Hidden Brain

And then

hidden brain.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah, I know,

As the headline says, PRX is handing its top job to a long-term insider, namely Chief Operating Officer Jason Saldanha, who will become president and CEO effective October 15th, succeeding Carrie Hoffman, who has led the organization for over a decade.

Saldanha has sp- spent seven years at PRX across business development, revenue, and partnerships, including Hidden Brain and ProPublica, and brings earlier experience in commercial podcasting and radio.

In a farewell blog on Medium, Hoffman reflected on a tenure that grew PRX into a leading distributor, launching Radiotopia, and moved more than $200 million in independent creators.

As for the rest of the news, SiriusXM Media is now the exclusive audio advertising representative for YouTube in the United States, giving buyers guaranteed access to YouTube's audio inventory at scale for the first time this fall.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

One of the most famous comedy sketches of the 20th century is built on a simple misunderstanding.

That is a minefield.

How do you let people know that you're joking and that you're teasing?

This week on Hidden Brain, how the unthinking patterns in the way we express ourselves can cause unneeded pain and conflict, and how we can learn to talk and listen better.

[instrumental music playing]

Most ice cream is good, but not Jeni's.

This week, I want to do something a little different.

NPR runs a series called My Unsung Hero, part of the Hidden Brain podcast, where people record their own memories of somebody who helped them, in their own words, with no reporter standing between them and you.

I've been listening to a few of them lately, and three in particular stuck with me enough that I want to share them here and tell you what I think they're actually about.

Dan Roche was born with a cataract that left him nearly blind in one eye.

That's what My Unsung Hero is about.

A coach noticing a swing, a woman stepping in at a post office counter, a stranger with a bicycle in his lap, opening his arms at exactly the right moment.

If you want to hear more of these in the teller's own voices, look up My Unsung Hero from Hidden Brain.

New ones come out every Tuesday.

She has like a fun way of talking about money.

But things like Hidden Brain, Things that are like what drag you in your mind.

What are the things that like they have a lot of really great stuff on understanding yourself.

And I think that's a great basis of like beginning your money journey.

Yeah

... several that I like, but I really like Hidden Brain.

NPR's, um, podcast Hidden Brain is a really, really good one.

They always talk about interesting things and I, and I get-

Mm-hmm

Even actually the balance of the cover art is a little bit off, but the cover art is almost like not readable at this size.

It's interesting, right underneath down here at the bottom, I was listening to Hidden Brain.

And so I have an example of Hidden Brain and they've got like very bold text that's still readable, even though it's

tiny, tiny, tiny.

My first thought is, hmm, this cover art could use some work.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

The poet Robert Frost wrote about two roads diverging in a yellow wood, a moment when a traveler must choose a path, not knowing where either one leads.

You know which way to go.

You know which path to choose.

[Instrumental music] Today on the show and in a companion episode on Hidden Brain+, we examine the unexpected experiences that give us clarity.

We look at how and why they are so powerful, and we explore techniques to make the best use of these moments.

Stepping into the future and leaving the past behind this week on Hidden Brain.