What Does Curiosity Really Do To Our Brains?
Part-Time Genius
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every day this week, we’re exploring a different aspect of curiosity—you know, the thing that makes you listen to this show. We’re starting off by discovering what happens in our brains when we experience curiosity, why some things make us curious and others don’t, how a lack of novelty can lead to pretty strange behavior, and how all of this ties in to our willingness to buy oat milk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:05.1 | Michael Lewis here. |
| 0:06.8 | My bestselling book, The Big Short, tells the story of the buildup and burst of the U.S. |
| 0:12.1 | housing market back in 2008. |
| 0:14.8 | A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. |
| 0:18.7 | Now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. |
| 0:24.1 | The Big Short Story, what it means to bet against the market, |
| 0:27.5 | and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, |
| 0:30.6 | is as relevant today as it's ever been. |
| 0:33.2 | Get the Big Short now at Pushkin.fm. |
| 0:35.5 | slash audiobooks, or wherever audiobooks are sold. |
| 1:00.1 | You're listening to Part-Time Genius, the production of kaleidoscope and IHeartRadio. |
| 1:04.8 | Guess what will? |
| 1:05.5 | What's that, Mango? |
| 1:11.7 | If you've ever made a decision then wondered what might have happened if you'd made a different decision. You've experienced something called counterfactual curiosity. Is that something that's familiar to you? |
| 1:16.9 | Yeah, that means nothing to me. I mean, when I make up my mind, that is it. There is no second |
| 1:21.4 | guessing, mango. Yeah, well, you are very unusual. And counterfactual curiosity is also unusual because unlike other types of curiosity, |
| 1:30.6 | pursuing that line of thinking never leads to a reward. |
| 1:33.9 | Knowing what could have happened has zero real world benefit unless you own a time machine. |
| 1:39.1 | And often it has negative impact because it makes you feel regret. |
| 1:44.3 | So you think that if there's something with no reward and a high risk of negativity, |
| 1:48.4 | you'd want to avoid it. |
... |
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