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Scott Barry Kaufman interviews researchers on flourishing, resilience, and personality change.
The Psychology Podcast treats psychology as both a science and a way of making ordinary life more intelligible. Across interviews and reflective episodes, it moves from mindsets, stress, trauma, identity, friendship, athletic excellence, and emotional skill into the practical question of how people grow.
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The show is hosted by Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist who also teaches a course on wellbeing at Barnard College, Columbia University. The predominant format is a long-form, one-on-one interview, typically 45 to 70 minutes, in which Kaufman draws out a guest's research, clinical practice, or personal story in depth. Recurring guests are academic psychologists and researchers such as Corey Keyes (originator of the languishing-flourishing model), child development specialist Tovah Klein, clinical psychologist Michael Alcee, and practitioners like World Happiness Summit founder Karen Guggenheim. A smaller number of episodes are solo, with Kaufman synthesizing findings from named studies — for example mate-preference and dark triad research — directly to the audience. Recurring themes include flourishing versus languishing, personality change (particularly neuroticism and openness), post-traumatic growth, attachment and childhood resilience, grief, and self-actualization. Conversations frequently reference specific academic sources: named studies, journals, and researchers such as Carl Rogers, Fred Luskin, and Robert Biswas-Diener. The tone is educational and research-grounded rather than motivational or prescriptive. Listeners interested in the empirical basis behind popular psychology concepts, rather than general self-help framing, are the core audience. The show also marked its conclusion after an 11-year, roughly 478-episode run, with a retrospective episode reviewing recurring themes across its history. Production is conversational and unscripted, centered on the guest's expertise with Kaufman contributing his own research background throughout.
Made for: Listeners with an interest in the research basis of positive psychology and personality science, including students, clinicians, and readers of academic-leaning nonfiction.
What sets it apart: Episodes consistently ground discussion in named studies, researchers, and academic frameworks rather than general self-help advice, reflecting the host's own academic background in the field.
In each episode, we talk with inspiring scientists, thinkers, and other self-actualized individuals who will give you a greater understanding of yourself, others, and the world we live in. Scott Barry Kaufman explores the depths of human potential and tries to get a glimpse into human possibility in every episode.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Guest conversations connect psychological mechanisms to belief, relationships, cultural myths, and the social consequences of how people understand themselves.
Scott Barry Kaufman uses guest interviews to examine why beliefs take hold and how they shape behavior. His questions move from the cultural mythology around genius to paranormal claims, mental health advice, parenting, and the neuroscience of social connection, keeping abstract…
Genius, psychics, and viral diagnoses all meet the same question: what is your brain buying?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A reflective podcast farewell becomes a candid look at anxiety, creativity, and steadier ways of living.
Episode 478 of The Psychology Podcast turns the close of a long-running project into a measured look back at what the work has meant. Scott reflects on 11 years of near-weekly episodes, returning to the show's original aim: bringing psychological scientists and their research…
A grounded conversation about using stress as information for attention, focus, and steadier engagement.
Stress is not treated here as a force that simply happens to someone, but as an experience shaped by interpretation. Scott Barry Kaufman and Allie Crum frame mindsets as lenses that organize what people notice, expect, and do next, with Crum's work on placebo effects and stress…
A thoughtful episode on courage as the small practice of staying present.
Sisu comes through as a practice of staying open inside ordinary moments. Dr. Lati ties trauma healing to the small decisions that shape whether a person can face a hard emotion, meet a challenge, or stay connected to someone close.
A thoughtful look at how resilience and identity can support a life, then quietly begin to constrain it.
Identity can give a person shape, but it can also start making demands. Raquel Hopkins, a certified coach with a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling, moves from familiar ideas about coping into a more searching discussion of adult development and capacity: how…
A patient neuroscience look at why closeness soothes us and tribal distance frays us.
