KUT » Two Guys on Your Head
213 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 171 ratingsDr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explain how our brain works.
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Episodes
Accountability
March 08, 2018 22:45 - 7 minutes - 9.07 MBWe might think that in order to keep order in our households, workplaces, or classrooms, that it’s important to hold people accountable for their negative behavior. However, what that can lead to is a playing field that allows for either nothing to happen or punishment. It is more important to focus on the behaviors we […]
Creation
March 02, 2018 18:11 - 7 minutes - 8.76 MBTearing something down is quick, easy, and very gratifying. What is more time-consuming and difficult is creating, building, and constructing. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, the reasons why we are more likely to criticize than create aren’t just about effort.
Theatre
February 22, 2018 23:34 - 7 minutes - 8.68 MBIt might seem odd that when we have so much entertainment at our fingertips every day that anyone still treks out to see live theatre. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, psychologically we may get more from a visit to our local […]
Dognition
February 16, 2018 03:28 - 8 minutes - 9.25 MBWe are as transfixed as you are by the Westminster Dog Show. So on this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about why we want to know what our lovely pups are thinking.
Uncut Special: Art Explains Research on How Dogs Read Human Facial Expressions
February 16, 2018 03:27 - 9 minutes - 5.38 MBThis is too good to leave on the cutting room floor. Dr. Art Markman explains new research on how dogs read human facial expressions and what it could tell us about how they think.
The Placebo Effect
February 08, 2018 22:26 - 7 minutes - 17.3 MBThere are a lot of factors that help to regulate our overall health and wellness. If we are content in our lives and relationships, we are more likely to be healthy. If we exercise and eat well, we reap the benefits in our mind and body. Also, as recent studies by Ted Kaptchuck and others show, […]
How vs. Why Knowledge
February 02, 2018 19:13 - 7 minutes - 8.84 MBBecause we know “how” things work sometimes we think we understand “why” these things work as they do, and that can be a problem. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the difference between “how” vs. “why” knowledge, and why it’s important to recognize […]
Presenter’s Paradox
January 26, 2018 21:08 - 7 minutes - 8.68 MBWhen thinking about how we present ourselves, say at a job interview, we might think that the more good stuff we tell our prospective employer the better. However, that’s not really the case. Our best assets can be overshadowed by the average of all we present. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, […]
Nostalgia
January 18, 2018 23:25 - 7 minutes - 9.08 MBLast month on All Things Considered NPR’s Kelly McEvers and Pop Culture Happy Hour‘s Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon talked about this era of TV and movies, many of which are catering to Gen X nostalgia. Weldon asserted that, “…the strongest nostalgia you feel is for the stuff that you chose. So in your teens...
Generosity
January 12, 2018 17:54 - 8 minutes - 9.24 MBWe give for many reasons, and most of the time it feels pretty good to help other people. But when you’re on the receiving end of generosity feelings can be mixed. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of giving and receiving.
Outcome Bias
January 05, 2018 17:34 - 7 minutes - 17.4 MBWe’re biased towards what we pay attention to, and we generally pay more attention to outcomes rather than process. Yet, if we really want to learn from our mistakes or our successes, we have to look at the process as well. On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr....
You Can’t Step Into The Same River Twice
December 22, 2017 22:57 - 7 minutes - 9.02 MBThe Greek philosopher Heraclitus is noted as having said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” But what does that mean for us today? On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk...
Mindfulness and Memory
December 15, 2017 15:54 - 7 minutes - 8.96 MBWhen it comes to mindfulness there is clear evidence that practicing it can be beneficial, but perhaps not for everyone all the time. It might even have some adverse effects on memory. In our final piece in our series on mindfulness, Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke talk about...
The Darker Side of Mindfulness
December 08, 2017 18:57 - 8 minutes - 9.63 MBThere are many benefits to mindfulness, but it might not be for everyone. On this week’s edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the more negative elements of being present.
Mindfulness
December 02, 2017 12:53 - 8 minutes - 9.84 MBWhen was the last time someone said to you, “just take a breath?” It’s a way to slow down, be in the moment, create space. It’s also a big part of a mindfulness trend. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, there are...
The Psychology of Thanksgiving (Rebroadcast)
November 16, 2017 16:48 - 7 minutes - 18.3 MBFor many of us, Thanksgiving means spending time with our families, carrying out traditions that we’ve practiced for years. While it can be very stressful, messy, and challenging to spend time with family members you don’t see very often, it can also be a beautiful time of recentering. Traditions serve a psychological function. By repeating...
