Suicide is a very rare phenomenon at the far end of human anguish. And yet its existence tells us something crucial about how fragile we all are: it's a further reminder of the need for compassion.
If you were setting out to make a country rich, what kind of mindsets and ideas would be most likely to achieve your goals? We invent a country, Richland, and try to imagine the psychology of its inhabitants.
2015 • Economics
The reason why some countries are rich and others poor depends on many things, including the quality of their institutions, the culture they have, the natural resources they find and what latitude they're on.
2014 • Economics
The rules for how to doom a relationship are relatively easy to follow. Here are a selection that are guaranteed to blow up love.
2015 • Lifehack
Nowadays, many atheists declare not just that god is dead but that anyone who believes in him must be stupid. This seems a little harsh – we prefer to think about where religious beliefs come from: the pained parts of ourselves.
2015 • Lifehack
Plato was one of the world's earliest and possibly greatest philosophers. He matters because of his devotion to making humanity more fulfilled.
2014 • People
Karl Marx remains deeply important today not as the man who told us what to replace capitalism with, but as someone who brilliantly pointed out what was inhuman and alienating about it.
2014 • People
This is a thought experiment about what the perfect country might be like. It's not an idle daydream, it's a way of highlighting some of the problems with our own nations and a way of signalling what the true opportunities might be.
2016 • Lifehack
The key to finding fulfilling work is to think a lot, analyse one's fears, understand the market, reflect on capitalism.
2015 • Lifehack
It’s an odd quirk of relationships that, after a time, we tend to develop the sincere conviction that it is all always our partner’s fault.
2016 • Lifehack
We’re still only at the dawn of learning how to use drugs properly – knowing what drugs we need and when we should take them. We look forward to a brighter future for drug use.
2016 • Health
Why are we so captivated and fascinated by news stories about disasters? Is it ghoulish and voyeuristic? Not at all...
2015 • Lifehack
A baby's brain is a mystery whose secrets scientists are just beginning to unravel. The mystery begins in the womb -- only four weeks into gestation the first brain cells, the neurons, are already forming at an astonishing rate: 250,000 every minute.
1/5 • The Secret Life of the Brain • 2002 • Brain
In part 3, Prof. Shapiro shows us that the brain is challenged to process some stimuli from the eyes and sometimes "guesses" what you are seeing. Join him as he takes us through visual perception challenges like the "Curveball Illusion". Has he thrown you for a loop yet?
Artists like M.C. Escher played with our visual perception in their art. In this 4th installment of the series, Prof. Arthur Shapiro returns to the classic visual illusions that show us that what we see is not exactly in plain sight.
A plush country house is fixed with surveillance cameras while a group of unwitting test subjects - former pupils of a UK school - are first exposed to youthful memories to test if it can improve their health. This episode looks at how we behave in groups and puts our notions of hierarchy to the test.
3/5 • Meet the Humans • 2017 • Brain
Host Ted Danson discovers a town in Belgium with a radical approach to mental health. Plus, see why NASA's newest "star" is a world-famous chef. Host Ted Danson discusses new advances in medicine with the Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Doctors experiment with a new surgical treatment for mental illness: deep brain stimulation
If I could live forever, should I? How does being reminded of our own mortality affect us psychologically? In this episode I speak with mortician and death positivity activist Caitlin Doughty and visit a cryonics facility trying to extend human life indefinitely. Will I take them up on their offer, or will I choose to die?
S3E5 • Mind Field • 2018 • Brain