Hidden Brain - You Are Not Ordinary

Stories about unlikely heroes have captivated people for thousands of years. This week, social scientist Ben Rogers explores why the "hero's journey" resonates so deeply, and how the stories we tell about our own lives can shape our sense of purpose. He explains why seeing ourselves as the protagonists of our own stories may help us face challenges with greater confidence. Then, on Your Questions Answered, psychologist Jay Van Bavel returns to respond to your comments and questions about group identities.

Duration: 1h 43m
Broadcast on: 27 Jul 2026
Audio Format: other

Stories about unlikely heroes have captivated people for thousands of years. This week, social scientist Ben Rogers explores why the "hero's journey" resonates so deeply, and how the stories we tell about our own lives can shape our sense of purpose. He explains why seeing ourselves as the protagonists of our own stories may help us face challenges with greater confidence. Then, on Your Questions Answered, psychologist Jay Van Bavel returns to respond to listeners' comments and questions about group identities.

Interested in learning how to discover the hero's journey in your own life story? Ben Rogers shares practical tips in a companion conversation for Hidden Brain+. That episode is titled "Discovering Your Inner Hero.” If you're not yet a Hidden Brain+ subscriber, you can get a free seven-day trial at support.hiddenbrain.org. If you're using an Apple device, go to http://apple.co/hiddenbrain. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!

What does economic inequality do to our minds? In our latest YouTube video, we explore the psychology of social comparison. Check it out, and be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss any of our upcoming videos!

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This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. In the early days of Soviet cinema, a filmmaker conducted an experiment that would change our understanding of the human mind. Lev Kuleshov showed an audience a short film featuring a famous actor. The footage of the actor was always the same, a single, unmoving, and entirely neutral expression. But the filmmaker intercut the shot with three different images, a bowl of hot soup, a child in a coffin, and a woman reclining on a sofa. Even though the actor's face never changed, the audience was mesmerized by his performance. When paired with the soup, they saw a man gripped by hunger. When paired with a coffin, they saw a face transformed by grief. They didn't see a sequence of unrelated pictures, they saw an integrated story. The human brain is wired to make connections like this. We want to see the frames as part of a narrative, and so we invent the connective tissue. We turn frame one and an unrelated frame two into a cohesive story.

This psychological tendency also shapes how we see our own lives. We are the editors of our own personal documentaries, constantly splicing together random chaotic events into a narrative. Depending on our personalities and temperaments, our documentaries might be comedies or tragedies. They might be gripping tales or boring stories where nothing much happens. But all of this raises a question. If we are the ones sitting in the editing room, are we making the best use of the footage? Are we choosing to tell the right stories? This week on Hidden Brain, and in a companion story on Hidden Brain Plus, the tales we tell about our lives, and why some stories turn out to be better for us than others. When it comes to my policy, farmers gives it to me straight, so there's no surprises. It's your coverage you should never be confused. You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience. We're a choir, but yes we have that too. Straight forward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when you have farmers bum bum bum bum bum. Learn more at farmers.com, underwritten by farmers truck or fire insurance exchanges or affiliate. Products not available in every state. Hey, it's Kelly Roland. You may not know this, but I have eczema, so I get how it can steal your time. But why let eczema take over when you can talk to your doctor about eczema? Ebglass, Libricizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults in children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglass can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Ebglass. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Ebglass. Before starting Ebglass, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Pay partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Ebglass and visit Ebglass.com, or call 1-800-Lily-Rx or 1-800-545-5979. Most meeting note takers get the easy words right and the important ones wrong. The client's name, the acronym. WhisperFlow note taker is built to get the hard words right. It takes notes on any meeting platform. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, even WhatsApp calls. Keeps every meeting searchable and connects to cloud or chat GPT. So you can ask, what did we agree to last Tuesday? Free to try on Mac and Windows at whisperflow.ai. That's W-I-S-P-R Flow.ai.

When we turn on the TV or read a novel or buy a ticket to a movie, we're in search of a good story. A narrative that will capture our imagination, transport us to a different world, offer a satisfying resolution.

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