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
Interbehaviorism
Nearly a century ago, a groundbreaking philosopher of psychology was way ahead of his time. J.R. Kantor developed a theory of psychology that finally rooted…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Arrows Point the Way
Symbols are weird. Actually, there are fairly intuitive in many cases, but many are surprisingly new. We explore the recent history of the arrow symbol and the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Scared Straight
Perhaps this would have made a good Halloween episode? Probably not. Anyway, this episode honors April Fool's day by examining a foolish endeavor: Scared…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Magestic Manatees
Manatees are remarkable and gentle creatures. Possibly the source of mermaid stories of old, these strange aquatic mammals live life on the slow side. Some…
- Why We Do What We Do
First Episode Psychosis
Psychosis is an experience that some people have in which they struggle with the ability to discern their experience from the current ongoing reality. This…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Name Traditions
Does your name mean anything? Many cultures around the world choose names because they have some explicit, intended meaning, while others assign names for…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Mithridatism
This is another nostalgia, re-release of a previous episide with a brief update at the end. This is a discussion of the idea to ingest poison to build a…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Computer Music
AI music is not only here to stay, it is rapidly gaining in mainstream popularity. We briefly discuss the history of computer music, the changes it has made to…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: 10 Ways to Ruin Your Sleep
This is a re-run (nostalgia) of our fun-spirited discussion about how to ruin your sleep. We play the entire episode, plus some added research from the last…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Top 100
This is our 100th mini! So, we spend the mini talking about the number 100! Things that humans, make, some facts about non-human animals... and human animals…
- Why We Do What We Do
Inside Out 2: A Commentary
Why We Do What We Do goes back to the movies! Last week, we reviewed Disney + Pixar's Inside Out, so we are taking on the sequel. In many ways, this film…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: LARP
Humans love to play. Some of us are willing to be more immersed in that play than others. Those who live for the immersion will often dress up for their…
- Why We Do What We Do
Inside Out: A Commentary
Why We Do What We Do goes to the movies! A couple of movies have directly taken on representing the inner world of our behavior, and we finally decided that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot! This 5-second two-player game to settle disputes began in ancient China and quickly spread throughout the world. Some research…
- Why We Do What We Do
N-Rays
Not to be confused with Neutron Imaging, which is also sometimes called N Rays, N-Rays were a scientific discovery at the turn of the 1900s that promised a…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Red Light Therapy
Shining red lights on our bodies is all the rage in the "wellness" space. Red lights are purported to do a hole host of incredible things, which raised our…
- Why We Do What We Do
Guess Who..?
In a departure from our standard episode format, Abraham will profile three people and see if Shane can guess who they are. You can play along! Send us in your…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: The Cat's Meow
Do cat's only meow at humans? What does their meowing mean? We once again spend a mini reviewing the interesting feline behavior of meowing. Yes, they mostly…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: How to Protest Safely
Once again, we find ourselves in distressing and troubled times. Those of us inspired to action have taken to the streets in peaceful demonstrations and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: The Sweetness
What does it mean to say something is sweeter than something else? What does 200 times sweeter even taste like? We explain the method scientists use to measure…
- Why We Do What We Do
Burning Man pt. 2
In part 2, we continue through the history of the Burning Man event. Then, we get into what to expect what how to prepare if you plan to attend Burning Man…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Teeth Grinding
One of the most spine-tingling, misophonia-inducing sounds (for some) is the sound of teeth grinding together. Bruxism, teeth-grinding, is a habit that can…
- Why We Do What We Do
Burning Man pt. 1
There is a unique annual art event that is hours from civilization in the blistering hot sun that culminates the incineration of humungous humanoid effigy…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Hard Conversations
Many people avoid or even advocate against having conversations about confrontational topics. We disagree. We explain how it is important to have these…
- Why We Do What We Do
Abstinence Only Education
Democratized education lead by trained professionals and experts has resulted in unprecidented growth in progress and improvements in quality of life. Sex is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Mind Reading
Psychic, telepathic mind-reading is complete nonsense logistically, philosophically, practically... all of the "ally's." We will explain why in some detail…
- Why We Do What We Do
My Cross to Bear
The idea of personal responsibility will seem like common sense to some. Scientifically, however, it is an interesting concept to understand. How does it…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Charcuterie Boards
We are taking a side journey into the delectable topic of charcuterie boards. We briefly describe what they are and then how to put one together. Do you have a…
- Why We Do What We Do
2025 Wrap-Up
Another year on the books. We reflect on what we discussed this year, our listener stats, and personal experiences with movies, books, and TV shows. It's our…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Choral Responding
Choral or Unison responding is a classroom participation strategy in which all students answer together when given an opportunity to do so. This allows the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Culture and Disability
