Stanford Psychology Podcast

In this week’s episode, Julie and Adani chat with Tamar Schapiro, professor of philosophy at MIT! Tamar is interested in a wide range of things, from what it means to make good decisions in everyday life to ethical theory and the history of ethics (especially Kant and the British Moralists). We discussed Tamar’s work on why we treat children differently from adults, dig into whether and how reactivity might be the root of all evil, and close with some practical life advice based on Tamar’s own journey through philosophy and life! Tamar’s faculty webpage: https://philosophy.mit.edu/schapiro Tamar’s recent book, Feeling Like It: a Theory of Inclination and Will: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862932.001.0001 Tamar’s paper, Childhood and Personhood : https://access.heinonline.com/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/arz45&i=593 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on The Philosophy of Childhood : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/childhood/ Julie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hengj/ Adani: https://www.adaniabutto.com Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

This week, Katia Kriakova has a conversation with William Damon, a professor at Stanford University. He is one of the world's leading researchers on human development across the lifespan and has pioneered the scientific study of purpose in life. In this conversation, we explore how we can make our own lives more purposeful and expand purpose beyond ourselves. William Damon’s book on purpose: The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life William Damon’s paper: The Psychology of Purpose: A Comprehensive Approach William Damon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdamon/ Katia Kriakova’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/ Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanford-psychology-podcast/

This week, Katia has a conversation with Bill Burnett, an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He is the co-founder of Stanford's Life Design Lab and also the co-author of Designing Your Life and How to Live a Meaningful Life . In this conversation, Bill shares how we can live in alignment with our values and compass, how prototyping can help us embrace uncertainty, and how to design a life that is more meaningful to us. Designing Your Life Website: https://designingyour.life/ Bill Burnett’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-burnett-4225401/ Bill Burnett’s Books: Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day Katia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiakriakova/ Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Adani chats with Nomisha Kurian, Assistant Professor in Education Studies at the University of Warwick, Associate Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research in Digital Education. Nomisha has been at the forefront of research on children’s safety and well-being, elucidating what it means for up-and-coming AI technologies to support children’s development and align with their best interests. She has also advised the UK Government Open Innovation Team, spearheaded policy briefs, and previously researched children’s rights law at Yale University. We discuss how a recently-viral NYT article relates to Nomisha’s frameworks for developmentally aligned AI, why we should have “critical hope” for the future, and learn more about the exciting things she’ll be releasing later this year! NYT feature – “What Parents in China See in A.I. Toys”: https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000010595407/china-ai-toy-chatbot.html Nomisha’s framework on developmentally aligned AI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44436-025-00009-z Nomisha’s further work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wT89nlAAAAAJ Nomisha’s children’s book: https://nosycrow.com/book/university-of-cambridge-think-big-artificial-intelligence/ Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com Adani’s Bluesky @adani Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Elizabeth chats with Dr. Andrew Lampinen as a part of our Alumni in Industry series. Andrew is currently a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic. Prior to joining Anthropic, he worked as a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, and before that he earned his PhD here at Stanford and researched how humans are able to learn new things rapidly. His work bridges cognitive science and artificial intelligence, often with a focus on how the complex behaviors and representations of models, agents, or humans emerge from their learning experiences or data. In this episode, Dr. Lampinen shares his experiences in academia and industry and offers an insightful perspective on how these two research landscapes may be similar and different. Andrew's website: https://lampinen.github.io/ Elizabeth’s: website: imelizabeth.github.io Elizabeth’s BlueSky: @imelizabeth.bsky.social Podcast BlueSky @StanfordPsyPod.bsky.social Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Adani chats with Cynthia Osborne, Professor at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center. Prof. Osborne’s work focuses on translating developmental science into effective, evidence-based policies for families and young children in the U.S. We discuss what the field of Early Childhood Policy entails, the ongoing work that Prof. Osborne and the Impact Center conduct, and why the first three years of childhood are so critical. Prof. Osborne also tells us about her path into her current work, how she built the Impact Center’s wonderful team, and what advice she would pass on to students seeking to bridge research and policy! Cynthia Osborne’s page: https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/cynthia-osborne/ Cynthia Osborne’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tRc8EmMAAAAJ Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center: https://pn3policy.org/ Policy Impact Calculator: https://pn3policy.org/policy-impact-calculator/ Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap: https://pn3policy.org/pn-3-state-policy-roadmap-2025/ Adani’s website: https://stanford.edu/~aabutto/ Adani’s Bluesky @adani Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

