Shankar Vedantam, creator and host of NPR’s Hidden Brain series, held his nearly 1,200-person audience rapt as they listened to his “Perception Tour” talk last Sunday afternoon at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo.
If you’re not familiar with Hidden Brain, now entering his 12th year and broadcast locally on KCBX Central Coast Public Radio, the science podcast explores human behavior and relationships.
Vedantam is taking his show on the road in a two-hour talk format summarizing seven key behavioral patterns affecting both the individual and our relationships with others. Cal Poly Arts partnered with KCBX to bring him to San Luis Obispo.
Grounded in science, his presentation is thought-provoking and conveyed with charm and humor. For most of the time, Vedantam paces across the stage, explaining the patterns that stand out from his and others’ years of academic research.
- Human Attention: The importance of knowing where to focus our time and energy.
- The Insight/Action Gap: The contrast between understanding what needs to be done and our frequent inability to follow through, along with why recognizing that gap matters.
- Hot vs. Cold States: How our decision-making in a relaxed (cold) state differs drastically from decisions made under stress, fatigue, or heightened emotion (hot).
- The Power of Unconscious Undercurrents: How daily choices are driven by subconscious influences we rarely notice.
- Self-Compassion vs. Self-Harshness: The need to treat ourselves with kindness rather than berating ourselves during personal setbacks.
- The Unsung Hero: Acknowledging that our lives are shaped by quiet acts of people we may never know—and recognizing that we, too, act as unsung heroes for others.
- Today You, Tomorrow Me: A fresh framing of the Golden Rule—treating others as we wish to be treated.
Vedantam is a master storyteller, and our audience, composed largely of older attendees (Baby Boomers and beyond), responded with frequent laughter, applause, and nods of recognition. We all seemed to hang on his every word.
There was a clear sense that the room was hungry for a guide capable of explaining human nature in a way that points toward better choices. And for two hours, Vedantam delivered exactly that.