Skip to main content

Thomas Lu

Stories

  • caption: Stephanie Rinka in her beach wheelchair at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, North Carolina.
    Health

    The Ventilator: Life, Death And The Choices We Make At The End

    Many of us believe we know how we'd choose to die. We have a sense of how we'd respond to a diagnosis of an incurable illness. This week, we have the story of one family's decades-long conversation about dying. What they found is that the people we are when death is far in the distance may not be the people we become when death is near.

  • A group of well-dressed dogs take part in a banquet.

    Hungry, Hungry Hippocampus: The Psychology Of How We Eat

    Anyone who's tried (and failed) to follow a diet knows that food is more than fuel. This week, we revisit our 2018 episode about the psychology behind what we eat, what we spit out, and when we come back for more.

  • caption: Businessman climbs high with a ladder to communicate with the dollar
    Science

    The Talk Market: How Stories and Psychology Shape Our Economic Lives

    Can we affect the rise and fall of the economy? This week on Hidden Brain, we talk with Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller about the powerful ways in which stories and psychology shape our economic lives. He argues that narratives affect not just the purchases we make as individuals, but the fate of our entire economic system.

  • caption: Researchers say there's growing evidence that nature has a powerful effect on us, improving both our physical and psychological health.
    Environment

    You 2.0: Our Better Nature

    If you live in a big city, you may have noticed new buildings popping up — a high-rise here, a skyscraper there. The concrete jungles that we've built over the past century have allowed millions of us to live in close proximity, and modern economies to flourish. But what have we given up by moving away from the forest environments in which humans first evolved? This week, we revisit our 2018 conversation about the healing power of nature with psychologist Ming Kuo.
  • caption: Our voices convey so much more than just information. They can tell other people something essential about who we are.
    Science

    Finding Your Voice: How The Way We Sound Shapes Our Identities

    At some point in our lives, many of us realize that the way we hear our own voice isn't the way others hear us. This week on Hidden Brain, we look at the relationship between our voices and our identities. Plus, we hear how advances in technology might help people with vocal impairments, and consider the ethical quandaries that arise when we can create personalized, customized voices.

  • Many of us intuitively feel that the bitter partisanship of American politics is bad for our nation. So should we be concerned about the health of our democracy?
    Politics

    More Divided Than Ever? Excavating the Roots Of Our Political Landscape

    Many of us intuitively feel that the bitter partisanship of American politics is bad for our nation. So should we be concerned about the health of our democracy? This week on Hidden Brain, we revisit two of our favorite conversations about U.S. politics. We start by talking with political scientist John Hibbing about the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. Then, we explore the role of conflict in democracy with historian David Moss.
  • caption: Are awards a more effective motivator than a cash prize? Economist Bruno Frey says yes.
    Science

    Better Than Cash: How Awards Can Shape Our Behavior

    Our modern world is saturated with awards. From elementary school classrooms to Hollywood to the hallways of academia, there's no shortage of prizes — and people who covet them. Yet we rarely stop to ask, do they work? We pose that question to economist Bruno Frey, who argues that awards can have a powerful, positive effect on our behavior — but only if they're designed well.

  • caption: Carrie and Emma Buck in 1924, right before the Buck v. Bell trial, which provided the first court approval of a law allowing forced sterilization in Virginia.
    Science

    Emma, Carrie, Vivian: How A Family Became A Test Case For Forced Sterilizations

    In 1924, a 17-year-old girl was admitted to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. The superintendent of the colony classified her as "feeble-minded of the lowest grade, moron class." With that designation, this girl, Carrie Buck, was set on a path she didn't choose. What happened next laid the foundation for the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of people. This week, we revisit a 2018 episode about the eugenics movement and one of the most tragic social experiments in American history.