This week, Enna chats with Dr. Julia Nolte, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at Tilburg University. Julia’s research examines how information management, risk perception, and decision-making change across adulthood. She is particularly interested in what keeps people, especially older adults, from making well-informed and high-quality decisions, and how we can better support people in making choices that align with their goals and values. In our conversation, Julia discusses how her early interest in theater sparked her interest in psychology, how she came to study aging and decision-making, and what her work can teach us about information avoidance, decision-making, and the very human challenge of choosing between imperfect options. Julia’s Website: https://www.julianolte.org/ Julia’s X: @Dr_Julia_Nolte Julia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-nolte-8aa02b158/ Julia’s Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361073X.2025.2473849 Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/ Enna’s X: @EnnaYuxuanChen Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this re-air (but more timely than ever!) episode from 2021, Anjie chats with Alison Gopnik, Professor at the Department of Psychology and Affiliate Professor at Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Alison is not only a great cognitive scientist and philosopher who has made many groundbreaking contributions to the field, but also a great science communicator. Alison authored multiple bestselling books, including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, The Gardener, and the Carpenter. She also writes widely about cognitive science and psychology for multiple national outlets including the NYT, the Atlantic, and so on. In this episode, we discussed one of her recent review pieces on the role of childhood in solving the explore-exploit dilemma, a challenge to contemporary artificial intelligence. Alison's lab website: https://www.gopniklab.berkeley.edu/ Alison's paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0502 Alison's Twitter: @AlisonGopnik Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Adani chats with Elizabeth Bonawitz, Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth’s work focuses on basic theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. She uses computational, behavioral, and neural methods to study a broad variety of things within cognitive development, from children’s curiosity and belief revision to their exploration and play. We discuss Elizabeth’s view of cognitive development research and, most importantly, the secret formula behind her great academic paper titles and funny talks. Elizabeth also tells us about her path into science and what she’s most excited for next! Elizabeth’s lab page: https://ccdlab.hsites.harvard.edu/people/elizabeth-bonawitz Elizabeth’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MA7j1gkAAAAJ Susan Carey’s paper, ‘Science Education as Conceptual Change’: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00046-5 Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com Adani’s Bluesky @adani Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Nick Epley is the John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He studies social cognition—how thinking people think about other thinking people—to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. Nick is one of the “World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors” by Poets and Quants. He just published his second book for a popular audience called "A Little More Social." In this episode, Eric and Nick talk about "undersociality," the key idea in his latest book. Are we being less social than is good for us? How can we learn to connect, especially when it feels effortful? Can we be too social as well? How can we learn more about ourselves when we connect with others? What are the methodological limitations of Nick's work? Book: https://sites.prh.com/a-little-more-social Nick's Website: https://www.nicholasepley.com/ Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this reair episode from 2023, Eric chats with Amit Goldenberg, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Amit studies emotions in social interactions, for example in political contexts and on social media. He was a journalist and author before becoming an academic. In this episode, Eric and Amit talk about how emotions operate in groups. Do crowds easily go “mad”? What emotions spread faster in groups? Why are we drawn to people more politically extreme than us? How is social media shaping our emotions and political behavior? Finally, Amit shares his journey from being a journalist to being a psychologist at a business school. JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up to date with the pod and become part of the ever-growing community :) https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Amit's paper on collective emotions Amit's paper on why we are attracted to morally extreme individuals Amit's website Eric's website Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this reair episode, Eric chats with Juliana Schroeder, Associate Professor in the Management of Organizations at Berkeley Haas. She studies how people think about the minds of other people, and how they are often wrong trying to understand what others are up to. Her work has been discussed in outlets ranging from Vice to The Atlantic and Forbes. Eric and Juliana review her exciting recent work on “undersociality.” Talking to other people is often meaningful, not just for extraverts, and yet we hesitate to talk to others, making overly pessimistic predictions about how awkward and unpleasant such interactions would be. This leads us to “mistakenly seek solitude.” Juliana discusses what we can do to motivate ourselves to talk to others more, why that is so beneficial, and why she herself struggles to do it. Links: Juliana's review paper on undersociality: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661322000432?casa_token=KI1Vjeg9NKUAAAAA:aTAEDP2eF1ay3I0rGI74FHNW21s83r_KvXCQMvr5auCxaVnhEah82tbASwjzwfc-68D54q8Kc2E Juliana's key empirical paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/a0037323 Juliana's Twitter Eric's website Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Adani chats with Dr. Julia Chatain, Senior Scientist at the Singapore-ETH Centre of ETH Zürich. Julia is a computer scientist and learning scientist responsible for building a new research program, “Future Embodied Learning Technologies” (FELT), focusing on exploring AI-powered embodied learning interventions to support low-progress learners and learners with special needs, both at the cognitive and the affective levels. Before that, she led the EduTech group at ETH Zürich, conducting Research and Development of educational technology through co-design with lecturers and students, with a focus on XR, AI-supported learning, and accessibility. In this episode, Adani and Julia discuss Julia’s recent work on embodied learning in mathematics, much of which was part of her doctoral research at ETH Zürich conducted with her advisors Prof. Manu Kapur and Prof. Robert Sumner. They also dive into her journey that led her to where she is now, and discuss what she is currently working on at the Singapore-ETH Centre and beyond! If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating ! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Julia’s website: https://juliachatain.com/ Julia’s paper on Grounding Graph Theory in Embodied Concreteness with VR: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000583039 Singapore-ETH Centre’s website: https://sec.ethz.ch/ Julia’s Twitter @JuliaChatain Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com/ Adani’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adani.bsky.social Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

This week, Enna chats with Dr. Casey Kenyon Brown, Professor at Georgetown University in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute on Aging and the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science. Casey’s research examines how we share, understand, and influence one another’s emotions. She’s interested in how these interpersonal emotional processes are beneficial for healthy aging, and how these processes may go awry and contribute to depression. In this episode, Casey shares her journey in psychology, talks about her research on emotion and relationships, and provides advice on how we can build strong connections with people we love. Please join our substack ( https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ ) to stay connected with our community of listeners from all over the world! If you found this episode interesting, please consider leaving us a good rating. It just takes a minute but will allow us to reach more listeners to share our love for psychology. Casey’s Lab Website: https://careslab.facultysite.georgetown.edu/ Casey’s Lab Twitter: @CARESlab_GU Casey’s paper on empathy and shared depression: https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026221141852 Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/ Enna’s Twitter: @EnnaYuxuanChen Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod

Marginalia Episodes are in collaboration with Marginalia Science! Marginalia Science is a community committed to promoting the work of scholars who are traditionally underrepresented in academia. In each Marginalia Episode, we feature a guest who has been featured in the Marginalia Science Monthly Newsletter. In this re-air episode from 2025, Enna chats with Professor Erica Bailey at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Erica broadly studies the construct of authenticity, asking questions like, how do we know who we are? When do we feel the most like ourselves? Why do we often fail, despite our best efforts, to share our inner world with others? In this episode, we discuss her recent paper on how self-perceptions influence subjective authenticity. To learn more about Erica, you can read the Marginalia Science Newsletter below. Episode on Marginalia Science: https://www.stanfordpsychologypodcast.com/episodes/episode/7927b876/104-special-episode-marginalia-science Marginalia Newsletter featuring Erica: https://substack.com/home/post/p-153969383 Erica’s Paper: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9tc27 Erica’s Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ericarbailey Erica’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-bailey-ph-d-22038172/ Erica’s Twitter: @ericarbailey Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/ Enna’s Twitter: @EnnaYuxuanChen Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Adani chats with