258: Unabridged Interview: Shankar Vedantam

258: Unabridged Interview: Shankar Vedantam

From No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp by Tokens Media

April 24, 2026 · 55 min

About this episode

Shankar Vedantam discusses the unconscious aspects of decision-making and the implications for human behavior.

This is our unabridged interview with Shankar Vedantam. We all like to believe that we live our lives rationally, deliberately, and consciously. But what if our conscious decision-making is just the tip of the iceberg? “ I feel like I have a full picture of what's happening inside my own mind,” says Shankar Vedantam. But it turns out “there is a large portion of our mind that's working outside of our conscious awareness.” Shankar founded Hidden Brain Media in order to teach people what science has uncovered about our brains. In this episode, he discusses why we’re not as autonomous as we think we are, and the profound implications for the ways we act, think, and live. ⁠⁠Show Notes, Resources, and Transcript⁠ for abridged episode with Shankar Vedantam⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join NSE+⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — our subscriber-only community — for ad-free listening, member-only bonus content, and early access to live show tickets. Your membership helps make No Small Endeavor sustainable. No Small Endeavor: An award-winning podcast that asks what it means to live a good life. Through conversations with leading thinkers across theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and the social sciences, we explore human…

People in this episode

Host: Lee C. Camp

Guest: Shankar Vedantam

Topics covered

  • decision-making
  • consciousness
  • psychology
  • human behavior
  • science

Keywords

  • rationality
  • conscious awareness
  • autonomy
  • mind
  • Hidden Brain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hidden Brain Media

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