Shows / Why We Do What We Do
Why We Do What We Do
We explain popular and weird, little-known ideas in psychology. Whether you are a little curious about psychology, or a student, or even a professional, we have something for everyone.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
Episodes
- Why We Do What We Do
Burning Man pt. 1
There is a unique annual art event that is hours from civilization in the blistering hot sun that culminates the incineration of humungous humanoid effigy…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Hard Conversations
Many people avoid or even advocate against having conversations about confrontational topics. We disagree. We explain how it is important to have these…
- Why We Do What We Do
Abstinence Only Education
Democratized education lead by trained professionals and experts has resulted in unprecidented growth in progress and improvements in quality of life. Sex is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Mind Reading
Psychic, telepathic mind-reading is complete nonsense logistically, philosophically, practically... all of the "ally's." We will explain why in some detail…
- Why We Do What We Do
My Cross to Bear
The idea of personal responsibility will seem like common sense to some. Scientifically, however, it is an interesting concept to understand. How does it…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Charcuterie Boards
We are taking a side journey into the delectable topic of charcuterie boards. We briefly describe what they are and then how to put one together. Do you have a…
- Why We Do What We Do
2025 Wrap-Up
Another year on the books. We reflect on what we discussed this year, our listener stats, and personal experiences with movies, books, and TV shows. It's our…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Choral Responding
Choral or Unison responding is a classroom participation strategy in which all students answer together when given an opportunity to do so. This allows the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Culture and Disability
Different cultures around the world have unique perspectives on disability. We survey several different cultural values and approaches to thinking about and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Circular Breathing
Have you ever heard of circular breathing? For musicians who play instruments that require blown air, circular breathing is a technique to produce continuous…
- Why We Do What We Do
Disability and Ability
Conditions that differ from "normal," sometimes called disability, don't preclude people with those conditions from being able to do regular vocational…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: 6-7
Because this was selected the "word of the year," we decided we may as well discuss it. If you've been lucky enough to miss this trend, sorry to end your lucky…
- Why We Do What We Do
Private Equity in Disability
Sometimes investment groups will purchase and then unify individually-owned, small businesses that provide care for people with disabilities. Once they've…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Perfect Pitch Perfect
This is not about the movie(s). Amazingly, that didn't even occur to us before, during, or even immediately after recording this... This is about the ability…
- Why We Do What We Do
Sexuality in Disabilities
A touchy topic that some people don't want to touch is sexuality as it relates to disability. There is some "moral" prudishness that borders on (if not…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Adaptive Sex Industry
The industry around sex equipment has been leading the charge in the development of equipment for different bodies and impairments. This mini describes some of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Terms in Disability
The vernacular treadmill is ever running and we often find we are behind on the currently accepted terms. While some struggle to accept change, many of us…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: No Nut November
Do you believe in the magic of sperm? The longer you hold onto it, the mightier you become. Except, not. The idea of sperm retention does almost nothing that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Accessibility for All
Brilliant people have worked to create accessibility so comprehensively baked into our lives that we often don't even recognize that it is there. However…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Making Things More Accessible
This is a quick tutorial for making things more accessible and checking for accessibility when creating documents mostly in MS Office and Adobe. So, this will…
- Why We Do What We Do
Autism Subtypes
Continuing on with our suite on disability and accessibility, this episode explores new research exploring autism subtypes and their links to genetic markers…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Signs That Don't Mean You Have ADHD
Do you wake up after sleeping? Do you eat food when you are hungry? You might have ADHD! Not because of those things... those just mean you are human and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Models of Disability
How do we start talking about disabiliity? First, we need to understand how people thinking about and appraoch disability. This episode kicks off a suite of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Thin Blue Line
The "Thin Blue Line" has a probable origin in military history. It has been employed as a symbol of law enforcement, but commoly applied in contrast to other…
- Why We Do What We Do
Ritual Sacrifice
Our final Halloween episode tackles a grizzly topic: Ritual Sacrifices. We explore some of the practices and reasons for sacfrifice throughout history. Note…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Houska Castle
There is a mysterious castle in Czechia with defensive structures pointed inward toward the caste. There are also stories of a hole in the ground of unknown…
- Why We Do What We Do
How Do Halloween Masks Affect Our Behavior?
Wearing a mask changes the way our social word interacts with us. This might mean access to rewards that we might not otherwise try to access, but the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Creepy Pasta
Creepy pasta is/was a democratized way ot telling scary stories that are just on the edge of believability. They seem to have dissipated into various other…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
One of the most iconic and well-established horror stories in the world, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a masterpiece of literature. The talented director…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: 666
We have a fascination with assigning meaning to various numbers. Actually, many cultures enjoy assigning meaning to numbers as well. In western traditions, we…
- Why We Do What We Do
I Want To Take You To The Bermuda Triangle
Some spooky topics are geographically creepy. Arguably, the most famous scary geography is lovingly called The Bermuda Triangle. This portion of the world is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: R.I.P.
