My Top Nine Favorite Episodes Of Invisibilia, A NPR Psychology Podcast | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

My Top Nine Favorite Episodes Of Invisibilia, A NPR Psychology Podcast

Where human behavior is explained

3709
My Top Nine Favorite Episodes Of Invisibilia, A NPR Psychology Podcast
npr.com

Invisibilia is a NPR podcast which explores," the invisible forces that control human behavior." Its hosted by Lulu Miller, Hanna Rosin, and Alix Spiegel.

If you're into psychology and love learning about new psychological research, this podcast is for you.

I originally discovered this podcast because my psychology professor had us listen to a couple of episodes for class. Now taking a radio class, I discovered my love for listening to podcasts as I walk around my college campus. Invisibilia was my first podcast, and its taught me a lot about myself and psychology.

Here's my list of my favorite episodes of Invisibilia.

9. The Secret Emotional Life of Clothes

This episode is about the affect clothes have on the way others see you. One story is about a guy named Cas that started wearing sunglasses when he was young to stop the bullies. Surprisingly enough, it worked. Another story was about the work of Professor Adam Galinsky. His experiment asked the question if wearing a doctor's white coat increased performance.

8. The Problem with the Solution

This episode is about how humans look for solutions to all problems. This episode of Invisibilia begs the question if all problems need to be solved. The NPR reporters talk to people in a small town in Belgium where families take in mentally ill patients. Instead of trying to fix them, they coexist with them.

7. Flip the Script

In this episode, Invisibilia explores "noncomplementary behavior", which is shown best by the first segment of the episode: a robber shows up to a small gathering and makes a fuss. One of the people at the party offers the robber a glass of wine. They talk to him for a little bit, then he leaves peacefully. One of the main stories for this episode is how the police in one small town in Europe stopped Muslim teenagers from going to Syria by treating them with kindness.

6. How to Become Batman

This episode is about Daniel Kish, a blind man who can "see" by clicking like a bat. Kish believes that the blind don't reach their full sense potential because they rely too much on those that care for them.

5. Fearless

Half of this episode is about a woman with a calcified amygdala who doesn't feel fear. The other half of the episode explores why people have a fear of snakes: the way they move. And finally, the last part is about how human can actually smell fear.

4. The Personality Myth

This episode tacks an age old question: what makes us, us over time? The main story is about a man in prison and how he completely changed himself for the better. However, people still don't perceive him as a changed person. One psychologist tells us that who we are depends on our environment.

3. Entanglement

This is an episode I found insane, but captivating. Part of the episode is about a woman who has Mirror Touch Synestesia. She is an empath to an extreme where she physically and mentally feel other people and their emotions. She can't even eat with her family because it feels like they are shoving food in her mouth.

2. The Secret History of Thoughts

This episode is about how therapeutic methods have changed over time. Freud, method 1, believed that thoughts mean something. Method 2 is that thoughts are something that needs to be combated. And method 3 is that thoughts mean nothing; they are meant to be observed and then let go. The main story of this episode is of a man who thinks violent thoughts obsessively and his journey to getting help through various therapeutic methods.

1. Frame of Reference

This episode struck me more than the other episodes did. It was about a woman on the autism spectrum who took part in an experiment that temporarily cured her autism. She described how all of a sudden, social contexts made absolute sense. To her it was like experiencing the world through a new set of eyes. This episode brought me on the edge of tears for this woman. The second half of the episode, the reporters talked to a comedian who described how his dad's life experiences made him cold and logical when it came to dealing with the racism that targeted him in his early years. He realizes now that there are pros and cons to his father's prospective. One con he describes is if no one ever got angry about, for example racism, then nothing was going to be accomplished. When you live with a perspective that "it can always be worse" then you are less likely to act and rise up.

Thank you Invisibilia for the wonder stories and ideas you put in head. Because of your inspiration, I have chosen psychology as one of my majors.

Listen to all the Invisibilia episodes here: its well worth it.


Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Health and Wellness

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

1325
5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity
Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash

The first two weeks of classes have come to an end and they have been anything BUT easy. It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Although this seems like the best solution, it is also the easy way out. Take it from the girl who took basically a whole week off from her life because she just could not handle everything that was being thrown at her. This caused her to feel extremely lonely and even more stressed out for being behind in classes that JUST began.

Keep Reading...Show less
friends

1. Thank you for being my person.

2. Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself sometimes.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

11 Things We Learned From Brooke Davis

"What's more important? What we become or how we become it?"

701
Brooke Davis

"She was fiercely independent, Brooke Davis. Brilliant, and beautiful, and brave. In two years she had grown more than anyone I had ever known. Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday, and I'm not sure she even knows it." - Lucas Scott, An Unkindness of Ravens

Brooke Davis of the hit show One Tree Hill was the it girl - she had it all, or so we thought. She started out as a stuck-up, shallow, spoiled, head cheerleader who didn't have her life together. She slept around a lot and loved to party - sounds like your typical high school teenager right? Wrong. B. Davis had so much more to offer. Caring, loyal, and outspoken, she has taught us some valuable lessons throughout the 9 seasons that OTH was on the air:

Keep Reading...Show less
Honorary Roommate
Rachel Zadeits

For some of us, coming to college was the first time we ever had to share a room. It was a big change, but a fun one. As you meet more and more people over the course of your college career, it seems to be a pattern that you will at some point have that one friend that doesn't live with you, but acts like they do. We call those people, "Honorary Roommates" and here are 11 signs you have one in your life.

Keep Reading...Show less
Relationships

10 Reasons Why It's Awesome When Your Best Friend Gets New Friends

She may not be with you 24/7 but it's all good because you're soul sisters.

2534
super friends
Gabi Morales

We all have a person, and when that person makes some new friends, we tend to forget all the great things that can come out of it. Never forget how special they are to you and why you are best friends.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments