Know What You See with Brian Lowery

Apr 09 2024 39

Know What You See with Brian Lowery Podcast artwork

Whether we think about them or not, the people and institutions around us impact every aspect of our lives. In our workplaces, families, churches, or simply walking down the street every day, there are hidden influences on our behavior and outcomes. Brian Lowery is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a social psychologist by training. Join Brian for Know What You See, where he talks to people from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives about their experiences with the social forces framing our world.

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Awe: a Pathway to Meaning

Apr 09 2024 29 mins

In the day-to-day of our lives, how often do we feel truly moved? Many of us think we have to get away from our daily reality to experience awe--the feeling that something is so wondrous and mysterious it's a little scary. It can feel like only extraordinary encounters with say art or majestic experiences of nature evoke awe, and we are left with too little of it. But maybe we can

Is Free Will Real?

Mar 26 2024 36 mins

We like to believe that we are masters of our own fate, that we are the cause of our choices and actions. But what if that's not true? Imagine that all of our choices and actions are simply the product of history—whether that goes back one minute or 1000 years—and biological and environmental forces that we often don’t even understand. In this episode we're exploring the ques

Blurring the Boundaries of Race

Mar 12 2024 39 mins

Race and gender are thought by many to be immutable features of our biology. In some places and spaces, we see significant challenges to this way of thinking about gender, but the biological view of race has proved more durable. How do we understand racial identity from individual and community perspectives? What’s changing about how we define race and how that shapes our interac

Society Self and Gender

Feb 20 2024 36 mins

For many of us, gender is an important part of how we understand ourselves. It affects everything, from the way we present ourselves physically, to how we make sense of others' interactions with us. But what determines our gender? The answer to this question is more complicated than we might think. The way we understand gender can reveal a lot about who we are and who we can be. Ou

Watching Work…from Home

Dec 27 2023 26 mins

With so many of us now working at home or on a hybrid schedule, the line between our employment and our personal lives has been blurring. What does work/life balance mean when the boundaries keep shifting? What does our nostalgia for pre-pandemic workplace comedies like The Office say about who we are and who we used to be? And is the dystopian drama series Severance a warning, or

Finding Home

Dec 19 2023 37 mins

What goes into making a home? For many, it means a physical space, that’s true, and the useful objects we collect within. But it’s also a repository for our memories and aspirations. How we build or decorate our homes signals who we are, our tastes and values, and the signs of our success. It’s where we feel safe and connected, and where we welcome others we trust. But does a

The Endless Swipe For Love

Nov 28 2023 35 mins

A spouse, a soul-mate, a life partner - however you define “the one”, the search for that person is often confusing and fraught with challenges and doubt. And in a world with so much choice, is it better to enlist the opinions of those who know you best, like your family and friends? Or can more “objective” support like matchmakers and algorithms narrow down the field and y

Different Friends at Different Times

Nov 21 2023 37 mins

This season Brian explores some of the topics from his book “Selfless: The Social Construction of You”. Specifically, how we see ourselves, and how our relationships and social interactions shape the way we live. Even before the pandemic, there was evidence our social lives were fraying. Engagement in social clubs, civic organizations, churches have been in decline and the trad

Bonus: How Others Define Us from Think Fast, Talk Smart

May 12 2023 15 mins

Here’s another podcast to add to your queue. Matt Abrahams is a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior here at Stanford, and in his podcast, Think Fast, Talk Smart. he speaks with experts about the real world challenges of communicating effectively. From emails, to giving presentations or speaking at family functions, how can we best get our point across in business and in life? Bri

Bonus: Brian Lowery on the Talk Nerdy Podcast with Cara Santa Maria

Apr 21 2023 74 mins

Cara Santa Maria is the science correspondent on National Geographic's popular television series Brain Games and she hosts the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara invited me to talk about my new book, "Selfless: The Social Creation of "You." Hope you enjoy our conversation and be sure to check out the other episodes of Talk N