This is our first Halloween mini of 2025! RIP is a well-wishing, a command, and an indication of your relationship to person or idea being bid farewell. We…
- Why We Do What We Do
Variants of Hell
Welcome to our annual month of creepy topics! We are kicking off this year's selection with an overview of various conceptuatlizations of Hell from the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Colored Noise
You have probably heard of white noise, but there are a variety of noise patterns that have been assigned a color. Some have proposed hypothetical benefits of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Propaganda: How You Are Being Tricked pt. 2
In the last episode, we outlined several specific propaganda strategies. We conclude this discussion by explaining some ways we can attempt to combat…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Kintsugi
Kintsugi is a Japanese tradition of repairing broken things rather than retiring them, and in doing so making them stronger. It has a nice metaphor for…
- Why We Do What We Do
Propaganda: How You are Being Tricked pt. 1
Propaganda is remarkably effective at influencing your behavior, even if you don't recognize that it is happening. Being aware of its strategies can help…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: How Many Faces Can You Remember?
A lot. Unless you have face blindness, you can remember a lot of faces. Is this all in the brian? We do our best to explain the research behind our ability to…
- Why We Do What We Do
Understanding Chiropractic
Once again, we have an idea that has mostly been bogged down in the septic tank of pseudoscience. There seems to be some therapeutic benefit to chiropractic…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: That Time Humans Loved Radiation
This is another exploration of bad idea history. At one point, humans got really into consuming and surrounding themselves with irradiated materials. This idea…
- Why We Do What We Do
Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a business model that emphasizes extremely high volume, cheap clothing designed to only last a short amount of time. This strategy produces an…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Do Our Pets Understand Us?
We have very special relationships with our pets. We usually try to talk to them. Do they understand what we are saying? Do they know their names? We quickly…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Importance of Peer Review
One could argue there are two ways of aggregating knowledge: by guessing or by verifying information. The current system for verifying is by checking one…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Victim vs. Warrior
There is a proposal that there is a dichotomy in human activities (specifically the cognitive ones) that can be characterized as a "warrior" mentality or a…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Psychology of Pain
Pain can be conceptualized physiologically, neurologically, and behaviorally. We review the physiological and neurological components of pain, and then spend…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Magic Eye
Autostereograms, better known as "Magic Eye" puzzles, are a unique 2D art in which repeated images create a 3D image, but you have to focus your eyes in just…
- Why We Do What We Do
Punk Rock Legacy
Large musical movements are large cultural movements. Rap, rock, country, and other genres often galvanized or reflected social changes and values. Punk rock…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: What is a Repertoire?
We often talk about what students can do by referring to their repertoire. But what does it mean to refer to their repertoire? A lot of philosohpy in one…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Board Games
Has it been so long? Abraham discusses his favorite discussion topic: Board games! Also ,there's been new research since that that further supports that board…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Restless Leg Syndrome
Do you ever feel an nearly uncontrollable urge to move your legs? If you do, you probably still don't have RLS, but it may be worth getting tested for a…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Paraphilia Episode
SEX! Now that we have your attention, this episode reviews some of the paraphilias that exist. More importantly, we try to understand with a compassionate and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: What is "Learning?"
You would think we would want a full length for this topic. Maybe we still will do one! But for now, we figured we can at least help clear up some…
- Why We Do What We Do
Jonestown pt. 2
This second part completes the story of the tragedy of the murders at Jonestown. In addition, we expand on this conversation by unpacking the mentality of the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Backseat Driving
We all hate it. Yet, some of us do it. We talk about why people do it, how recipients perceive it, and how passenger commentary/critique/analysis affects…
- Why We Do What We Do
Jonestown pt. 1
One of the largest mass murders of American citizens in history took place in 1978 in Guyana at the hands of cult leader, Jim Jones. This discussion delves…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Nail Biting
Do you bite your fingernails or know someone who does? Why do we do this weird, self-destructive thing? What can we do to stop it? We quickly explore the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Tipping Point
Tipping is another oddly American tradition that we all pretty universally hate. Perhaps you did not know that the modern conception of tipping arose during…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Learned Helplessness
Some people use this term incorretly, some don't know it at all. To help get everyone on the same page, we are going to review the history of research that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Reframe: A Framework to Developing a Compassionate Care Instructional Model (With Special Guests)
Special guests Jennifer Farris, Meg Solomon, and Dr. Mari Cerda join us to talk about their new book about developing a compassionate care model. They outline…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Skeptical All Day
Can you walk around being skeptical all day long? At what point do you need to let your guard down? We suggest that not only can you go about your day being…