Shows / Psyche Magazine
Psyche Magazine
Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and others through expert guides, provocative ideas and personal life stories. We address psychological questions and puzzles from a range of perspectives including philosophy, history, anthropology and more. You will discover practical knowledge and insights to help you navigate everyday challenges, overcome difficulties and find meaning, wonder and spirituality. Psyche is a nonprofit digital magazine. With a dedication to pluralism and…
Episodes
Psyche MagazineHow to take notes that actually help you learn
If you want to remember and understand, copying isn’t enough. An expert on learning shares how to make notes work for you. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWho am I if I don’t run?
When an ankle injury put the brakes on my running habit, I had to rethink the wisdom of tying my identity to an activity. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineBaby heaven
As a psychologist, I’ve long pondered what counts as ‘delusional’. A revelation at home made it personal. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself…
Psyche MagazineThat feeling of values crumbling has a name: civic grief
Fairness, dignity and shared obligation are precious. Grieving their loss is a first step toward doing something about it. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineHow psychology’s classic studies misled us about the self
Milgram, Zimbardo and recent priming studies suggested we’re highly malleable. They underestimated how stable we really are. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche Magazine‘Heroes work here’: why I quit being an ER nurse
Spitting, swearing regulars at a Chicago ER opened my mind. Then came the COVID-19 deniers. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and others…
Psyche MagazineWhen giving up teaches you more than persevering ever could
Grit is all well and good, but sometimes abandoning your goals can be crucial to discovering who you are. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself…
Psyche MagazineOn Japan’s Shinkansen trains, pork buns split reality in two
If eating on a public train gets seen as an act of terrorism, insights from olfactory genetics can pave the way for empathy. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineEveryone says they have anxiety. Clinical anxiety is different
Anxiety put me in hospital. I’ve learned you can’t eradicate what is part of you – but you can change how you relate to it. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineCan you ever really think what someone else is thinking?
To see how communication truly works, we should set aside the notion that different people can share the same thoughts. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhy romantic relationships matter more to men than to women
For too long, men were told to be self-sufficient. The research shows they’re more likely to thrive in a loving couple. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineDear Al Pacino
I wrote my mother’s mad letters to celebrities. It was the only time we shared the same plane of reality. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself…
Psyche MagazineHow to overcome task paralysis
If you have ADHD or you’re stressed, tired and stuck, goal management training can help you get started and keep going. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineAre you getting enough sun?
The new book ‘In Defense of Sunlight’ argues that our concerns about the sun’s risks lead us to overlook its benefits. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhat life in Denmark shows about the power of emotional safety
A deep sense of ease – what the Danes call ‘tryg’ – is a collective responsibility that allows individuals to flourish. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineDeciding to detransition
For two years, I lived as a trans woman – happy with my body, but fearful of the world it moved in. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and…
Psyche MagazineHow mental disorders play havoc with our motivation
Feeling energised to do something depends on a cost-benefit analysis that psychiatric conditions scramble in different ways. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineHow to handle jealous feelings
Jealousy can be a useful, insightful emotion – if you manage it well. Get curious about your jealousy to get a grip on it. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhat is hidden in the photographs we keep of each other?
Returning to family photo albums in my mother’s apartment in Japan, I was struck by the stories the images didn’t tell. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineBlack men suffer racial trauma yet are seen as the threat
The very conditions that subject Black men to chronic strain make it hard for them to receive the help they need and deserve. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhy moving on after a breakup makes you a better person
They say time heals a broken heart. But do the hard work of moving on, and you do more than heal – you improve yourself. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineTuesdays with the guys
In the wake of an unexpected tragedy, I decided to rethink my male friendships. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and others through expert…
Psyche MagazineWant to be a lifelong learner? Don’t go it alone
The history of autodidacticism shows that learning has always been social. The right relationships open intellectual horizons. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineA psychological guide to climbing out of debt
Debt is as much an emotional challenge as a financial one. Follow this therapist’s advice to create a plan that works. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhat does it really take to be a resilient mother?
New motherhood is hard – and a mother’s ability to cope depends on multiple kinds of strength, both internal and external. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineJournaling to remember
By cataloguing the ephemera that slip between the headlines of my days, future me has a ready reckoner of my life. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineWhy long-brewing physical and mental breakdowns feel so sudden
As a neurosurgeon and a son, I’ve come to see the parallel processes underlying growing tumours and stressed-out minds. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineThe full-service grandad
I thought I was a present father; my sons said otherwise. When my granddaughter arrived I made an offer. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself…
Psyche MagazineWhen you feel moral disgust, what’s the emotion telling you?
Some actions and words provoke instant revulsion. To know if we can trust that gut feeling, we should probe why we have it. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineCan he teach the teachers?
The neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene wants to bring four decades of findings on how the brain learns into the classroom. But evidence alone can’t overcome the…
Psyche MagazineThe way we talk to bots matters even if they aren’t conscious
If more and more of our daily interactions are ungracious exchanges with machines, we should expect it to change us. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineThe evil eye is irrational. Abandon it at your peril
So many of the world’s superstitions have been supplanted by rational thinking. Why does one of the oldest beliefs persist?. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineHow to cope with the stress of anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice
A queer psychologist shares skills from dialectical behaviour therapy to help you cope and find joy in a stigmatising world. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhat does it mean to have relationship ambivalence?
When a relationship provokes both strong positive and negative feelings in you, it can take a toll – here’s what’s going on. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineThe softness of metal
Watching a seated Ozzy play his final gig, my ankle broken, I’m in tears – this couldn’t be more metal. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself…
Psyche MagazineMaxxing treats life as a problem when it’s a mystery
The philosopher Gabriel Marcel offers the antidote to a grotesque new ideology: don’t fix existence, be open to it. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineGo ahead, jump on the bandwagon
Rooting for a team and other collective experiences are opportunities to be seized – even if only once in a while. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineTerminal lucidity: when dying dementia patients regain awareness
The reports span centuries and cultures. If they’re real, memory and identity might be far more recoverable than we thought. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineSay yes to regret
After my husband died, I fell into a dark ruminative spiral. The way back would begin at 2pm tomorrow. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and…
Psyche MagazineHow to uncover your blind spots
We all have parts of ourselves others know but we don’t. Gain greater self-awareness by seeing yourself from the outside in. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhy women’s laughter has long been treated as a threat
Traditional patriarchy has always told women not to laugh. Today, female laughter still disturbs a male-dominated world. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineImpatience is an emotion, not a trait
Watching Penelope’s heroic wait in The Odyssey made me lament my impatience. But maybe I’ve been thinking about it wrong. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineHow to be a word detective
Etymology unravels the mysteries of language and the hidden webs that link people across the world. Here’s how to dive in. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineLessons from Wyatt Earp country
How does a man show up for his community? I learned from an old farmer on the edge of the desert. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and…
Psyche MagazineIs it morally wrong to not take care of yourself?
The philosophical debate goes on. But our research on self-obligations suggests there’s a common, consequential view. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineAbsence of presence and presence of absence
Mindfulness experts teach us to be present in the moment. I suggest an antidote – a meditation that’s focused on absence. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineWhy you should try living without free will for two weeks
Set aside the philosophical debates and act as if there is no free will. It leads to less blaming and better questions. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineLogistics underpins power – and logistics is female
A women’s history of logistics from the battlefields of 19th-century Europe to middle-class households and sex trafficking. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineThe human frequency
With Radio Paradise, William Goldsmith built an internet radio station that’s become a living argument for taste, trust and the art of choosing what comes…
Psyche MagazineHow to thrive as an adult with ADHD
Use ‘mindful self-coaching’ to help yourself overcome everyday ADHD challenges, from procrastination to feelings of overwhelm. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineHow to rediscover your purpose later in life
You don’t have to ‘reinvent’ yourself to live happily after 60. There’s a better approach grounded in lifespan psychology. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineArabic has four words for sadness. Philosophy explains why
More subtly nuanced than standard diagnostic categories, Arabic lets speakers articulate a world of emotional experiences. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineDon’t let nature slip out of reach
Research on the ‘extinction of experience’ suggests many of us are losing vital connections to the natural world. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineGlass eggs
When the future I’d been planning lay shattered at my feet, freezing my eggs offered a fragile hope. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and…
Psyche MagazineSometimes, the road to virtue comes by way of vice
To work your character into better shape, be like a carpenter who fixes warped wood by bending it the opposite way. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineSlow down, it’s what your brain has been begging for
It’s no small task to live a life of sustained attention. So slow down, and give your brain a break to do its work. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineHow to be indistractable
Stop blaming technology – distraction starts within. Manage your inner triggers to enjoy greater focus and a fuller life. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineThe satisfaction of doing work that lasts
In Studs Terkel’s oral history ‘Working’, some of the people happiest with their work have something in common. Psyche audio helps you to better understand…
Psyche MagazineWriting letters is a spiritual practice for our age of speed
Handwritten letters seem like a remnant of pre-online life, but they connect us to ourselves and each other like nothing else. Psyche audio helps you to better…
Psyche MagazineTwo actors, no director, one dreamlike play
After a painful breakup, I found myself agreeing to perform in a surreal play, dressed in my pyjamas. Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and…