Shows / Why We Do What We Do
Why We Do What We Do
We explain popular and weird, little-known ideas in psychology. Whether you are a little curious about psychology, or a student, or even a professional, we have something for everyone.
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Episodes
- Why We Do What We Do
B.F. Skinner: A Life
B.F. Skinner was a profoundly impactful figure in modern psychology. His work set the foundation for the field that now consists of tens of thousands of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Regulations Gone Good and Bad
Many argue against government regulations. But, it seems they often seem to ignore the regulations that have saved their lives, or the ones that industries…
- Why We Do What We Do
Possessed
For our last Halloween-season-themed episode, we are talking about possessions. We have discussed exorcisms in the past. So, for this discussion, we dug more…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: What Scared Us As Kids
Our fears change over time. What scares us when we were young is not so scary when we get older. And, what scares us when we get older, does not scare us when…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Warrens
The super famous ghost-hunting couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren are the subject of some of the most popular scary stories and pop-culture media. And if history…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: The Winchester Mansion
The story of The Winchester Mansion is shrouded in a carefully curated concoction of fanciful stories. These stories have largely been exaggerated or even…
- Why We Do What We Do
Ectoplasm: Ghost Goo
What happens when you regurgitate items out of your esophagus for a magic trick? A lot of digestive juices on the stuff you just regurgitated. But, if you…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Traditions of Samhain
We did an episode about the history of halloween a while back. This mini explores more of the myths, legends, ideas, and traditions of the tradition that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Ghost Ships
We are kicking off this spooky season with a discussion about the spectres of the ocean: ghost ships! We tell a few of the both lesser and more well-known…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Centralia
We are kicking off this year's spooky seasons mini with a brief history of the town on fire. This is a real place in the United States that has become…
- Why We Do What We Do
Happiness
One of the most enduring values, mottos, or goals is the pursuit of happiness. We strive for it implicitly or explicitly for much of our lives. So, what is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: This is the End-ish
An important announce and brief explanation. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support…
- Why We Do What We Do
How to Lie With Math
The title maybe a little misleading. This is about how we delude ourselves into adopting information as factual becuase it is presented using real math. Math…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Do We Need Privacy?
We have many mechanisms in place to protect our privacy. Some people care less about this and some people have taken this to tremendous extremes. Of course…
- Why We Do What We Do
Writer's Block
Creating content can be very effortful. Particularly when that creating entails a lot of writing. And in pursuit of that endeavor, writers sometimes find…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Snake Oil
We use the term snake oil to refer any fradulant product, service, or claim that is not what it says it is and lies or misconstrues what it does. You might…
- Why We Do What We Do
Diagnoses: More Harm Than Good? With Dr. Stu Law pt. 3
This is the final discussion in which we "break our silence" as the click-bait headlines like to call it, on our final thoughts about diagnoses and why we…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Life Expectancy
How we understand, talk about, and think about life expectancy is sometimes misunderstood by some flukes of math. Understanding how numbers work can illuminate…
- Why We Do What We Do
Diagnoses: More Harm Than Good? With Dr. Stu Law pt. 2
This continues our discussion with Dr. Stu Law. We further elaborate on the issues with a diagnostic system for mental health and what the pitfalls are…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Talking With Myself
You've probably noticed people talking to themselves and had some thought or comment about that. Perhaps something along the lines of: "That person might be…
- Why We Do What We Do
Diagnoses: More Harm Than Good? With Dr. Stu Law pt. 1
Diagnosing mental health has dramatically shaped how we think about and appraoch our thinking and treatment of mental health conditions. In some ways, this…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: No Homework
There have been some advocates to reduce or eliminate homework altogether. It begs the question of what is the purpose of homework anyway? What would we lose…
- Why We Do What We Do
Functional Analysis pt. 4
In the fourth and final installment of our series on Functional Analyses, we finally discuss some of the controversies and disagreements among practitioners…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: The Weirdest Thing We Believe
In a totally unscripted, candid conversation, we ask one another: what is the weirdest thing you believe? It's a conversation bound to leave you a little…
- Why We Do What We Do
Functional Analysis pt. 3
This is the third installment in what will turn out to be a four-part series on the functional anlaysis technology employed by behavior analysts to identify…
- Why We Do What We Do
Midlife Crisis
Are you already skeptical? Do you think you know? Are you a true believer? We take a scientific lens to the idea of the midlife crisis. Consider that this…
- Why We Do What We Do
Functional Analysis pt. 2
In our ongoing discussion about the tool used to determine why we do what we do, the functional analysis, we explore more about the various research…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: One Hit Wonders
What are one-hit wonders? Why do one-hit wonders happen? Is this a real thing? What about no-hit wonders? We'll get into some of the reasons and misconceptions…
- Why We Do What We Do
Functional Analysis pt. 1
Experimental Functional Analyses (FAs) are one of the most foundational practices in contemporary behavior analysis. It emerged as a more conceptual exercise…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Animal Chiropractic
We did a full episode on chiropractic, but we didn't get into the application for animals. Given the questionable nature of chiropractic in the first place…
- Why We Do What We Do
Birding!
