Podcasts by Invisibilia
Unseeable forces control human behavior and shape our ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently.
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Podcast on the topic Sozialwissenschaften
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The Goodbye Show from 2023-04-27T22:40:06
In their final episode, Invisibilia searches for the right way to say goodbye.
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Revisiting Love and Lapses: A Conversation with Code Switch host B.A. Parker from 2022-12-16T02:01:48
Sometimes the holidays are filled with the people you love. Other times, they're marked by an absence. In this special holiday episode, new Code Switch co-host and former Invisibilia Listen
Power Tools from 2022-10-07T21:45:35
Bad bosses. Obnoxious coworkers. Unfair compensation. There are so many reasons people feel disempowered in the workplace. But how can our feelings about power enable or disrupt the larger dynamics...
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Freedom Diving from 2022-09-30T07:00:56
After months of working from home and retreating from the world, Kia Miakka Natisse is stuck - in her house, and in her head. In an attempt to break out of the funk, she's searching for wisdom at t...
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Therapy Ghostbusters from 2022-09-23T07:00:47
In San Jose, California, a community clinic was stumped as to why their clients were seeing ghosts. This week, a story about grappling with ghosts of our past and one clinic's attempt to heal inter...
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A Little Bit Pregnant from 2022-09-16T07:00:55
This week on Invisibilia, could the rebrand of a familiar pill open up a new way to control fertility in a post-Roe America?
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The P-Word from 2022-09-09T07:00:02
Alex is a comic who feels perfectly comfortable commanding a packed, rowdy audience, but consistently submits to what other people want in everyday life. This week, a look at how uncomfortable feel...
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Invisibilia Takes Control from 2022-09-06T07:00:46
2022 feels like walking a tightrope. We're grappling with control of our bodies, our time, the direction of our country - while trying to not spin out and just doomscroll. So this season, Invisibil...
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Uncomfortable with power? Tell us about it! from 2022-03-03T15:32:03
Invisibilia is seeking stories about discomfort with power. Stories about leaders denying their power, organizations with supposedly flat power structures and invisible hierarchies, or personal re...
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The Nostalgia Bone from Throughline from 2021-12-09T03:00:46
This week at Invisibilia, we're bringing you an episode from NPR's Throughline about an emotion you might be feeling a lot these days: nostalgia. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better da...
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How To Make Friends from Life Kit from 2021-11-18T10:48:54
It's the end of the friendship season! We'll be back next year with more Invisibilia. In the meantime, if you're hungry for more friendship content, our friends over at Life Kit have done ...
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Therapy, with Friends from 2021-11-04T21:07:42
Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend?Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. Th...
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Poop Friends from 2021-10-28T18:26:04
Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships.
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Friends with Benefits from 2021-10-21T18:47:07
A lot of us think that it's a bad idea to get physical with friends. We worry it'll get messy, maybe even ruin the friendship. But if physical intimacy between friends weren't so taboo, what could ...
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International Friend of Mystery from 2021-09-30T18:40
You know the old saying--keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell the difference? In this episode, the story of two friends who got caught up in a Top Secret oper...
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Nun of Us Are Friends from 2021-09-23T19:16:25
It's a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. We look at two institutions that took away that choice: convents circa the 1960s and a summer program with unusual rules. What ...
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A Friendly Ghost Story from 2021-09-16T23:48
It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone yo...
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Presenting: On Our Watch from 2021-07-07T13:45:06
A 16-year-old Black kid walks into a gas station in Stockton, Calif. to buy gummy worms for his little sister. When the teen gets in an argument with the clerk over a damaged dollar bill, a white o...
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American Slow Radio from 2021-06-12T07:00:37
Let's get slow. Producer Abby Wendle picks up the gauntlet that was thrown down in the last episode "The Great Narrativ...
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The Great Narrative Escape from 2021-05-20T07:00:12
Imagine a TV show with no plot, no characters, no tension... and yet, it went viral! In this episode, we have a story that questions storytelling as we know it. Plus, co-hosts Kia Miakka Natisse an...
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The Chaos Machine: A Looping Revolt from 2021-05-13T19:52:28
Is 209 Times helping or hurting the community it claims to serve? What does the site mean for the future of local news in America? And what can be done about it? In the final installment o...
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The Chaos Machine: Wrathful Lord from 2021-05-06T18:40:42
The man behind 209 Times is not who you'd expect. In Part 2, co-host Yowei Shaw discovers the website's surprising origin story, and ends up at the frontlines of a revolt against the mains...
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The Chaos Machine: An Endless Hole from 2021-04-29T22:47
Yowei gets a tip about Russian trolls in Stockton, California and falls down a hole of swirling conspiracy theories. At the center is a scrappy, controversial website that has become one of the mos...
