The Mind Society

We're all, in some way, familiar with the term "narcissist". Have you ever thought someone around you might be a narcissist, or perhaps, someone commented that you possibly may be one? This term is sometimes thrown around loosely to describe someone full of themselves or only thinking of their needs, but what exactly does narcissism mean? Do all people who show some narcissistic qual...

Food is much more than just a source of sustenance and energy; it plays a crucial role in our overall health, influencing both our physical and mental well-being. It impacts our brain and mind equally as it does our physical body. During this episode with Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, nutritionist, and culinary expert, we engage in a fascinating conversation about the various imp...

Dr. George Bonanno (Columbia University) is a preeminent researcher of loss, trauma, and the emotions associated with these experiences. He’s made it his life’s work to explore why some individuals experience trauma while others do not, revealing a surprising resilience in human nature. His research shows that many people can maintain high functioning even after significant loss or trauma. This ra...

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), as elucidated by its founder, Dr. Albert Ellis, is more than a therapeutic technique; it's a philosophy for living. Dr. Ellis, a trailblazer in the field, introduced REBT well ahead of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), laying the groundwork for Aaron Beck, CBT's originator, with whom he shared a professional relationship. Having Dr. Debbie Joffe El...

Language serves as a fundamental tool for communication with others and, intriguingly, as a conduit for self-dialogue. Have you ever pondered the profound influence the language we use on ourselves has on our emotional comprehension and regulation? Dr. Erik Nook from Princeton leads us on an exploration of these concepts, central to his laboratory's research. He unveils the idea of "psych...

A distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Leuven in Belgium, Dr. Batja Mesquita's research on culture and emotions has cleared a path for the deep understanding of how cultures mold our emotional experiences and expressions. By understanding these cultural variations, we gain valuable insights into the diversity of human affect and the significance of context in shaping emot...

In the debut episode of our second season, we delve into a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. James Gross of Stanford University, an esteemed authority in the psychology of emotions and emotion regulation. Our discussion penetrates the intricate world of human emotions, highlighting the significant effects of cultural nuances and elaborating on the diverse strategies individuals adopt for emo...

And we're back for a second season of The Mind Society! The next part of our journey will branch us out beyod the United States' northeastern region, away from the Ivies, and instead towards different regions domestically, including across borders and big ponds to different continents to hear from international psychological scholars conducting profound research. Our aim is to share what t...

Anxiety has affected most of us directly. More so than not, we’ve all experienced some levels of anxiety, whether it’s feeling nervous, restless, tense or breathing rapidly, sweating, and even trembling. These symptoms are unmistakable feelings and can even become debilitating. Dr. Richard McNally, the Director of Clinical Training at Harvard University, sheds light into how anxiety surpasses the...

Each of our interpretations of the world around us is nuanced from one person to the next. In a way, consciousness can be loosely understood to be the representations we make of the world around us. It's in these representations that are computed, much like a computer. (Cue in "Computational Psychology"; the application of computational principles to understand human behavior.) And furthermore, th...

What makes us smart? This is the overarching question that Dr. Sam Gershman is researching at this lab in Harvard's psychology department. How is it that we make so many mistakes as humans, such as certain cases of cognitive biases or heuristics, but on the other hand there are accounts of human cognition that suggest that we're somewhat close to functioning optimally? Is there a way to reconcile...

Two significant, yet rarely discussed in the mainstream, psychological phenomena are heuristics and cognitive biases. Heuristics, also known as “mental shortcuts”, are used to help us make judgements and, thus, decisions without having to exhaust a lot of mental energy. These sets of simple and efficient rules are an evolutionary adaptation meant to help us; however, in certain situations these ru...

As a developing child, one of our most important tasks is to make meaning of the world around us. We do it subconsciously, picking up on small minute details of our social environment, collecting them in a mental database, and putting them through a meaning-making process. This is a simplistic way of describing our process of knowledge acquisition. With the help of Dr. Yarrow Dunham, a Harvard-tra...

We all experience an intricate range of emotions daily. Yet what kind of roles do they play in our close relationships? How do our abilities to read emotions in other people affect the quality of these connections? Moreover, how does it affect our own cognition? Does it have the potential to interrupt or facilitate our own lives? These are the types of questions that Dr. Margaret Clark has been wo...

Memories make up an integral part of the human experience. We use them to steer clear of potentially risky or harmful future situations or to even evoke a sense of joy and happiness in the present from reflecting on positive past experiences. They influence our everyday decisions and judgements. But how reliable are our memories? Do we really remember everything exactly the way they happened? Dr....

As a preeminent expert in emotional intelligence and personality psychology, Dr. John D. Mayer (University of New Hampshire) has spent decades understanding the features of personality through the current group of intelligences that exist. At the genesis of his research, he partnered with Peter Salovey, Yale’s President since 2013, and David Caruso to study the intricacies of these intelligences,...

Dr. Daniel Casasanto has a knack for explaining complex and abstract concepts in a such a digestible way that you’re left leaving the conversation inspired. And this comes at no surprise. After receiving his PhD in Cognitive Science from MIT and currently a professor and active researcher at Cornell, he’s spent almost two decades exploring how language, culture, and bodily experiences influence th...

With a Ph. D. from Yale and currently on the psychology faculty at Cornell, Dr. David Pizarro has been investigating the correlations between our emotional states on thinking and deciding for almost two decades. More specifically, he’s been researching how emotions, such as anger, disgust, and fear, impact the ways we process information, remember events, and generate moral judgments of others. We...

Dr. Ellen Langer has been considered by many as the "mother of mindfulness". As the first tenured female professor of psychology at Harvard, she's spent over 40 years studying what exactly being mindful means and how to cultivate it for personal and interpersonal good. During our conversation, Dr. Langer shares the different studies that she's been working on these past years and most recently, al...

Welcome! The Mind Society lecture series was created to be a reliable source for anyone looking to understand the workings of the mind on an abundantly deeper level. Featuring scholars from top institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, you'll hear engaging conversations presenting the latest findings on thought-provoking topics ranging from mental disorders, trauma, relationships, to mindf...