind of training can change the brain, that it can grow “…parts of the brain often associated with the experience of empathy.” Jamil is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @zakijam The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot Carol Dweck Tania Singer London taxi drivers and brain science Gordon Allport Contact hypothesis Emile Bruneau Nicholas Epley When Cops Choose Empathy by Jamil Zaki Jason A. Okonofua Elizabeth Levy Paluck Jeremy Bailenson Intensive Care Nursey UCSF Eve Ekman, Ph.D., MSW Kari Leibowitz Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Can we achieve greater success in life by choosing to generalize rather than to specialize? If you want to be the best at something, the story goes something like this: Begin as early as you can. Focus on nothing else. And practice as if your life depends on it. It’s the story we associate with sports heroes and chess grandmasters. But David Epstein, author of the book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, argues that this story is incomplete. It never mentions the fact that activities like chess and golf take place in “kind” learning environments, where learners have perfect information, operate with clear goals, and experience immediate feedback. In contrast, most of us operate in what are called “wicked” environments. There, as David explains, “…not all information is clear. People don’t wait for each other to take turns. . . Goals may be unclear. Feedback may be intermittent, nonexistent . . . it may be inaccurate and it may be delayed.” David also reveals that many top performers were not, in fact, specialists from an early age. They were generalists who took the time to explore multiple paths, and many delayed choosing a focus until they found the right fit: “They pinballed around . . . They didn’t focus on the long term . . . Instead, they said here’s who I am right now, here are the skills I have, here’s what I want to learn, here are the opportunities in front of me right now…” David has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. His first book was the bestseller, The Sports Gene. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell on 10,000 Hours vs The Sports Gene What the Childhood Years of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer Can Teach Us about Success by David Epstein The Two Settings of Kind and Wicked Learning Environments by Robin M. Hogarth, Tomas Lejarraga, and Emre Soyer Gary A. Klein Daniel Kahneman on adversarial collaborations Flynn effect Does Professor Quality Matter? Evidence from Random Assignment of Students to Professors by Scott E. Carrell and James E. West Recent Research on Human Learning Challenges Conventional Instructional Strategies by Doug Rohrer and Harold Pashler on spacing, interleaving and testing Structure Mapping in Analogy and Similarity by Dedre Gentner and Arthur B. Markman Integrated Science Program at Northwestern University Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra Beware the “Inside View” by Daniel Kahneman Here is What It Takes to Become a CEO, According to 12,000 LinkedIn Profiles How Scientists Think by Kevin Dunbar Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies by Karl E. Weick You Don’t Want a Child Prodigy by David Epstein on headstarts and falling behind The Darkhorse Project What You’ll Wish You’d Known by Paul Graham includes concept of premature optimization Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder is 45 by Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim, and Javier Miranda Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing in Italian by Cressida Leyshon Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if we entered negotiations with the goal of benefitting both sides, not just ours? For many, the word negotiation conjures up images of a heated exchange, of master manipulators, expert wordsmiths, and of winners and losers. Victors earn the spoils by outsmarting opponents and preying on their weaknesses. It’s a daunting picture. But Brian Gunia, author of the book, The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation, shows that this mindset is not only short-sighted, but can also be ineffective. He argues that we’d be much more successful – and enjoy the negotiation process more – if we spent as much time thinking of the other person’s needs as our own. He encourages us to “…think about negotiations not as opportunities to fight with the other side about one fixed outcome, like money, but as the opportunity to find issues to trade things with the other side that benefit both of us at the same time.” Brian is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. His research has been featured in publications like Fast Company, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. In this interview, he shares his five-step process for applying a bartering mindset to our next negotiation and explains why it works: “…negotiators who spend more time and make more of an effort to figure out what’s going on in the other side’s head, tend to do a lot better.” The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @briangunia Mindwise by Nicholas Epley Distributive versus integrative negotiation Double coincidence of wants Multiple equivalent simultaneous offers (MESOs) and their benefits Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can paying more attention to the world around us increase our engagement and creativity? Most of us are fighting a daily tug-of-war with distraction – from phone alerts to streaming video to open office plans. Yet, when it comes to what we can do about it, we're mainly encouraged to manage our tech and prioritize productivity. Rob Walker offers a different goal, along with a very different set of solutions. Author of the book, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday, he contends that our lives become richer when we engage more fully with the world around us. In fact, he reveals what most creatives already know, namely, that paying attention to the everyday can refuel us: “It’s kind of just a basic building block of having a distinct point of view or creating something new or coming up with an innovation of almost any kind.” In this interview, Rob shares practices we can use to become more observant and more connected. One example involves taking a moment to notice which phase the moon is in: “Most people have no idea, which is kind of astonishing, because there was a time when everyone on the planet knew what phase the moon was in.” Rob is a columnist for Life Hacker and contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He’s also author of the books, Buying In and Significant Objects, and he serves on the faculty at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @notrobwalker School of Visual Arts in Manhattan The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu and link to my interview with him A Painting Only You Can See by Randy Kennedy Davy Rothbart and Found Magazine John Cage and 4’33” Marcel Duchamp and the concept of Infrathin On Looking by Alexander Horowitz Roman Mars 99% Invisible The SLANT method Letters to Strangers Rick Prelinger Ian Bogost Easy Ways to Support the Podcast First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we ensure we not only respect people’s dignity, but also protect our own? Violations of dignity lie at the heart of many conflicts, from the global stage to the corner office. Yet, dignity is a concept we rarely discuss. Donna Hicks, author of the book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture that Brings out the Best in People, believes it all starts with understanding the difference between dignity and respect: “Respect is something that has to be earned, whereas dignity is something that each and every one of us deserves. We are born with it.” Drawing on her extensive experience in international conflict resolution, and insights from psychology and neuroscience, she shares the essential elements of dignity and how to respond effectively when our dignity is violated. And she explains the importance of learning these skills in today’s workplace. In this interview, Donna also reveals how past behavior can prevent us from leading with dignity: “If you want to lead your life with dignity, one of the things that I think gets in the way of that is feeling ashamed and embarrassed by the ways in which we’ve violated people’s dignity.” Donna is a conflict resolution specialist who has facilitated diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and other high-conflict regions. She’s also an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Her first book is titled, Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @drdonnahicks Nelson Mandela and Archibishop Desmond Tutu Start with Why by Simon Sinek What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team by Charles Duhigg The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson An Everyone Culture by Robert Kegan No Hard Feelings by Lis Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, Episode 124 of Curious Minds William James’ I vs Me Barbara Frederickson Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

We all have trouble changing our habits, but the problem isn’t us, it’s our systems. Whether we want to adopt good habits or avoid bad ones, we need to think beyond willpower or setting bigger goals. Instead, James Clear, author of the book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, argues that the secret is designing a system of small, repeatable habits. He challenges us to ask ourselves, “How can we make these small changes that we layer on top of each other – these little 1% improvements or tiny advantages – and in the process of integrating them all into a larger system, end up making some really remarkable progress?” Through compelling stories and brain research, James teaches us how to design game-changing habits and sustainable systems. In addition, he shares ways we can leverage environmental factors and addictive tendencies to our advantage. Finally, he helps us see how a commitment to daily habits leads to the identity we seek: “Every action you take is like a vote for the person that you want to become. Doing one push up or writing one sentence or reading one page, it’s not going to transform you right away. But it does cast a vote for being that kind of person, for reinforcing that kind of identity.” James is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Entrepreneur, and on CBS This Morning. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @JamesClear James’ article on British cycling and marginal gains: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened James’ article on identity and habits: Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Hooked by Nir Eyal The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey Point and Call safety system in Japan (video) Habit Scorecard James’ article on habits and environment: How to Improve Your Health and Productivity Without Thinking Stick with It by Sean Young James’ article on motion versus action: The Mistake Smart People Make: Being in Motion vs. Taking Action Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places to Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if there were a better way for us to think through life’s riskiest decisions? That’s where Allison Schrager comes in. She’s the author of the book, An Economist Walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk. An economist, journalist at Quartz, and cofounder of LifeCycle Finance Partners, she led retirement product innovation at Dimensional Fund Advisors and consulted for international organizations, including the OECD and the IMF. Allison has also been a regular contributor to The Economist and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and she teaches at New York University. For her book, Alison spent time with high-risk professionals, like big-wave surfers, movie producers, and sex workers. She learned how they manage risk and shares what we can learn from them. Along the way, she learned some surprising things about herself, like what it felt like to play in her first poker tournament: “We start at 8:00, and it’s like midnight, and I’m like ‘When does this game end?’ And people are like ‘When you run out of chips.’ And I’m like, oh my god, I’m going to be here forever.” When it comes to risk, Allison believes we can learn to overcome our biases and manage risk effectively. She explains, “There’s been so many books [on the topic] …but they always write everyone off as being sort of hopeless when it comes to risk or thinking probabilistically, and I really believe everyone has it in them.” You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Moonlite BunnyRanch and Dennis Hof Kat Cole and Focus Brands Film producer, Ryan Kavanaugh Idiosyncratic risk versus systematic risk Top poker player, Phil Hellmuth, and poker staking How Luck Happens by Janice Kaplan and Barnaby Marsh Gerd Gigerenzer Arnold Donald and IoT and AI with Carnival cruises David Bowie Magician Belinda Sinclair Robert C. Merton Big Wave Risk Assessment Group H. R. McMaster Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Unconscious racial bias can influence what we see, what we do, and what we remember. These are topics that Jennifer Eberhardt, author of the book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, has been studying for over twenty years. In one of her studies, participants were shown either black or white human faces and then asked to identify a crime-related versus a neutral object. She found that, “black faces facilitated the detection of the crime object, whereas the white faces inhibited their detection of those very same crime objects.” Jennifer’s research led her to work with police departments, prison inmates, and companies. In each case, she couples awareness instruction with actions people can take. For example, she helped one company address online bias in reporting suspicious people in their neighborhood by shifting their response from “if you see something, say something” to “if you see something suspicious, say something specific.” Jennifer is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “genius grant.” She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. She is co-founder and co-director of SPARQ, a Stanford "do tank" that brings together researchers and practitioners to address significant social problems. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald Language from Police Body Language Footage Shows Racial Disparities in Officer Respect Scientific racism Jennifer’s 2014 MacArthur Fellow video The Racist Trope that Won’t Die by Brent Staples When Resumes are Made ‘Whiter’ to Please Potential Employers by Bourree Lam Whitened Resumes: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market by Sonia K. Kang, Katherine A. DeCelles, Andras Tilcsik, and Sora Jun Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast