Shankar Vedantam introduces Hidden Brain's new YouTube channel, exploring the unconscious mental processes that drive our decisions and behavior. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and economics, the show brings evidence-backed ideas from three decades of research with thousands of scientists to a broad audience.
Welcome to Hidden Brain, where I use science and storytelling to help you understand your own mind and the minds of the people around you. I'm Shankar Vedantam. I first coined the term the hidden brain many years ago to describe a phenomenon that fascinated me. We all like to think we know ourselves. You're the keeper of your childhood memories. You know which foods you prefer, whom to vote for. But every day, our brains work in ways are not aware of, making judgments, taking shortcuts. There are so many things our minds do that are invisible to us. And all this activity shapes who we become. In my quest to understand the hidden brain, I've talked with thousands of researchers over more than 3 decades. I've explored ideas in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, economics, history, linguistics, and anthropology. My goal is to bring the insights I've learned to as broad an audience as possible. You'll hear from actual scientists about fascinating ideas backed by real evidence. The ideas we explore here will give you interesting things to talk about at dinner parties. But more importantly, these ideas have the power to change your life. If you trust me with your time, I promise I will do the hard work of vetting the ideas I share with you and bring you only the best of the best. You might know Hidden Brain because of my audio podcast, which launched in 2015, or my public radio show in the United States, which launched in 2017. You can continue to listen to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite audio podcast player. But now I'm bringing Hidden Brain to YouTube. This channel is going to be a home for different kinds of storytelling, videos that look at the surprising ways the hidden brain affects us. If you like this work, please tell your friends about it. Read my books. Come to one of my live events. I'm so excited to bring Hidden Brain to YouTube. Thank you for joining me here.
