Skip to main content
Back to Show
Amanpour & Co.

Hidden Brain Host Explains Why We Lie to Ourselves Every Day

Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast “Hidden Brain,” has been reporting on human behavior for decades, and he says that buying into false beliefs can actually be a good thing – sometimes. He joins Hari Sreenivasan to explain why self-delusion can be a helpful tool to get us through the hard parts of life.

Support Provided By
Season
May 29, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:35
Kimberlé Crenshaw; Sally Hayden; Jeffrey Winters
May 28, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:50
Chris Murphy; Rebeca Grynspan; Jill Lepore
May 27, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:50
Ben Rhodes; Oliver McTernan; Ethar El-Katatney
May 26, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:54
Beth Sanner; Dr. Nahid Bhadelia; Heather Kerr; Maya MacGuineas
May 25, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:30
Nicholas Burns; Wes J. Bryant; Michael Lynton; Joshua Stein
May 22, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:55
Peter S. Goodman; Mamoud Ahmadinejad; Kelli María Korducki
May 21, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:45
José Manuel Albares; Rafael Nadal; Mike Isaac
May 20, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:42
David A. Graham; Mikhail Fishman; Helen Lewis
May 19, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:52
Badr Abdelatty; Andrew Weissmann; Josh Tyrangiel
May 18, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:54
Tymofiy Mylovanov; Juan Gonzalez; Rita Coburn
May 15, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:20
Xiang Lanxin; Rahul Bhatia; Edith Eger; Marianne Engle
May 14, 2026
Unlock with PBS Passport
55:54
Rush Doshi; Lewis Goodall; Brendan Ballou
Active loading indicator