NPR

Invisibilia

Society EN ↓ 88 episodes

Unseeable forces control human behavior and shape our ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently.

Author

NPR

Category

Society

Podcast website

www.npr.org

Latest episode

Jul 17, 2025

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Episodes

"The Network" from NPR's Embedded 17.07.2025

New from NPR's Embedded: Hosts Victoria Estrada and Marta Martinez travel across Latin America and within the U.S. to understand how women in Brazil discovered one of the medications that's used for self-managed abortions, the spread of this method across the world, and how this approach is shaping the future of abortion in the U.S. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use...

Alternate Realities from NPR's Embedded 24.02.2025

New from NPR's Embedded : Reporter Zach Mack thinks his dad has gone all in on conspiracy theories, while his father thinks that Zach is the one being brainwashed. In 2024, after the latest round of circular arguments, they decided to try something new, an attempt to pull each other out of the spell each of them thinks the other is under. Can one family live in two realities? This is episode 1 of...

Tested (Ep 2): Questions of a Physical Nature 22.08.2024

We go back almost 100 years, to the beginning of women's inclusion in elite sports. It turns out that men had an odd variety of concerns about women athletes. Some doubted these athletes were even women at all. And their skepticism resulted in the first policies requiring sex testing. Tested is a six-part series, you can binge all the episodes now in the Embedded podcast and the CBC feed . See pcm...

Tested (Ep 1): The Choice 22.08.2024

New from NPR's Embedded podcast and CBC in Canada: Would you alter your body for the chance to compete for a gold medal? That's the question facing a small group of elite athletes right now. Last year, track and field authorities announced new regulations that mean some women can't compete in the female category unless they lower their body's naturally occurring testosterone levels. You'll meet on...

The Goodbye Show 27.04.2023

In their final episode, Invisibilia searches for the right way to say goodbye. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Revisiting Love and Lapses: A Conversation with Code Switch host B.A. Parker 16.12.2022

Sometimes the holidays are filled with the people you love. Other times, they're marked by an absence. In this special holiday episode, new Code Switch co-host and former Invisibilia producer B.A. Parker tells a story about family, loss and preserving memories before it's too late. Then Parker joins Kia and Yowei to reflect on the making of this story, and what it means to her now. See pcm.adswizz...

Power Tools 07.10.2022

Bad bosses. Obnoxious coworkers. Unfair compensation. There are so many reasons people feel disempowered in the workplace. But how can our feelings about power enable or disrupt the larger dynamics we hate at work? This week, Yowei Shaw seeks answers from a power researcher and a union organizer. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and...

Freedom Diving 30.09.2022

After months of working from home and retreating from the world, Kia Miakka Natisse is stuck - in her house, and in her head. In an attempt to break out of the funk, she's searching for wisdom at the bottom of the ocean with South Africa's first Black freediving instructor, Zandile Ndhlovu. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to man...

Therapy Ghostbusters 23.09.2022

In San Jose, California, a community clinic was stumped as to why their clients were seeing ghosts. This week, a story about grappling with ghosts of our past and one clinic's attempt to heal intergenerational trauma. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

A Little Bit Pregnant 16.09.2022

This week on Invisibilia, could the rebrand of a familiar pill open up a new way to control fertility in a post-Roe America? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

The P-Word 09.09.2022

Alex is a comic who feels perfectly comfortable commanding a packed, rowdy audience, but consistently submits to what other people want in everyday life. This week, a look at how uncomfortable feelings about power can backfire on ourselves and the people we love. We get the help of a power expert - a dominatrix - to untangle Alex's power dynamics, and find out what it takes to treat a power allerg...

Invisibilia Takes Control 06.09.2022

2022 feels like walking a tightrope. We're grappling with control of our bodies, our time, the direction of our country - while trying to not spin out and just doomscroll. So this season, Invisibilia takes on control. The narratives we have about what's in or out of our control. Invisible tools of control. The crutches we use to FEEL in control but that might not be helping. See pcm.adswizz.com fo...

Therapy, with Friends 04.11.2021

Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend? Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on her podcast. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and u...

Poop Friends 28.10.2021

Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Friends with Benefits 21.10.2021

A lot of us think that it's a bad idea to get physical with friends. We worry it'll get messy, maybe even ruin the friendship. But if physical intimacy between friends weren't so taboo, what could our friendships look like? In this episode, we explore the gray zone of sex and friendship, following a man who deliberately kept his friendships with women hazy and now wants to apologize, and a pair of...

International Friend of Mystery 30.09.2021

You know the old saying--keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell the difference? In this episode, the story of two friends who got caught up in a Top Secret operation that tested their assumptions about trust, betrayal, loyalty, and power. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast...

Nun of Us Are Friends 23.09.2021

It's a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. We look at two institutions that took away that choice: convents circa the 1960s and a summer program with unusual rules. What do we lose and what do we gain when we give up our preferences and try to make friends with everyone equally? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsor...

A Friendly Ghost Story 16.09.2021

It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collecti...

The Friendship Season 14.09.2021

Friendship gets the Invisibilia treatment. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

American Slow Radio 12.06.2021

Let's get slow. Producer Abby Wendle picks up the gauntlet that was thrown down in the last episode " The Great Narrative Escape ." Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

The Great Narrative Escape 20.05.2021

Imagine a TV show with no plot, no characters, no tension... and yet, it went viral! In this episode, we have a story that questions storytelling as we know it. Plus, co-hosts Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw take a spectacularly unspectacular train ride. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship prefer...

The Chaos Machine: A Looping Revolt 13.05.2021

Is 209 Times helping or hurting the community it claims to serve? What does the site mean for the future of local news in America? And what can be done about it? In the final installment of "The Chaos Machine" series , Yowei finds herself in the middle of a long-standing tug of war over who owns the truth. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponso...

The Chaos Machine: Wrathful Lord 06.05.2021

The man behind 209 Times is not who you'd expect. In Part 2, co-host Yowei Shaw discovers the website's surprising origin story, and ends up at the frontlines of a revolt against the mainstream media and a fight over who gets to own the truth. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Pr...

The Chaos Machine: An Endless Hole 29.04.2021

Yowei gets a tip about Russian trolls in Stockton, California and falls down a hole of swirling conspiracy theories. At the center is a scrappy, controversial website that has become one of the most popular sources of local news in town. Some say it's doing important investigative journalism while others say it's spreading hateful lies about progressive leaders. In part 1 of The Chaos Machine seri...

Eat The Rich 22.04.2021

Invisibilia explores a social experiment with money, focused around a contentious topic: reparations. What happens when you demand white people give up their wealth? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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