This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
This week for Halloween, the science of fear, we'll talk about what scares us and why.
Sometimes anticipating being afraid can be worse than the thing itself.
Uh, I don't know if I can do this.
We're gonna talk about how changing a few subtle things can make us feel disoriented.
Yeah.
Your body is basically just preparing itself to.
To face whatever it's going to encounter around the next bend.
And how this sense of disorientation can increase your fear.
Oh, my God.
What is that?
We'll also explore the upside of fear.
Sometimes being scared can actually be a good thing.
We're gonna do things a little differently in this episode, we decided to recruit a very brave guinea pig.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
What?
Maggie Penman is one of the producers of this podcast.
Maggie, welcome.