This is your brain on pleasure (even the guilty kind)

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

It’s likely you have at least one “guilty pleasure.” Maybe it’s romance novels. Or reality TV… Playing video games… or getting swept into obscure corners of TikTok. Neuroscientists say the pleasure response helps us survive as a species. So why do we feel embarrassed by some of the things we love the most? Even if you don't have these negative emotions, experiencing – and studying – pleasure is not as straightforward as it might seem. For a long time, neuroscientists thought the concept of "pleasure" referred to a singular system in the brain. But as research into the subject grew, scientists realized that pleasure is really a cycle of "wanting" and "liking" – each with separate neural mechanisms. Today on the show, producer Rachel Carlson explores this cycle with researchers, who weigh in on the science of pleasure. Even the kind that makes us feel guilty.

Read more of Rachel’s story on guilty pleasures.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.7	Hey, shortwavers.
0:06.6	Emily Kwong here with producer Rachel Carlson.
0:09.7	What's up, Rachel?
0:10.5	Hey, Emily.
0:11.4	Do you remember the field trip we went on to this bookstore?
0:14.3	Yes.
0:14.5	Yes.
0:14.5	We went to ripped bodice.
0:16.4	For anyone who doesn't know, it's this store that's basically devoted entirely to romance novels.
0:21.7	But this isn't like your mom's Fabio bookstore. It's like romance novels across all different
0:26.6	kinds of genre and storytelling. It's really cool. Recently, I kind of entered that world. Like,
0:32.9	I got sucked into this whirlpool that's called Book Talk, which if you don't know, is basically
0:39.2	lots of TikTokers reviewing books, and a lot of the time they're kind of spicy. Like what? What have
0:44.9	you been reading? So I started reading these romance fantasy books about dragons, and they were so
0:50.9	fun, Emily. Like, so fun. But I felt really embarrassed about how much joy they were bringing me.
0:57.7	It's kind of like I didn't even want to be enjoying them.
1:00.4	Oh, that's kind of sad.
1:02.0	It was kind of sad.
1:03.1	And I was really frustrated with myself, A, for liking the books in the first place,
1:06.9	but then B, for being frustrated that I like them, like not allowing myself to just
1:12.0	enjoy them. Yeah, this is like a guilty pleasure for you. And pretty much immediately, I was like,
	...

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