Tamar Kushnir, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Tamar’s research spans pretty much everything you can imagine: Cognitive development, causal learning, social cognition, moral cognition, cultural psychology, free will, imagination, counterfactual thinking, self-control, and more! In this conversation, we discuss Tamar’s fascinating review on imagination and social cognition in childhood alongside many fun tangents about superheroes, the Wright Brothers, and collective social change. Tamar also shares what she most enjoys about research in the first place, and what she’s excited for next! Tamar’s faculty webpage: https://dibs.duke.edu/profile/tamar-kushnir/ Tamar’s lab website: https://ecclabduke.com/ Tamar’s paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1603 Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com Adani’s Bluesky: @adani Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this re-air episode from 2022, Eric chats with Robin Dunbar, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford. Robin has famously studied the evolution of the human brain, arguing that our brain developed to understand the complex social world we have created for ourselves. Most know him for “Dunbar’s number,” or the limit to the number of individuals we can maintain stable relationships with. Robin has received more awards than could be counted, including the prestigious Huxley Memorial Medal. He has written various books, most relevant for this conversation a book called “Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationship.” In this wide-ranging episode, Eric and Robin discuss why Dunbar’s number is actually a whole series of numbers. Robin explains how he arrived at this number, why it is so relevant to everything from our globalized world and big cities to maintaining friendships. Do psychopaths need friends to be happy? If you don’t like people, should you move into the woods and never talk to anyone again? He explains why we gossip and what makes something funny. Finally, he shares some personal stories about his career and why his discovery of Dunbar’s number was actually an accident. Links: Robin's Friendship book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/friends-robin-dunbar/1138785864 Robin's most recent book on religion: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/316135/how-religion-evolved-by-dunbar-robin/9780241431788 Eric's website Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Anjie chats with Dr. Nicky Sullivan, senior researcher at Impact Justice, a national non-profit innovation and research center focused on transforming the U.S. criminal justice system. Dr. Sullivan received his PhD from Stanford Psychology Department in 2024. During his PhD, he studied parents' and children's beliefs about race and racial inequality. In this episode, Nicky shares his journey from studying race in the lab to evaluating innovative initiatives like The Homecoming Project at Impact Justice. He offers practical advice for grad students on networking, while reflecting on the challenges of pursuing system reform in today’s shifting political landscape. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but helps us reach more people and get them excited about psychology. Links: Nicky’s linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicky-sullivan-phd/ Impact Justice: https://impactjustice.org/ Anjie’s website: https://anjiecao.github.io/ Podcast X @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Su chats with Dr. Steve Rathje. Dr. Rathje is an incoming Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is an NSF and AXA postdoctoral fellow at New York University. Steve’s work centers on the psychology of technology. He studies how core psychological phenomena like polarization, intergroup conflict, the spread of information, and mental health interact with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and social media. Through a combination of behavioral science, computational methods, and large-scale data, his research sheds light on how our minds and our societies are being shaped in the digital age. In today's episode, we discuss his research background together with his recent review paper “The psychology of virality," in which they explore why certain content spreads rapidly online and offline, often involving a mix of emotional, social, and structural factors.. Steve’s paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.06.014 Steve’s personal website: https://stevenrathje.com/ Su’s Twitter @sudkrc & Bluesky @sudkrc.bsky.social Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Anjie chats with Dr. Ying Wong, founder and CEO of B.peachy and former cultural psychologist. Ying received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford in 2007, where she studied shame and guilt through a cultural lens. After academia, she built an impressive career across global business, and she now is the founder and CEO of B.peachy, a company dedicated to menstrual care. In this episode, Anjie and Ying discuss Ying’s remarkable journey from academia into the business world, and how she has carried her training in social psychology into every stage of her career. They talk about what it was like to pivot into consulting and how her psychology training prepared her to build products and teams. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but helps us reach more people and get them excited about psychology. Links: Dr. Wong’s company B.peachy: https://bpeachy.online/ Dr. Wong’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ying-wong/ Anjie’s website: https://anjiecao.github.io/ Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/