The start of a new year is a natural moment to set goals for ourselves. But doing so can also be a little daunting. Today, we kick off a series designed to help you understand and grapple with the mental obstacles that can keep you from charting a new path. We talk with psychologist Greg Walton, who studies how our minds get trapped in negative thought spirals — and how we can begin to break free. Then, in the latest installment of our segment "Your Questions Answered," psychologist and neuroscientist Abigail Marsh answers listener questions about the minds of extremely kind and generous people.
Duration
1h 41m
Broadcast on
29 Dec 2025
Audio Format
other
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The start of a new year is a natural moment to set goals for ourselves. But doing so can also be a little daunting. Today, we kick off a series designed to help you understand and grapple with the mental obstacles that can keep you from charting a new path. We talk with psychologist Greg Walton, who studies how our minds get trapped in negative thought spirals — and how we can begin to break free. Then, in the latest installment of our segment "Your Questions Answered," psychologist and neuroscientist Abigail Marsh answers listener questions about the minds of extremely kind and generous people.
If you enjoyed our conversation with Greg Walton, don't miss our companion conversation about the emotional tools we can use to help someone who's spiraling. You can listen to that episode with a free seven-day trial to our podcast subscription, Hidden Brain+. To sign up, go to support.hiddenbrain.org. Or if you're using an Apple device, you can go to apple.co/hiddenbrain. Thanks, and Happy New Year!
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This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. In 1971, a 17-year-old girl won the Miss Black Tennessee Beauty pageant. It set in motion a chain of events that were transformed not just her life, but the lives of millions of other people. Born into poverty to a teenage mother in rural Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey had endured a difficult childhood. She bounced between relatives, experienced abuse, and left home at 13. The pageant became the first domino in a series of extraordinary events. Her win caught the attention of WVOL, a local radio station. It offered her a part-time news position. At 19, Oprah became Nashville's first female African-American news anchor. She then moved to Baltimore for television news, and eventually to Chicago, where she transformed a struggling morning show into the Oprah Winfrey show. I'm Oprah Winfrey, and that's what we're talking about today. Then came a production company, a magazine, a book club, and eventually her own television network. Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire, a household name. For millions of people, she was the American dream made real. Can you see how each opportunity created momentum for the next? How each win opened doors that were previously closed? As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success." But if good things can build on one another, if success can lead to more success, can the same thing happen the other way around? Can setback lead to setback, failure to failure? Can one door that is close to you turn into an endless series of obstacles? Perhaps you know people who have experienced such downward spirals. Perhaps you have experienced this yourself. The cost of downward spirals are felt most acutely by the people who experienced them. But all of us are made poorer by them. How many Oprahs do we not have today? Because some domino in the distant past took a spill in the wrong direction. This week on Hidden Brain, and in a companion story on Hidden Brain Plus, we explore the psychology of downward spirals, and how our minds can set us up for failure or success. It's the kickoff to a month-long series about the mental obstacles we face when we try to achieve a goal or start a new chapter in our lives. Perhaps you have a new year's resolution for yourself. Maybe you're struggling to keep your momentum on a work or personal project. Whatever your goal, we're going to examine why we derail our best laid plans and how to stay on track. 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 had that too. Straight-forward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when you have farmers, bum, 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. Working as a dedicated fidelity advisor, I always ask,
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The start of a new year is a natural moment to set goals for ourselves. But doing so can also be a little daunting. Today, we kick off a series designed to help you understand and grapple with the mental obstacles that can keep you from charting a new path. We talk with psychologist Greg Walton, who studies how our minds get trapped in negative thought spirals — and how we can begin to break free. Then, in the latest installment of our segment "Your Questions Answered," psychologist and neuroscientist Abigail Marsh answers listener questions about the minds of extremely kind and generous people.