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Eat The Rich from 2021-04-22T07:00:19
Invisibilia explores a social experiment with money, focused around a contentious topic: reparations. What happens when you demand white people give up their wealth?
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Season 7: New Stories. New Hosts. from 2021-04-19T07:00:12
Invisibilia is back! Stories that help you see the world differently, with new hosts Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw.
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BONUS: Who Do You Let In? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Who do you let in and who do you keep out?
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BONUS: Leave A Message from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Why would you leave a message when you can just send a text?
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BONUS: Invisibilia Live with Story District from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On April 19, 2018 Invisibilia co-hosted our first-ever live event with our friends at Story District.
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The Callout from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When someone in your community transgresses, do you banish them in an attempt to make the community safer for everyone? WARNING: This episode contains obscenities and descriptions of sex and violence.
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Everything Good from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We're living in a polarized world, where picking a side is almost a requirement. But what happens in the space in between?
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The Pattern Problem from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Are we destined to repeat our patterns or do we generally stray in surprising directions? CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of sexual abuse.
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What Was Not Said from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We examine how leaving things unsaid with our intimates can lead to misunderstandings and missed connections.
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The Other Real World from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Can a reality show - and telling a certain kind of story - call a different kind of reality into being?
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I, I, I. Him from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What happens when you lose something so central to your life that you no longer understand who you are? How do you find yourself again?
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Season 4 Trailer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We're living in a black and white world, where the stories we tell ourselves lock us into one side or the other. These stories define us – imprison or liberate us. In their fourth season, co-hosts ...
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High Voltage (Emotions Part 2) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
An anthropologist discovers an emotion, and after a tragic event, comes to understand it. And a young woman does the one thing guaranteed to ruin a date, and learns something about her emotional life.
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Bubble-Hopping (Reality Part 2) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The concept of social bubbles has become popular lately as people grapple with the unexpected outcomes of the 2016 election. We meet two people making radical attempts to break out of their bubbles.
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The Culture Inside from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Is there a part of ourselves that we don't acknowledge, that we don't even have access to and that might make us ashamed if we encountered it?
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Future Self from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We all have a better self, a version of us that is better, more successful. It can inspire us to achieve our dreams, or mock us for everything we have failed to become.
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Season 3 Trailer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On June 1, Invisibilia is back for Season 3! Invisibilia explores the invisible forces that shape human behavior – thoughts, emotions, assumptions, expectations. Check out the trailer for the upcom...
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Outside In from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There's a popular idea out there that you can change from the outside in. Power posing. Fake it 'til you make it. If you just assume the pose, inner transformation will follow. Is it true?
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The Secret Emotional Life of Clothes from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Do clothes have the power to transform us? Seven stories that explore how clothes can change us in quiet but surprising ways with help from Yowei Shaw, Chenjerai Kumanyika and Colin Dwyer.
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Flip the Script from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Psychology has a golden rule too: If I am warm, you are usually warm. If I am hostile, you are too. But what happens if you flip the script and meet hostility with warmth?
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Frame of Reference from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We all carry an invisible frame of reference in our heads that filters our experience. Alix and Hanna talk to a woman who gets a glimpse of what she's been missing – and then loses it.
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Bonus: Mr. Kitt from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this special podcast bonus, Lulu Miller tells the story of William Kitt, a resident of the Broadway Housing Communities, featured in our episode "The Problem with the Solution". William Kitt was...
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The Problem with the Solution from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Americans LOVE solutions. But are there problems we shouldn't try to solve? Lulu visits a town in Belgium with a completely different approach to dealing with mental illness.
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Bonus: Four-Minute Mile from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In a special podcast bonus, Lulu Miller tells the story about a young runner who always thought he had it in him to break the four-minute mile, until a potential change in personality made him ques...
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The Personality Myth from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We like to think of our own personalities, and those of our family and friends as predictable, constant over time. But what if they aren't? What if nothing stays constant over a lifetime?
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The New Norm from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Social norms determine much of your behavior - how you dress, talk, eat and even what you feel. Alix and new co-host, Hanna Rosin, examine two experiments that attempt to shift these norms.
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Season 2 Trailer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On June 17th Invisibilia is back for Season 2! Invisibilia explores the invisible forces that shape human behavior – thoughts, emotions, assumptions, expectations. Check out the trailer for the upc...
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Our Computers, Ourselves from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Our Computers, Ourselves, a look at the ways technology affects us, and the main question is : Are computers changing human character? You'll hear from cyborgs, bullies, neuroscientists and poli...