Different cultures around the world have unique perspectives on disability. We survey several different cultural values and approaches to thinking about and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Circular Breathing
Have you ever heard of circular breathing? For musicians who play instruments that require blown air, circular breathing is a technique to produce continuous…
- Why We Do What We Do
Disability and Ability
Conditions that differ from "normal," sometimes called disability, don't preclude people with those conditions from being able to do regular vocational…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: 6-7
Because this was selected the "word of the year," we decided we may as well discuss it. If you've been lucky enough to miss this trend, sorry to end your lucky…
- Why We Do What We Do
Private Equity in Disability
Sometimes investment groups will purchase and then unify individually-owned, small businesses that provide care for people with disabilities. Once they've…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Perfect Pitch Perfect
This is not about the movie(s). Amazingly, that didn't even occur to us before, during, or even immediately after recording this... This is about the ability…
- Why We Do What We Do
Sexuality in Disabilities
A touchy topic that some people don't want to touch is sexuality as it relates to disability. There is some "moral" prudishness that borders on (if not…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Adaptive Sex Industry
The industry around sex equipment has been leading the charge in the development of equipment for different bodies and impairments. This mini describes some of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Terms in Disability
The vernacular treadmill is ever running and we often find we are behind on the currently accepted terms. While some struggle to accept change, many of us…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: No Nut November
Do you believe in the magic of sperm? The longer you hold onto it, the mightier you become. Except, not. The idea of sperm retention does almost nothing that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Accessibility for All
Brilliant people have worked to create accessibility so comprehensively baked into our lives that we often don't even recognize that it is there. However…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Making Things More Accessible
This is a quick tutorial for making things more accessible and checking for accessibility when creating documents mostly in MS Office and Adobe. So, this will…
- Why We Do What We Do
Autism Subtypes
Continuing on with our suite on disability and accessibility, this episode explores new research exploring autism subtypes and their links to genetic markers…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Signs That Don't Mean You Have ADHD
Do you wake up after sleeping? Do you eat food when you are hungry? You might have ADHD! Not because of those things... those just mean you are human and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Models of Disability
How do we start talking about disabiliity? First, we need to understand how people thinking about and appraoch disability. This episode kicks off a suite of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Thin Blue Line
The "Thin Blue Line" has a probable origin in military history. It has been employed as a symbol of law enforcement, but commoly applied in contrast to other…
- Why We Do What We Do
Ritual Sacrifice
Our final Halloween episode tackles a grizzly topic: Ritual Sacrifices. We explore some of the practices and reasons for sacfrifice throughout history. Note…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Houska Castle
There is a mysterious castle in Czechia with defensive structures pointed inward toward the caste. There are also stories of a hole in the ground of unknown…
- Why We Do What We Do
How Do Halloween Masks Affect Our Behavior?
Wearing a mask changes the way our social word interacts with us. This might mean access to rewards that we might not otherwise try to access, but the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Creepy Pasta
Creepy pasta is/was a democratized way ot telling scary stories that are just on the edge of believability. They seem to have dissipated into various other…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
One of the most iconic and well-established horror stories in the world, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a masterpiece of literature. The talented director…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: 666
We have a fascination with assigning meaning to various numbers. Actually, many cultures enjoy assigning meaning to numbers as well. In western traditions, we…
- Why We Do What We Do
I Want To Take You To The Bermuda Triangle
Some spooky topics are geographically creepy. Arguably, the most famous scary geography is lovingly called The Bermuda Triangle. This portion of the world is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: R.I.P.
This is our first Halloween mini of 2025! RIP is a well-wishing, a command, and an indication of your relationship to person or idea being bid farewell. We…
- Why We Do What We Do
Variants of Hell
Welcome to our annual month of creepy topics! We are kicking off this year's selection with an overview of various conceptuatlizations of Hell from the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Colored Noise
You have probably heard of white noise, but there are a variety of noise patterns that have been assigned a color. Some have proposed hypothetical benefits of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Propaganda: How You Are Being Tricked pt. 2
In the last episode, we outlined several specific propaganda strategies. We conclude this discussion by explaining some ways we can attempt to combat…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Kintsugi
Kintsugi is a Japanese tradition of repairing broken things rather than retiring them, and in doing so making them stronger. It has a nice metaphor for…
- Why We Do What We Do
Propaganda: How You are Being Tricked pt. 1
Propaganda is remarkably effective at influencing your behavior, even if you don't recognize that it is happening. Being aware of its strategies can help…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: How Many Faces Can You Remember?
A lot. Unless you have face blindness, you can remember a lot of faces. Is this all in the brian? We do our best to explain the research behind our ability to…