Hidden Brain - Love 2.0: How to Move On

For many of us, navigating the conclusion of a relationship is one of the hardest things we'll ever do. This week, we conclude our Love 2.0 series with psychologist Antonio Pascual-Leone, who shares the most common mistakes we make when it comes to splitting up, and techniques that can help us ease the pain. Then, our latest edition of Your Questions Answered. Cognitive scientist Phil Fernbach returns to respond to listeners' thoughts and questions about the "illusion of knowledge."

Duration: 1h 31m
Broadcast on: 20 Oct 2025
Audio Format: other

Do you have questions for Antonio Pascual-Leone about breakups? Are there losses that have left you feeling stuck? Have you discovered techniques to move on when a relationship ends? If you'd be willing to share your question or comment with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]. Two or three minutes is plenty. Use the subject line "breakups." Thanks!

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This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta. For thousands of years, poets and musicians have celebrated the arrival of love. Songs like, at last, talk about the long-awaited moment when a soulmate says yes, and the doors of heaven open.

But while musicians preach the melodies of love and manuals teach people how to fall in love, there is much less advice about how we should think, feel and act at the end of relationships. Today, we bring you the conclusion of our month-long series about love. Our focus over the past few weeks has been on what comes after the euphoric buzz of new infatuation has worn off. We've explored how to better understand our partners and how to be better understood. We've talked about acceptance and apologies, and how to let go of our annoyances and frustrations with the people we love. Today, though, we're going to look at what happens when rifts between partners are too wide to bridge. We're going to talk about the psychology of breakups. We'll examine the most common mistakes we make when it comes to splitting up and explore techniques that can help us do better. How to set the past to rest, this week on Hidden Brain.

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