meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Inquiring Minds

20 Maria Konnikova - How to Make Your Brain Work Better

Inquiring Minds

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4848 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2014

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You're a busy person. Keeping up with your job, plus your life, is the very definition of multitasking. It doesn't help that when working, you're distracted not only by your mobile devices, but also by your computer. You average 10 tabs open in your browser at any one time, which you compulsively click amongst. One's your email, which never stops flowing in. At the end of the day, you sleep less than you know you probably should, but as you tell yourself, there's just never enough time.If this is how you live, then Maria Konnikova has a simple message for you: Pause, step back, and recognize the actual costs of your habits. A psychology Ph.D. and popular writer for The New Yorker, Konnikova circles back, again and again, to a common theme: How we thwart our own happiness, and even sometimes harm our brains, in our quest for a simply unattainable level of productivity. "The way that we've evolved, the way our minds work, the way we work at our most optimal selves, is really not the way we have to operate today," Konnikova explains on this week's episode. "I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, but I hope that if there are enough voices out there, someone will finally hear that, 'Hey, this attempt at hyper productivity is making us much less productive.'"This episode also features a report by Climate Desk's Tim McDonnell on how climate change is threatening winter sports, and a special guest appearance by science communicator Dr. Kiki Sanford, who helps us break down what happened in the widely watched Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham creationism debate earlier this week.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's Friday, February 7th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.

0:05.8

I'm Chris Mooney.

0:06.6

And I'm Indravis Gontas.

0:08.1

Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

0:13.8

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

0:17.6

You can find us online at climatedest.org, and you can follow us on Twitter

0:21.8

at Inquiring Show and on Facebook at slash Inquiring Minds podcast. So this week, we have a lot of

0:34.5

great content on the show. We have coverage of the scientific side of the

0:39.4

Olympics in Sochi. We have Bill Nye's big evolution debate to talk about, and we have a great

0:45.9

science communicator, Dr. Kiki Stanford, who's going to be coming on to discuss all of that

0:50.4

with us. Plus, we have my interview with New Yorker psychology writer Maria Konnikova,

0:56.9

who's the author of the book, How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. And she is just sort of a

1:01.3

pro at explaining to us how to make our brains work just a little bit better when life or

1:07.6

the internet or distractions or multitasking are slowing them down or knocking

1:12.2

them off course. And here's a clip from that interview. So multitasking, not getting enough

1:18.0

sleep, these all have to do with a mindset of constant work and constant productivity and thinking

1:24.4

that we always need to be on, that you need to respond to your email

1:29.4

within 10 seconds of getting it.

1:31.3

Otherwise, people start worrying and you get a follow-up email.

1:34.0

Hey, did you get my email?

1:35.6

And it's this mindset that this is the way we need to operate.

1:40.4

But it's really counterproductive.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Inquiring Minds, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Inquiring Minds and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.