Reading Vs. Listening (Rebroadcast)
November 16, 2017 16:14 - 8 minutes - 9.38 MBHave you ever told someone, “Hey, I read that book!” then continued with a guilty, “…well, I listened to the audio version.” It’s time to wash that guilt right out of your soul, because in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, talk about how our brains process...
Political Polarization
November 02, 2017 19:07 - 8 minutes - 9.66 MBYes, we are a people divided, but what does that really mean and how can we come together? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of political polarization.
Uncertainty and Tragedy
October 27, 2017 16:03 - 8 minutes - 9.81 MBOn a recent Views and Brews at The Cactus Cafe, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke talked about how to process tragedy through media in uncertain times. You can listen to the full conversation here, but we wanted to bring you a bit of it on this week’s edition of Two Guys on Your...
Math, Music, and The Brain
October 20, 2017 14:43 - 8 minutes - 9.4 MBThere are some things that just feel like they’re true. For example, the idea that people who are gifted musicians are also good at learning math, or vice versa. However, there isn’t any data that suggests that there are any links in the brain between these proclivities. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke...
Boredom
October 13, 2017 21:17 - 8 minutes - 9.25 MBIt seems that people today carry with them the constant mantra, “I’m so busy.” And as it can be tough to juggle work, kids, and life in general, a lot of that feeling of being overwhelmed may be our own fault. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markaman and Dr....
Football and Brain Injury
October 06, 2017 14:55 - 8 minutes - 9.71 MBIt can be said that ignorance is bliss, and when it came to football that was the case for our own Dr. Bob Duke. A lifelong football fan, Duke was thrown into a dilemma by a recent study done by researchers at Boston University that revealed that, “chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive, degenerative brain...
Life After Loss: How to Reshape, Move On and Let it Go
September 15, 2017 13:57 - 7 minutes - 10.4 MBA traumatic event in life is like a scratch on a record. Every time the record player, or your mind, runs over the scratch, it skips. This skipping record thought pattern is called rumination. Until we’re able to fill the scratch, it will keep skipping. So how do we fill the scratch, move on and...
The Value of Understanding
September 08, 2017 15:19 - 8 minutes - 9.48 MBAs gratifying as applied research is, to set out to answer a specific research question, it’s not always the best way to come up with new ideas, discover new things, and develop understanding. For these things you need basic research or just a curiosity about the world and how it works. As Dr. Art Markman...
Pronouns
September 01, 2017 18:26 - 8 minutes - 9.23 MBWhen it comes to language, the psychology around how we use words is as interesting and as consequential as the words themselves. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of closed classed words in English like pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and prepositions, and...
Painkillers (Rebroadcast)
August 24, 2017 21:39 - 8 minutes - 9.43 MBThe high reliance on painkillers by the medical community has become an increasingly controversial topic. For patients, that reliance can easily transform a treatment into an addiction. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the relationship between pain and the brain. And they touch...
Nouns
August 20, 2017 13:27 - 8 minutes - 9.72 MBPopular linguistic theories like, Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, give us the idea that language determines how and what we think. However, looking at the psychology behind how we use language points in another direction. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how nouns can teach us...
Unintended Consequences Of Policy
August 11, 2017 16:09 - 8 minutes - 9.86 MBOn average most policies are put in place to help people, protect people, or regulate dangerous behavior, so why don’t these policies work? In the most recent episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the unintended consequences of policy, and how psychology can help us discover...
Struggling vs. Suffering
August 04, 2017 14:30 - 8 minutes - 18.5 MBStruggle has a way of defining us. But while we often use struggles to teach lessons and build resilience, a struggle without a purpose doesn’t always yield positive results. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the difference between struggling and suffering, and why...
Humiliation
July 21, 2017 15:03 - 7 minutes - 9.04 MBHumiliation can make us feel small and insignificant, so why do humans humiliate one another? In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of humiliation and how you can make choices in your life to prevent you from feeling humiliated when the bullies...
Scientific Terminology
July 14, 2017 04:17 - 8 minutes - 9.91 MBOne of the reasons it’s so difficult to relate scientific findings to the general public is because the same words literally take on different meanings in those realms. In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke deconstruct two such terms–significance and theory– and talk about why knowing...
Rewarding In The Workplace
July 06, 2017 20:06 - 8 minutes - 9.72 MBIn our last episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talked about how to influence behavior using rewards first, then examples, and finally verbal direction. However, things aren’t that simple when it comes to building teams and motivating groups, especially in the workplace. In this follow-up edition, they...
How To Influence Behavior
June 30, 2017 03:22 - 8 minutes - 9.55 MBWhen thinking about what drives human behavior there is what we say, what we do, and then what we reward. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, people tend to respond to these things in reverse order.
