University College London
Cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot is director of the Affective Brain Lab and associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. She is the author of The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain and The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about Our Power to Change Others.
How to change minds… and have your mind changed The human brain has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to the point where we could put a man on the Moon and explore the universe. A new book raises the question, as one reviewer put it, "If humans are so smart, why are we so dumb?" A new book that addresses that question is The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about Our Power to Change Others . Warren Olney speaks with the author, Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist who founded the Affective Brain Lab at University College London, about the science of why emotion trumps reason.
Why Don't Facts Matter? In this divided nation, more and more people respond only to new information that reinforces their established opinions. When they're presented with facts that contradict what they believe, their opinions get stronger — even when the contradictory evidence is irrefutable. Has the country become the Emotional States of America, or is there something about the way the human brain is wired? Is it the consequence of our culture, our politics or the way our brains are structured? We talk to a neuroscientist, a foreign-policy expert, and an obstetrician who performs abortions in Alabama in the name of science… and Christianity.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
President Trump: US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Trump says he was elected to serve Pittsburgh, not Paris.
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.