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Hidden Brain
The easiest way in. Shankar Vedantam, who spent years as a social science correspondent at NPR, builds each episode around a researcher and a story that makes their work concrete, which is why it works so well for listeners new to the subject.
The production is polished and the pacing suits a walk or a commute. It started at NPR in 2015 and is now made by Vedantam's independent company, Hidden Brain Media. The trade-off is that its warmth sometimes rounds a single study up into a life lesson, so treat the closing takeaways as starting points and the guest's own caveats as the part worth remembering.
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All in the Mind (BBC radio)
BBC Radio 4's program on how we think, feel and behave, presented by Claudia Hammond, who asks of every claim what the evidence actually says. Episodes usually run under half an hour and often take a question people genuinely face, such as why some depression resists treatment or whether a keto diet could help treat bipolar depression, then weigh what the studies can and cannot show.
It is the most compact show here and the one most at ease saying the research is mixed. New episodes arrive weekly in runs with breaks between them, so the feed can go quiet for a few weeks.
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All in the Mind (ABC)
Not to be confused with the BBC show of the same name: this is ABC Radio National's weekly half-hour from Australia, presented by Sana Qadar. Each episode takes a question from ordinary life, such as why some people are champion procrastinators or whether choosing the slower, harder way of doing things adds value, and sets researchers' findings beside personal stories.
It leans more toward practical takeaways than anything else here, and one recent episode tested which self-help advice actually holds up, so listen for where the guests say the evidence is solid and where it is thin. For a steady weekly habit with a little more warmth than the BBC version, it is the natural companion.
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Speaking of Psychology
The American Psychological Association's own interview show, hosted by Kim Mills. Each episode puts one or two working researchers in front of a single question, such as why nostalgia can be good for you or how people respond to extreme weather risks, and lets them explain the findings in their own words.
The format is plain and dependable: no dramatized storytelling, no host monologues, just a clear conversation with someone who did the work. Being the profession's own podcast, it is better at explaining what the research says than at challenging it, which makes it a good complement to the more argumentative shows on this list.
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Two Psychologists Four Beers
The show to hear how psychologists talk when the microphone feels like the pub. Yoel Inbar, Michael Inzlicht and Alexa Tullett are research psychologists, and the conversation turns readily to how good the evidence is: recent guests have discussed using AI tools to pull test statistics and p-values out of papers, the pitfalls of running studies across many countries, and why psychologists seem no better than laypeople at predicting behavior.
Episodes come out roughly monthly and often run past an hour, with plenty of digressions. That looseness is the appeal for anyone who wants the field's own arguments rather than tidy conclusions, and the reason a newcomer may prefer to start elsewhere.
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Very Bad Wizards
A philosopher, Tamler Sommers, and a psychologist, David Pizarro, who have been arguing about morality, minds and culture for well over 300 episodes. The psychology is at its best when they turn their skepticism on the field's famous results, as in a recent episode with Paul Bloom ranking classic psychology experiments, the Milgram studies and Zimbardo included.
Be ready for range: plenty of episodes are about films, novels or Plato rather than lab work, and the humor is often crude. For listeners who like their behavioral science argued over rather than summarized, nothing else here is as much fun.
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Many Minds
The widest lens on this list. Kensy Cooperrider talks with researchers about how humans, animals and machines think, sense and learn, so an episode on why the brain is not a computer can be followed by one on tool use among animals or on cognitive offloading, the habit of handing our thinking to fingers, calendars and devices.
Each episode is a long, careful interview in which guests are given room to explain their methods and where the open questions lie. New episodes arrive every two weeks. It suits listeners who want psychology placed alongside anthropology, linguistics and animal cognition rather than kept in its own box.
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You Are Not So Smart
David McRaney's long-running show about reasoning, bias and self-deception, which takes the time to get a concept right before moving on. A good recent example is a whole episode on pluralistic ignorance, the trap where most people privately reject a norm while wrongly assuming everyone else accepts it.
Most episodes center on an interview with a researcher, and the guest list ranges beyond psychology into political science and astronomy, so check the topic before pressing play. McRaney's interest in how minds change runs through the archive, which makes it a strong pick for anyone curious about persuasion and belief rather than individual quirks.
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Opinion Science
A social psychologist, Andy Luttrell, interviewing fellow researchers about where opinions come from and how they change. It is closer to sitting in on a good seminar than to listening to a radio show: guests explain specific studies, such as how people hedge when expressing uncertainty or why framing a view as something you support rather than oppose changes how it behaves.
Episodes are roughly monthly, with occasional bonus conversations. The narrow focus on persuasion, communication and public opinion is its strength, giving depth on one corner of social psychology that broader shows only touch.
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Choiceology with Katy Milkman
Behavioral economics told through real decisions with high stakes. Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist at Wharton, opens each episode with a story and then brings in a researcher to explain the bias it illustrates, so a concept such as sunk costs or the pull of rankings arrives with a memorable case attached.
It is made by Charles Schwab, and the framing leans toward helping you choose better, so some episodes end closer to advice than the academic shows on this list. The research guests keep it grounded, and the tight, scripted format makes it one of the easiest shows here to dip into.
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Decoding the Gurus
The antidote to overselling. Christopher Kavanagh, an anthropologist, and Matthew Browne, a psychologist, take apart the claims and rhetoric of popular public intellectuals and online gurus, many of whom borrow the language of psychology to sound authoritative.
It is less about new research than about how to spot misused research, and recent episodes have dissected conspiratorial thinking and confident pronouncements on AI. Episodes are long and some extra material is reserved for paying supporters, but the free main episodes are enough to sharpen your ear for when a confident claim outruns the evidence.
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