How Our Brains Learn

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever fallen asleep in school or during a work meeting? Maybe you felt your eyes glaze over as your boss or a teacher droned on and on about a topic that had no relevance to you. What's missing from these classrooms and conference rooms is engagement: A state of being absorbed, alert, and eager to learn. This week, psychologist and neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang explores why so many of us feel apathetic at school and at work, and how to cultivate the magic of engagement.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:03.5	There's a scene in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off that has become iconic.
0:09.4	It's a spot-on portrayal of what it feels like to be disengaged and disaffected.
0:16.2	In the film, actor Ben Stein plays an economics teacher who is not about to win any teaching awards.
0:23.4	He speaks in a deathly monotone.
0:25.5	In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in an effort to alleviate the effects of the...
0:33.4	Anyone? Anyone?
0:35.2	The Great Depression passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The Great Depression passed the...
0:38.8	Anyone? Anyone?
0:41.2	A tariff bill?
0:42.1	The students in the classroom are suffering from a boredom that verges on the catatonic.
0:47.4	On and on the teacher goes, asking for responses, but barely expecting any.
0:52.9	And indeed, no one ventures a word.
0:56.0	Today we have a similar debate over this.
0:58.0	Anyone know what this is, class?
1:00.0	Anyone?
1:02.0	Anyone? Anyone?
1:04.0	Anyone seen this before?
1:05.0	The laugher curve.
1:06.0	Anyone know what this says?
1:08.0	There is no spark of interest or curiosity.
1:11.6	The movie Goa can hardly blame Ferris for skipping out on school to spend a day of fun with his friends.
	...

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