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.

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Smarty pants. Take a look down at your feet.

That's right, your feet. Where are you wearing?

Shoes, socks, fuzzy cat slippers.

Some of you might be barefoot, but I bet I can guess what a lot of you are wearing.

Is it sneakers?

And even if you're not wearing sneakers now, chances are you wore some recently.

And whether they're high tops, low tops, sneakers designed for basketball, skateboarding, climbing, hiking, jogging,

or just your limited edition collectible Yeezies,

there's no denying sneakers are the most popular shoes in the world today.

But guess what? That wasn't always the case.

So where did sneakers come from? How did they get so popular?

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