Invisibila, our favouritest podcast of last year, is back.
Presented by ex-Radiolab-er Lulu Miller, writer Hanna Roisin and ex This American Life-r Alex Spiegel,* Invisibilia* is about the invisible forces that control how we behave. From emotions to senses, brain activity to beliefs and ideals, all of human behaviour is up for scrutiny.
Season 2 kicked off this week with a look at what happens when you try to shift cultural norms (imagine being the dude who had to try and teach American-style customer service to workers in the first Moscow-based McDonalds after the Cold War).
The best Invisibilia season 2 episodes
The New Norm
The thoroughly compelling story of what happened when the first Mcdonald’s opened in Russia at the end of the Cold War, bringing with it the thoroughly alien concept of service with a smile…
Listen here.
The Personality Myth
How much does our personality actually have to do with our position in life? Or is it all total luck and randomness? And how much does our personality actually change over the course of a lifetime (spoiler: loads)…
Listen here.
The Problem With The Solution
This episode kicks off with a story about how a couple in Utah found a novel solution to their clogged drains… and then takes us down a completely different road by looking at how a town in Belgium has found a solution for mental illness that could be a whole new blueprint for how we treat people with mental health problems.
Listen here.
Frame Of Reference
An instantly compelling story about what happens when a woman with Aspergers syndrome head a treatment that temporarily allowed her to see the social cues that had previously been missing in her life - and how this altered her frame of reference for good.
Listen here.
Flip The Script
Looking at what happens when someone does the opposite of what their instincts tell them - changing the story entirely. This episode kicks off with an insanely terse story about what happens when you offer the armed man trying to rob you a glass of wine.
Listen here.
The Secret Emotional Life Of Clothes
How much do the clothes we wear actually transform us? This episode has some amazing stores, including a guy who has worn sunglasses, pretty much constantly, since high school and a man who may have survived the Holocaust by wearing a Nazi officer’s shirt.
Listen here.
Outside In
This episode explores how true that old adage ‘fake it till you make it’ really is - can you really change from the outside in? This episode features the very cool story of the first all-female debate team in Rwanda and a guy whose life was transformed when he became obsessed with a seagull named Mac Daddy.
Listen here.
Best Invisibilia season 1 episodes
How To Become Batman
The one that got everyone talking. Daniel Kish is a blind man who has become one of the world's leading experts in the practice of echolocation. Bascially, Daniel has taught himself to 'see' by making clicking sounds with his mouth and reading how long the sound waves take to hit nearby surfaces. Daniel's taught over 10,000 blind people and their families and friends to 'see' in this way.
Listen here.
Fearless
What happens when you can't feel fear at all? Great stuff right? Well, not so much. The Invisiblia team spend time with an unnamed woman via her doctor who has Urbach-Wieth syndrome which means her brain literally cannot be scared of anything. As fun as that sounds to us anxiety ridden millenials, it actually makes the sufferer extremely vulnerable due to an inability to read potentially dangerous situations.
Listen here.
The Secret History Of Thoughts
In this the first ever epsiode, the gang meet Martin Pistorious and his family. Martin, now a grown-up, fell into a coma when he was younger and lost all ability to move and communicate with those around him. The doctors said he was a vegetable but what they didn't know was that Martin, for the 13 years he spent locked in his own body, had a fully functioning brain and could see and hear everything that was going on around him.
Listen here.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
The 21 Best Podcasts That Every 20-Something Girl Should Be Listening To
The 7 Best Episodes Of The Moth Podcast To Make You Feel Good**
Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.