Episodes
Nov. 12, 2024
Where You Live Influences How You Think
Geographical psychology examines links between location and psychological phenomena, such as how and why personality traits, life satisfaction, and social behavior differ from place to place—or cluster in certain areas. These...
Nov. 5, 2024
How to Make and Sustain Friendship in a Busy Life
You just moved to a new city. All your friends are getting married or having kids. You retired. You got divorced. You've outgrown your childhood friends. You’ve been clinging to your spouse as your only friend and it’s making...
Oct. 29, 2024
Meaning: What is the Point of Being Here?
The question of the meaning of life is perhaps one that we would rather not ask, for fear of the answer or lack thereof. Still today, many people believe that we, humankind, are the creation of a supernatural entity called Go...
Oct. 22, 2024
Chunky Children: Childhood Obesity
With all the buzz around childhood obesity, it's easy to become desensitized to the statistics. But the shocking figures can't be ignored: Since 1980, the prevalence of obesity among kids and adolescents in the United States ...
Oct. 15, 2024
Sexual Promiscuity: The Love Parade
Promiscuity is formally defined, according to Webster, as including not only frequent but indiscriminate sexual behavior. Preference for frequent sexual contacts is not necessarily the same as being sexually indiscriminating....
Oct. 8, 2024
What Marriage Use To Be
Through most of Western civilization, marriage has been more a matter of money, power and survival than of delicate sentiments. In medieval Europe, everyone from the lord of the manor to the village locals had a say in decidi...
Oct. 1, 2024
Bi-Polar Opposites: To Be Manic
Mania can range from mild (known as hypomania) to severe; at its most extreme, mania can trigger delusions, violence, and an increased risk of suicide. Depending on the cause, a manic episode can last anywhere from several da...
Sept. 24, 2024
Victim Blaming
Virtually anyone who has survived sexual assault or experienced sexual harassment knows how painful victim-blaming can be. Survivors are often asked what they were wearing, what they did to “encourage” the perpetrator, or eve...
Sept. 17, 2024
Body Talk: Understanding Our First Language
Body language is a silent orchestra, as people constantly give clues to what they’re thinking and feeling. Non-verbal messages including body movements, facial expressions, vocal tone and volume, and other signals are collect...
Sept. 10, 2024
Search for Identity through Politics
If nothing else, the conflict in the Middle East has made it clear that identity politics isn’t going away. In fact, many individuals who previously criticized identity politics now embrace their personal identities more stro...
Sept. 3, 2024
Childhood: No More
While American children had once commonly enjoyed the freedom to run around outside with minimal adult interference, they began to spend more time indoors where their parents could watch them. When they did go outside, they w...
Aug. 27, 2024
Grudgy People: The Unforgivers
Why do we hold grudges when they are in fact quite painful to maintain, and often seem to work against what we really want? Why do we keep wounds open and active, living in past experiences of pain which prevent new experienc...
Aug. 20, 2024
How Media Programs Our Lives
Media especially through portrayals of characters, narratives and scenarios can serve as powerful models for learning behavior. We have seen this in the famous Bobo doll experiment by Albert Bandura. Following a series of chi...
Aug. 13, 2024
Kids Who Refuse To Go To School
It’s always difficult to hear your children yelling or sobbing that they don’t want to go to school. You may be even more sensitive to their reluctance and anxiety because of what an unpredictable place school has felt like f...
Aug. 6, 2024
When Did Marriage Start To Require Best Friends?
What makes friendship in marriage a potential benefit is that you will need to have someone you can talk to and fight alongside when life gets tough. And the ideal combination is a spouse with whom you share your life plans a...
July 30, 2024
Meh...Living With Apathy
What, exactly, is apathy? In a sense, it’s something like falling in love. You can describe it all you want, but until you’ve experienced it, you can only guess what it feels like. Paradoxically, what makes the feeling of apa...
July 23, 2024
Ego: Delusional Reality
When you take things personally, you allow many issues to consume your well-being. This way of thinking exhausts your energy with little good and a lot of stress and anxiety. The amount of worry, anger, and suffering you expe...
July 16, 2024
Married to Bat Shxt Crazy: (BPD) Borderline Personality Disorder
People who have borderline personality disorder tend to have more tumultuous, chaotic romantic relationships. Such relationships are often marked by stress, conflict, and dysfunction. Some of the ways that BPD can manifest in...
July 9, 2024
When Should I Divorce
While some partnerships are beyond repair—whether it’s due to infidelity or emotional abuse—other couples call it quits at the first sign of conflict, but they miss out on an opportunity to resolve anything. Before making you...
June 18, 2024
Can't Find a Date: Let Alone a Real Partner
You’re sick and tired of all the dating apps and websites and trying to meet people in your kickball league? And how many awkward first dates can you go on to find a “normal” person? And what’s with all the fake personalities...
June 11, 2024
Mid-Marriage Life Crisis: Finding Yourself After
The severity of midlife crisis symptoms can vary from person to person. Gender can also play a role in how a midlife crisis unfolds. Women may be more likely to go through a period of self-reflection as they shift away from t...
June 4, 2024
Before You Marry: You Never Know Who You Marry Until You Divorce
They say marriage is a covenant, and keeping that covenant requires two committed people. It doesn’t matter the grand wedding you had, the gifts you received, or the kinds of guests that attended your wedding. It takes more t...
May 28, 2024
Men Without Friends
You don’t need a degree in psychology to know that friendships are different, depending on gender. Men have historically bonded by relentlessly deriding one anothers’ haircuts and giving each other nicknames like ‘Sponge’ and...
May 21, 2024
How to Raise Children
To parent effectively, it’s not enough to simply avoid the obvious dangers like abuse, neglect, or overindulgence. Indeed, The National Academy of Sciences delineates four major responsibilities for parents: maintaining child...