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Why you do what you do! Exploring our loves, our fears, our habits and hopes, Dessa takes a deeply personal look at what lies behind our thoughts and behavior. Can a better understanding of human nature help us be more generous with other people’s weird behavior and even our own?Deeply Human is a BBC World Service and American Public Media coproduction with iHeartMedia.
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Is insomnia really a problem of modern life... or is the struggle for sleep older than you think? It's a common lament: this new world of smartphones and constant connectivity makes it nearly impossible to get enough sleep. But Shakespeare's characters were up all night, sleepwalking, and freaking out about their daily lives. Just how have our slee…
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Why are we so judgemental about how others beautify themselves? Do you wear eyeliner? Dye your hair? Ever gone under a laser, needle, or knife? When it comes to beautification, how far do you think is too far? And why are there such strong moral overtones to our conversations about where to draw the line? From Instagram Face to pretty privilege, th…
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Why do we hate one another - and how can we stop? How and when does conflict metastasize into hatred? Dessa picks apart the science of hostility, with help from a criminologist who identifies the tipping point between prejudice and hate, and an Israeli psychologist who's studied one of the longest conflicts in the world today. See omnystudio.com/li…
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Why do you have all that stuff? What drives us to get and keep so much stuff - even objects that we rarely, if ever, use? Psychologists working on cortisol levels found that living in a messy or cluttered home may correlate to higher rates of depression and that conspicuous consumption may be affecting our well-being. When does your stuff start to …
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Why do we form social hierarchies? From corporate ladders to military chains of command, formal caste systems to playground pecking orders, humans are particularly sensitive to social status. And we display our rank in all sorts of ways, even without realizing it - through our posture, vocal pitch, and patterns of eye contact. Join Dessa to learn h…
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Why do you love the way you do? We're expected to love only one romantic partner at a time. But we can love more than one parent, sibling, and friend - so why do so many cultures demand monogamy in romance? Is it time to reconsider the old model? Dessa speaks with a philosopher, an economist, and sexpert Dan Savage to talk about love, sex, and comm…
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Why do we use intoxicants? Whether it’s booze, weed, opiates, or even caffeine, the drive to catch a buzz seems almost universal for members of our species. For big parts of the world, drinking alcohol plays a huge role in our social lives, in religious rituals, and in some eras it was even a prerequisite for civic engagement. Find out how the phra…
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Why do we use intoxicants? Whether it’s booze, weed, opiates, or even caffeine, the drive to catch a buzz seems almost universal for members of our species. For big parts of the world, drinking alcohol plays a huge role in our social lives, in religious rituals, and in some eras it was even a prerequisite for civic engagement. Find out how the phra…
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Why do crowds move us? Being part of a crowd can embolden us: we might raise our voices in protest at a march, or snort-laugh more at a sold-out comedy gig. But in the popular imagination, big crowds are often associated with danger - with hysteria and violence. From the Hajj to a heavy metal concert, how does being surrounded by others change our …
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Why do we care so much about what people wear? An etiquette adviser, a civil rights lawyer, and an Iranian activist walk into a podcast studio… Think twice before dismissing fashion as frivolity. Dress codes are about power - and they’re sometimes contentious enough to incite anger, legal battles, and even violence. Learn more about your ad-choices…
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Why aren’t you naked? Unless you’re reading this in the shower, sunbathing on a progressive beach, or as a fresh born babe, you’re probably wearing clothing - even if it’s hot out. Some people would rather risk death than stand totally naked in front of their peers. Dessa tracks the topic from fig leaves to fur coats, colonialism to app user agreem…
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Why do our bodies react to rhythm? From rain dances to raves, dance has been a social tool for sexual selection and community cohesion. Dessa explores the neuroscience of music and movement, learns how dance therapy is used to treat motor disorders, and takes a lesson in butoh - the Japanese form sometimes called the Dance of Darkness. Learn more a…
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Heyo, why do you talk like that? Do French babies cry in French? Our accents may start to take shape well before we learn our first words. Dessa investigates why we speak the way we do - how our accents and dialects serve us; hamper us; and might even, in rare cases, lead to life-or-death consequences. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://ww…
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Monogamy, sleep deprivation, high fashion, and avant-garde Japanese dance—that’s right Deeply Human is coming back with a bang. In season 2, Dessa, speaks to psychologists, animal behaviorists, mathematicians, historians, and one legendary DJ to ask the evergreen question: why do you do what you do? Why does music animate our bodies? Why are we so …
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It’s time to talk. It is never too late for a rigorous conversation about death activism, the guillotine and the ferocity of human love — unless, of course, you are dead already. It is time to meet the death doulas who can help you through this, and learn why a “good death” might not be a good thing, and why it might be time to sit down with a pen …
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What if everything you experienced felt like you had already lived it before? Meet the people for whom déjà vu is every day. It’s that moment when you mix up past and present, the real and the imagined, and you can no longer trust your senses. How is it that the world is the same but the experience is completely weird? It’s like tasting your own to…
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The experiences of being a teenager are deep and lasting — first break-ups, fierce arguments with parents, that time a friend tried to skateboard off the roof. Why is that time of life experienced so intensely and remembered so vividly? Dessa finds that many answers lie in neuroanatomy and the way our brain wires itself as we grow. She meets teens …
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Listening to sad songs is a weird, counterintuitive thing to do. Why listen to something that moves you to tears? As someone who’s sensitivity to sad songs sometimes means pulling over until the tears clear, Dessa mulls major versus minor, explores what melody has in common with the sound of human crying, and quizzes a fellow songwriter about the p…
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If you think you’re too young to learn about menopause, you’re wrong. Prepare to be both surprised and entertained — and maybe even become a kinder son or daughter. Our understanding of menopause has changed dramatically, and it’s our distant relatives the whales that may help explain what it’s for. And Dessa has a heart-to-heart with her dad about…
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Why, when we’re alone, do we sometimes feel like we’re not? Why are we eager to find signs of life in our surroundings — to see faces in clouds, or to get creeped out when the house creaks at night? Dessa investigates some of the most mystical, disorienting and disturbing experiences a person can have. She discovers that neuroscience, the study of …
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Our ideas of what’s beautiful are tied to symmetry. Symmetry attracts. Why? What’s so compelling about faces that are the same on both sides of that nose in the middle? To study symmetry we dive into the world of asymmetry – where things are different. Dessa talks with a professor who studies right- and left-handedness, a graphic designer who expla…
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Budging. Cutting in line. Skipping. Butting. Doesn’t it make your blood boil? The standing line evokes strong feelings about justice — breaking what we see as the rules for waiting in line can arouse anger and even violence that feel totally out of proportion to the length of our wait. Why are we such raging moralists when it comes to waiting our t…
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Most female mammals schedule their sex life into just the couple of days in their cycle when they’re fertile. So why do humans do it whenever the mood strikes? (Well, in theory, at least.) To find out, Dessa explores stinky t-shirt tests and all sorts of things we’d better not mention here. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Deeply Human is a…
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High-stakes lies have all sorts of consequences: perjurers are imprisoned and slanderers are sued. But when your coworker asks your opinion on his new haircut, a little lie feels obligatory. You lie much more than you’re probably aware of — but is that a bad thing? Dessa finds out why lying can be a dangerous habit. She discovers whether polygraph …
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Hurting, pain and suffering might just be some of the most important things that make you who you are. That pain, though, may be almost invisible to those around you. Suffering is often private and difficult to discuss. You can’t hold your pain up to the light for someone else to examine or drape it around their shoulders to see how it might fit. Y…
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