How does your brain perceive the world?

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Science, Technology

4.3 • 21.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you see images in your mind? Do you have an inner monologue? Do you have memories you swear are real? Our minds have tremendous variation. This hour, insights on how our brains construct reality. Guests include the editorial director of TED-Ed animations Alex Rosenthal, psychologist John Wixted and love coach Francesca Hogi.

This episode of TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone, James Delahoussaye and Matthew Cloutier. It was edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Manoush Zomorodi.

Our production staff at NPR also includes Harsha Nahata, Rachel Faulkner White, Fiona Geiran and Phoebe Lett. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Our audio engineers were Damian Herring and Zo van Ginhhoven.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the TED Radio Hour.
0:04.3	Each week, groundbreaking TED Talks.
0:06.8	Our job now is to dream big.
0:08.1	Delivered at TED conferences.
0:09.9	To bring about the future we want to see.
0:11.9	Around the world.
0:12.9	To understand who we are.
0:14.8	From those talks, we bring you speakers and ideas that will surprise you.
0:20.0	You just don't know what you're going to find.
0:21.9	Challenge you.
0:22.7	We truly have to ask ourselves, like, why is it noteworthy?
0:25.1	And even change you.
0:26.3	I literally feel like I'm a different person.
0:28.4	Yes.
0:29.3	Do you feel that way?
0:31.1	Ideas worth spreading.
0:33.4	From Ted and NPR.
0:39.0	I'm Anoush Zamorodi.
0:43.5	Today on the show, an exploration of the mind,
0:47.4	and how we each perceive the world a little differently.
0:50.3	Our minds are black boxes to each other.
0:53.0	I think if we actually switched consciousnesses,
	...

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