Embodied Empathy
June 24, 2017 18:48 - 8 minutes - 9.58 MBYou’ve heard the saying, “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” But does that literally mean you have to put yourself in someone’s position in order to understand where they are coming from? According to a study published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, it just might. In this edition of Two Guys...
Sequels
June 15, 2017 23:00 - 8 minutes - 9.47 MBWe may think that we prefer something brand-new to something we’ve seen before, but the truth is we are more likely to enjoy things we are familiar with. In this edition of Two Guys On Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology behind why we like sequels.
Online Sharing
June 08, 2017 20:16 - 8 minutes - 9.64 MBThere are many places to air your grievances online, and you might think that the rant itself makes you feel better, and you would be half right. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, sharing your problems and interacting with problem solving strategies...
Writer’s Block (Rebroadcast)
June 05, 2017 18:50 - 8 minutes - 9.23 MBWriter’s block! That phrase might induce panic and a recollection of a familiar experience. It’s a very common phenomenon. So what is it? When in the beginning stages of undertaking a new writing project, a writer might find themselves blocked – stuck in front of a blank page or screen with no thoughts coming to...
Saying No
May 25, 2017 20:20 - 7 minutes - 9.13 MBWe’ve done shows on the importance of being open to new opportunities; in short saying yes. And while saying yes is very important, we might be too prone toward saying yes to things when we should be saying no. Why is hard to say no? Why don’t we take into account the opportunity cost when...
Metrics
May 18, 2017 19:16 - 8 minutes - 9.81 MBData is great, but it can’t tell you everything you need to know. So why do we love it so much? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the upsides and the downsides of metrics.
Live Views & Brews: Randomness (or “What If Everything Doesn’t Happen For A Reason?”)
May 18, 2017 17:56 - 1 hour - 87.7 MBJoin KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke as they talk about how we make sense of randomness in our lives, why we have a hard time processing statistics, and why our brains like to connect the dots.
Post-Project Depression
May 11, 2017 21:20 - 8 minutes - 9.45 MBMany soon-to-be graduates might be asking themselves, “what do I do now?” On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how to deal with the lows that come after you complete a major goal.
Suppressing Anger
May 04, 2017 19:39 - 8 minutes - 9.19 MBThere are a lot of metaphors that give us a picture of what anger is and how it affects our health. We may “bottle things up,” which causes us to get “hot” and need to “blow off steam.” However accurate they may feel to us at the time, they mask healthy ways to deal with...
Hate
April 28, 2017 14:41 - 8 minutes - 9.25 MBWhat is the point of hate? It feels bad, it causes all kinds of problems, and it destroys relationships. So why did hate persist as we evolved? In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of hate.
Being Late
April 21, 2017 16:42 - 8 minutes - 9.91 MBHave you ever wondered why some people are always punctual, even early, and other are perpetually late? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about some of the psychology behind synchronizing our cultural and personal “clocks”, and how to put yourself in a less anxious...
Picture Taking
April 13, 2017 22:07 - 8 minutes - 9.25 MBYou might think that cell phones make everything worse. We can’t remember phone numbers anymore, we are addicted to checking texts and emails, and we end up taking thousands of crappy pictures each month. What good can ever come of this? As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this episode of Two...
Live Views & Brews Taping: Are We Conscious Automata?
April 07, 2017 02:44 - 57 minutes - 79.6 MBTeaming up with the Elisabet Ney Museum, KUT & Views & Brew‘s Rebecca McInroy and Dr. Art Markman & Dr. Bob Duke of Two Guys On Your Head consider the eternal question posed by Ney’s husband in 1890 “Are We Conscious Automata?” What can psychology teach us about notions of determinism vs. free will? Is there such...
Breathing
April 06, 2017 19:23 - 7 minutes - 9.14 MBWhen we think of all the things we’re sold to reduce stress in our lives, the one that will actually work is free-breathing. So why don’t we utilize our ability to change our physiology through slowing down and taking deep breaths more often? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman...
Starstruck
March 31, 2017 00:18 - 8 minutes - 9.2 MBHave you ever caught sight of a celebrity or someone you consider to be a “star” and, even though you are a completely intelligent, interesting, and charismatic person, you turn to mush when you say hello to them? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk...
V&B – Live Taping on Uncertainty & Disruption
March 28, 2017 18:20 - 1 hour - 87.4 MBDr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy to talk about the psychology of uncertainty and how disruption can be a good thing.
Brain Games (Rebroadcast)
March 23, 2017 19:30 - 7 minutes - 8.67 MBYou can go to the gym and work out your quads, or your biceps, or your balance and isolate those muscle groups to focus improvement of those areas of function with work. So it’s not too far of a stretch to assume if we exercise specific areas of our brains might we see improvement in...