Murder Mystery

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why are so many of us drawn to horror, gore, and true crime? Why do we crane our necks to see the scene of a crash on the highway? Psychologist Coltan Scrivner says that our natural morbid curiosity serves a purpose. We talk with Coltan about our fascination with tales of murder and mayhem, and what this tendency reveals about our minds.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:05.4	We often think of the media we consume as food for the mind.
0:10.0	The right books, the uplifting films, the inspiring podcasts,
0:14.6	we believe that these will make us wiser, kinder, better people.
0:21.4	The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is supposed to have said,
0:25.6	watch your thoughts, they become your words,
0:28.2	watch your words, they become your actions,
0:31.3	watch your actions, they become your habits,
0:34.3	watch your habits, they become your character,
0:37.4	watch your character, it becomes your
0:40.3	destiny.
0:41.3	By this logic, if we want to be good, kind, and ethical people, we should watch movies
0:50.3	about good people, read books about kindness, and consume stories about high-minded individuals
0:55.5	who always do the right thing.
0:59.5	Glance at any list of bestsellers or movies that crush at the box office, and you don't
1:05.3	see many high-minded plots and altruistic characters.
1:09.2	Now, you find people who lie and cheat,
1:12.1	family members who betray one another,
1:14.8	friends who are not good friends.
1:17.4	If we are what we consume,
1:19.5	surely this does not bode well for us.
1:25.4	Nowhere is this tension more acute
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

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

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