A brand new NPR podcast, Hidden Brain, reveals the unseen patterns in our lives, where our unconscious mind plays a phenomenal role in our day to day behavior. The magic of this podcast is that simply learning about the hidden forces that shape our perceptions, behaviors and thoughts can provide the insight needed to change the outcome — listening to the podcast is a life hack in and of itself.

Presenter of the podcast and NPR social science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, authored a book of the same title published in 2010, The Hidden Brain, describing how our lives are effected by factors that lie outside of conscious awareness.

Now, in the currently running podcast series, he presents a phenomenally thought provoking, dynamic, fun and creative expansion on how our ‘hidden brain’ influences the unseen patterns in our lives.

Each roughly 30 minute episode brings together brain, psychology and behavior buffs like Dan Pink (the mastermind of the popular documentary series, Crowd Control ) as well as comedians, musicians, actors and more.

The result? A wonderful medley of the latest scientific developments, perspectives and related actionable evidence-based advice, along with fun games, musical interludes and profound insights into both how our individual, as well as collective unconscious minds mould our lives and the world around us.

So far in installments 1 and 2 of the series, numerous interesting topics have been explored.

For example, episode 1 (above) included a topic we have all been guilty of, switch tracking. Switch tracking is a pattern in communication where instead of actually talking about a given subject that is initially presented, we enter into a dialogue of switching the angle of discussion, resulting in poor communication by continually talking past one another instead of to one another.

Simply knowing this, has not only allowed me to recognize when this is happening to me to get the conversation back on track, I am now very aware that I do it far more often than I initially thought. Knowing this small factoid has rapidly led to more effective and deeper communication in my life. When I quit with the switch tracking I feel like I more truly understand the topic at hand from other people’s perspectives, instead of blind sighting it by whacking my own perspective on top.

Personally, I am tuning in. If you are into deepening your scientific understanding of yourself, humankind and the unconscious forces that covertly control the world we live in, as well as discovering possible routes for self-development, all while being thoroughly entertained along the way…you should too!

Image via xpixel / Shutterstock.