Why do we get embarrassed?
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken untangle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, the Doctors turn their attention to the curious emotion of embarrassment - why do we feel embarrassed? They want to know how it links to blushing, how it differs from shame or guilt, and whether it might actually serve a useful, protective and even healthy role in our lives.
To get some answers, they speak with Dr Tiffany Watt Smith, a writer and cultural historian interested in the histories of emotion and medicine.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Dr Tiffany Watt Smith Producers: Maia Miller-Lewis and Jo Rowntree Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Kirsten Lass Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Ruth Rainey
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.6 | Police, drop your weapon! |
| 0:09.9 | In 2025, we were here for the investigators, gangster. |
| 0:14.1 | They were stealing money from wealthy institutions. |
| 0:17.5 | Debt was fair game. |
| 0:18.9 | Murder, they wrote. |
| 0:19.9 | He was a preacher, a good guy. |
| 0:21.4 | But now he's dead. |
| 0:23.1 | It has all the marks of a sort of like a proper horror film. |
| 0:26.3 | And fame under fire. |
| 0:27.8 | He has no longer afforded the right of a regular citizen. |
| 0:31.4 | He is guilty until proven innocent. |
| 0:33.3 | Get the best of 2025 with podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.4 | Chris, it's lovely to see you. What have you got for me? |
| 0:41.8 | We've had a kind of ecosystem collapse in the garden. You'll remember that I killed the cat. |
| 0:48.4 | Winston, your cat. I took the cat to the vet. Without the cat, I thought what I'll do is I'll buy |
| 0:54.0 | some bird feeders because you always share pictures of your bird feed vet. Without the cat, I thought what I'll do is I'll buy some bird feeders |
| 0:55.6 | because you always share pictures of your bird feeders. So I thought, well, now we don't have a cat. |
| 0:59.5 | I don't feel bad about luring birds into the garden. It did attract some small birds, |
| 1:03.7 | but the pigeons quite quickly worked out that if they just shook it very hard, the seeds would go on the ground. |
| 1:12.4 | Intelligent animals. |
| 1:13.6 | And then you remember I've mentioned this rat. |
... |
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