This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
Over the past several years, I've explored hundreds of ideas on hidden brain on how we can live better lives and have healthier relationships.
Many of these ideas have felt provocative and insightful to me, and as I interview guests and edit stories, I tell myself I'm going to remember to apply these ideas to my own life.
I'll follow the advice of researchers who've discovered how we can have better relationships.
I'll become a better colleague, parent, and citizen.
But in my daily life I forget to apply these lessons all the time.
I'm impatient when I should be patient, I'm distracted when I should be focused, and I'm harsh with myself when I should be kind.
Psychologists sometimes call this the insight action gap.
Knowing the right thing to do doesnt automatically mean we do the right thing.
It isnt about hypocrisy per se.
Its that learning something and doing something involve different sets of brain muscles, so to speak.
This is a very ancient idea and something that many religious and spiritual traditions have explored over the centuries.
Its an old idea in art and literature, too.
In the 16th century, William Shakespeare wrote, I can easier teach 20 what were good to be done than be one of the 20 to follow mine own teaching.
Today on the show, we explore the inside action gap when it comes to our debates with our political opponents.
Its the third episode in our series, us 2.0, where we explore how we can become more effective talking across our differences.
If youve missed any of the other episodes in this series, please be sure to check them out in this podcast feed.
Why reason and empathy desert us when we need them most and how to close the insight action gap this week on hidden brain.
As we look at the news, it's hard not to feel like the world is constantly in flames.