Tens of millions of people in the United States and likely hundreds of millions around the world have a shared interest in our avian friends. Birding is a…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: What is the Point of Science?
It seems like an obvious answer to a silly question. But try to answer it and you find it can kind of spiral into more difficult conundrums. This doesn't mean…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Altruism
An all truism about altruism. We are reflecting on this earlier episode with a more nuanced view than the first time around. When it comes to matters of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: How Many Senses Do We Have?
How many senses do we have? Like so many things, it depends entirely on how you define "senses." If the question is how many distinct things can we sense?…
- Why We Do What We Do
American Sign Language pt. 2
In this discussion, we get into the grammar and structure of ASL. We also talk about non-manual markers and their importance in communication for ASL speakers…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Iran Deal pt. 2
In our strange decision to record a two-part mini, we are following up last week's mini with more information about the recent Iran "deal." Of course, we…
- Why We Do What We Do
American Sign Language pt. 1
There are an estimated 70 million deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing impaired people in world. Given that language globably developed through auditory…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Iran, Deal? pt. 1
Every once in a while, something so monumental happens, we decide to release a topical episode rather than a timeless one. The recent Memorandum of…
- Why We Do What We Do
AAVE pt. 2
This follow-up discussion gets into the grammar mechanics and and cultural, structural aspects of AAVE. We add our own interpretation and philosophical…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Autistic Pets
With the increased awareness of neurodivergence in humans, we find many people turning to one of our favorite pasttimes: superimposing human emotions and…
- Why We Do What We Do
AAVE pt. 1
AAVE is a dialect of English that is often derided by racists. However, linguists have shown that this is a fully realized dialect like any dialect of any…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Feedback for Grant Reform
Last week, we released an episode dsicussing the rise of authoritarian takeover of science by controlling what science can be conducted and how it can be…
- Why We Do What We Do
How to Kill Science
How to kill science is also how to kill humans. The incompetent "leadership" in the United States is racing toward dictatorship in their desire to kill all…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Mosh Pits
Mosh pits are the rough-house style dancing/bopping that people do at music concerts. But where and why did this start? And why are they called mosh pits?…
- Why We Do What We Do
Faith Healing
Professional magicians tell you that they are tricking you for entertainment. Charlatan, con artist magicians tell you that they are performing real magic that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Three-Card Monte
This old sleight of hand card trick is designed to steal your money. Be warned, you cannot win this game. It is rigged and 100% unwinable. We explain how the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Speed Reading
Years ago, we looked into the research on speed reading. What we found raised difficult questions about how viable this strategy really is. As we reviewed…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Car-Sick
Sometimes we get nauseaus when riding around in or on vehicles. What is going on with this? We explore motion sickness and what you can do about it... if…
- Why We Do What We Do
Antimetabole and Chiasmus
There is a form of rhetoric that is suprrisingly effective at persuading people to adopt beliefs regardless of their accuracy. These are called "antimetabole."…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Evidence of Bigfoot?
In several interviews, Jane Goodall explained why she believed there was evidence of Bigfoot. While she was a wonderful natural scientist, a good science…
- Why We Do What We Do
English Accents
Why do American and UK Accents sound so dissimilar? Could a couple hundred years of infrequent communciation result in that much drift? Did the Americans…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Designer Genes
There are pros and cons to the trajectory of genetic engineering research. Eventually, we will be confronted by a systemic drive to apply these interventions…
- Why We Do What We Do
Billboard Hot 100
This fascinating and yet entirely expected piece of Americana has shaped the music industry for better or worse (probably worse). But, why does it exist at…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Suicide Hotline (988)
Recent research has evaluated the effect of changes made to the national suicide hotline in 2022 in the US. Scientists analyzed the success of this program by…
- Why We Do What We Do
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy pt. 2
In the last discussion, we covered the history of CBT and the cognitive aspects of the intervention. In this segment, we'll review the behavioral components…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Stroop Test
In 1935 John Ridley Stroop published an article with a new experiment showing that people struggle to name things when there is a conflicting word…
- Why We Do What We Do
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy pt. 1
The most well-recognized psychotherapy in the world is also the most widely researched. You've likely heard that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: My, What Big Holes You Have
This ambiguously titled discussion is about the practice of stretching piercings to become large holes. We talk about the history of this practice, how it's…
- Why We Do What We Do
Dr. Kevorkian
Dr. Kevorkian was a controversial figure in the 1990s when he began providing unsanctioned assisted suicide service to terminally-ill patients. Kevorkian…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Repeatedly Incorrect
Have you ever noticed that you always make the same typo when writing? Or, that you repeatedly misspeak some phrase or mispronounce some word when talking?…