One of the things I love about long summer weekends is catching up on podcasts and filling my mind with something other than bummer political news. The third season of NPR's most popular podcast, Invisibilia, just launched, and I'm really enjoying it.
One of their latest episodes is about the minds of dogs. You should subscribe.
Invisibilia is Latin for "invisible things." It's co-hosted by Lulu Miller, Hanna Rosin and Alix Spiegel, and the show is all "about the invisible forces that control human behavior – ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions," to "make you see your own life differently."
The show has a big cult following with fans on social media counting down to the release of new episodes kind of in the same way as Mad Men fans used to. They were recently listicle'd by Buzzfeed.
This season, the show is doing some fun experimentation with topics more connected to how we are experiencing daily events in the current political and cultural environment.
Where Invisibilia's first two seasons explored how "invisible forces" – fear, personality, thoughts, solutions — shape our individual lives and society more broadly, they're now going with one idea per episode, on a single concept.
How is it that people are looking out at the same landscape and seeing completely different things? Is America 2017 a super unique cultural situation, or is the intense polarization we're experiencing the consequence of something more profound?
In a recent interview, Invisibilia's Alix Spiegel said, "The way emotion works is opposite of what you think—emotions aren't reactions to the world; emotions actually construct the world."
If you haven't listened to this podcast yet, it really opens up your mind to experience life differently.
INVISIBILIA [iTunes]
