Do you ever feel like you and a friend are speaking past each other?

Or that you're not sure how to break out of a rut?

I'm Shankar Vedantam, host of the podcast Hidden Brain.

We explore questions that keep you up at night

and provide answers that are grounded in rigorous science.

Join us each week to explore your Hidden Brain.

Hey, smarty pants.

Guess where I am?

It's a spring day.

I'm sitting outside surrounded by lots of people wearing haps.

Hot dogs, get your hot dogs here.

Ooh, I'll take a hot dog.

Stay right to.

Did you guess it?

That's right, smarty pants.

I'm at the ballpark watching baseball.

I gotta say, this is definitely one of my favorite places to visit

on a warm spring or summer day.

Did you know there's 30 different ball parks in the major leagues

more than 200 minor league ball clubs and countless independent college

or little league games played around the world?

And while baseball is often called America's Pass Time,

...