Dr. Ben Rein's conversation on The Psychology Podcast treats social connection as a biological system rather than a vague virtue. It explains why company can feel rewarding, how empathy can narrow under threat, and how an older survival logic can still help make sense of family…
Dr. Alex Auerbach connects elite performance to the relationships that help athletes keep going when competition gets hard.
Dr. Alex Auerbach frames high performance through the relationships that help effort hold up when competition gets difficult. The episode moves through coach-athlete trust, team connection, and the less obvious support structures around individual sports, then turns toward the…
It connects emotional regulation to motivation, then shows how feeling seen can shape self-esteem, purpose, and meaning.
The episode puts emotional regulation where it often belongs: inside motivation, not beside it as tidy advice. Dr. Mark Brackett frames the challenge through school settings, where eye-rolling and a student's blunt preference for punching someone in the face reveal the harder…
A grounded conversation about time anxiety, envy, urgency, and the pressure of rules people quietly set for themselves.
The episode frames time anxiety as something learned, then quietly maintained: a private rulebook about urgency, usefulness, and what a responsible person is supposed to answer or finish.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Kaufman marks the podcast's 10th anniversary with a close look at the old question of whether nice guys really finish last.
In episode 478 of The Psychology Podcast, host Scott Barry Kaufman is interviewed by science writer Annie Murphy Paul in a retrospective conversation marking the end of the podcast's 11-year run.
Mindsets do more than interpret reality.
The guest treats Sisu as courage that lives in the body.
Identity can clarify a life.
The brain can turn empathy down.
Mental health myths get political fast.
Performance is relational.
Regulation takes more than knowing the move.
Time anxiety starts quietly.
Oddness gets mistaken for specialness.
Neurodiversity is not the problem.
Competence comes first.
Motivation is energy, but it still needs somewhere to go.
Sahil Bloom stepped off a wealth track.
Mayim Bialik opens with skepticism.
Trauma has become a very big word.
Listening begins before anyone speaks.
Intelligence keeps getting bigger.
Skepticism does not kill the wonder.
Here, telepathy is treated as hard to study.
A hypothesis needs a firewall.
Tova begins with watchfulness.
Dopamine is the thread.
Emma Seppala starts with feeling.
Languishing feels dead inside.
Happiness begins here as love.
Trust comes first.
Self-leadership comes first.
Russ Harris starts with cake.
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Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Dr.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Israa Nasir about toxic productivity, exploring its definition, connection to self-worth, and impact on mental health.
Dr.
Scott Barry Kaufman explores the intersection of personality, creativity, and well-being, debunking myths about fixed traits and introducing concepts like the big five, light triad, and neuroscience links.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Banachek, a renowned mentalist, exploring his journey from a troubled childhood to becoming a skeptic who fooled scientists in Project Alpha.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Wallo 267, a former inmate turned activist, about his journey from 20 years in prison to becoming a social impact leader.
Clinical psychologist Michael Alcee argues that OCD represents a unique temperament involving heightened empathy and imaginative capacity rather than merely a disorder of intrusive thoughts and compulsions.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews magicians Elizabeth Messick and Eric Thurston, known as the Cosmic Romantics, about their careers, mental health journeys, and the psychology behind magic.
Dr.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Kim Shapira about her method for transforming relationships with food, focusing on psychological triggers, hunger vs.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews author Ruth Whippman about her book 'Boy Mom,' exploring how boys are socialized in modern culture.
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Scott Barry Kaufman interviews NYU professor Jay Van Bavel on the psychology of identity, exploring how group affiliations shape perceptions, bias, and social harmony.
Africa Brooke discusses her book 'The Third Perspective,' exploring themes of self-censorship, cancel culture, and brave expression.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Dr.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Marc Hauser about childhood adversity, trauma, and resilience, covering topics like ACEs, neurodiversity, and cross-cultural perspectives.
Scott Barry Kaufman interviews Cassley Killam about her book on social health, arguing that meaningful relationships are as crucial as physical and mental health for longevity and happiness.