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Think from KERA

Best of Think '25: Eureka! How your brain figures it out

Think from KERA

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.7910 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“By Jove, I think I’ve got it!” A-ha moments can feel electrifying, but where do these bursts of insight come from? John Kounios is professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and director of the Creativity Research Lab at Drexel University. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what scientists understand about how the brain solves problems – and how we might tap into this phenomenon more often. His article “The Brain Science of Elusive ‘Aha! Moments’” was published in Scientific American.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Have you heard about OMG? Yes. This is a website the New York Times wirecutter featured as one of their most popular gifts. And for good reason, it presents new findings from the largest ever research study into women's pleasure and intimacy. In partnership with researchers at Yale and at Indiana University, they asked tens of thousands of women what they

0:21.6

wished they and their partners had discovered sooner. They found the patterns in those

0:26.2

discoveries and all that wisdom and intimacy is organized as hundreds of short videos,

0:31.6

animations, and how-toes. When you see OMG, yes, you might understand why wirecutter recommended it.

0:38.2

It is warm, honest, and has regular women talking about real experiences.

0:42.7

It's truly eye-opening.

0:44.8

See for yourself at omgyes.com.

0:47.3

That's OMGS.com. You know how raw cauliflower sometimes gets those little black spots on the surface?

1:03.7

It's oxidation, not mold, so there's no danger in eating it that way, but it looks less than

1:08.4

appetizing, and using a knife to cut away the exterior makes the cauliflower look weird.

1:12.6

One day I was out for a walk just letting my mind wander, and for some reason it occurred to me that I could maybe

1:17.6

shave those spots off with a microplane grater meant for spices.

1:21.6

I was interested to get home and give it a try and straight up thrilled about how well my idea worked.

1:28.8

And ever since I've wondered why creative insights seem to happen out of nowhere.

1:33.8

From KERA in Dallas, this is Think.

1:36.5

I'm Chris Boyd.

1:38.0

We've all had those aha moments.

1:40.2

Maybe yours have been more substantial than my life hack, but I'll take what I can get.

1:50.6

We can't really predict them in advance, but are there things we can do to prime our brains for inspired ideas?

1:53.2

John Cunoz has done a lot of work on this.

2:00.1

He is professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Creativity Research Lab at Drexel University.

2:02.5

Together with Yvette Cunios, he published an article about this in Scientific American titled The Brain Science of Elusive AHA moments.

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