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The Power Of Categories from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Power Of Categories examines how categories define us — how, if given a chance, humans will jump into one category or another. People need them, want them. The show looks at what categories pro...
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Entanglement from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Entanglement, you'll meet a woman with Mirror Touch Synesthesia who can physically feel what she sees others feeling. And an exploration of the ways in which all of us are connected — more liter...
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How to Become Batman from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In "How to Become Batman," Alix and Lulu examine the surprising effect that our expectations can have on the people around us. You'll hear how people's expectations can influence how well a rat run...
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The Secret History of Thoughts from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Co-hosts Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller ask the question, "Are my thoughts related to my inner wishes, do they reveal who I really am?" The answer can have profound consequences for your life.
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Invisibilia Preview from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Invisibilia, a show about the invisible forces that shape human behavior, weaves personal stories with scientific research that will ultimately make you see your own life differently.
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Trust Fall from 2020-06-13T19:00:55
Hacking, phishing, surveillance, disinformation... these are tools used to silence dissidents and influence elections. But what happens when these same methods are used against an ordinary citizen?...
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Two Heartbeats A Minute from 2020-04-10T07:03
The strange story of an unlikely crew of people who band together to take on one of our largest problems using nothing but whale sounds, machine learning, and a willingness to think outside the box...
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White v. White? from 2020-04-03T07:03
A city council candidate says he's black. But his opponent accuses him of being a white man pretending to be black. If race is simply a social construct and not a biological reality, how do we dete...
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An Unlikely Superpower from 2020-03-27T07:03:20
What if you had a superpower that allowed you to see part of the world that was to come? At the age of 60, a Scottish woman named Joy Milne discovers she has a biological gift that allows her to se...
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The Confrontation from 2020-03-22T07:03:14
Welcome to what is possibly the most tense and uncomfortable summer program in America! The Boston-based program aims to teach the next generation the real truth about race, and may provide some id...
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The Reluctant Immortalist from 2020-03-16T07:03:34
Daniel Martinez discovered the unthinkable: a creature that breaks one of the most fundamental laws of life. In the wake of his discovery--which has been widely confirmed by the scientific communit...
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The Last Sound from 2020-03-08T07:03:21
Bernie Krause was a successful musician as a young man, playing with rock stars like Jim Morrison and George Harrison in the 1960s and '70s. But then one day, Bernie heard a sound unlike anything h...
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Season 6 Trailer from 2020-03-02T08:03:33
You hear the train barreling towards you and you're tied to the tracks. It's an impossible situation. Most people would panic, and then a tiny handful would think up improbable workarounds. This se...
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VIDEO: The (Future) Friendship Machine from 2019-12-20T00:03:38
A special gift during this season of giving: An original animated video in two parts! Part 1 explores a small but strange study about a machine that could predict human friendships. Then, in collab...
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Raising Devendra from 2019-12-17T08:03:54
What happens when you treat artificial intelligence with unconditional love?
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Love and Lapses from 2019-11-22T08:03:17
Producer B.A. Parker started recording her calls with her father because she was concerned about the care at his nursing home. But the recordings gave her a window into something very different: th...
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Back When I Was Older from 2019-10-25T07:03
As a parent, what do you do when your four-year-old starts telling you about memories that can't possibly be his? Memories that he says are from a past life?
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Rough Translation: Liberté, Égalité and French Fries from 2019-10-18T16:25:56
Alix presents a new episode from NPR's Rough Translation about residents of an immigrant neighborhood in Marseille, France who considered their local McDonalds to be a home of sorts, so when the ow...
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The Profile from 2019-09-20T07:03
A mysterious profile pops up on a dating app - leading to a bubble of chaos and confusion. A story about trying to sort fact versus fiction, how destabilizing that can be, and a very strange confr...
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The End of Empathy from 2019-04-12T07:03:13
Invisibilia is a show that runs on empathy. We believe in it. But are we right? In this episode, we'll let you decide. We tell the same story twice in order to examine the questions: who deserves o...
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A Very Offensive Rom-Com from 2019-04-05T07:03:50
A young woman discovers a pattern in her dating habits that disturbs her - a pattern that challenges her very conception of who she is and what she believes in. The realization sets her off on a qu...
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The Remote Control Brain from 2019-03-29T07:03:01
What would it be like if you could control your mood with a hand held device? Literally turn the device to different settings and make yourself happier and sadder? Alix Spiegel talks to a woman who...
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The Weatherman from 2019-03-22T07:03:54
In this episode of Invisibilia, we explore our relationship with uncertainty through the eyes of a chief meteorologist. We wonder: what do you do when you don't know what to do? And how do we handl...
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Post, Shoot from 2019-03-15T07:03:53
What is the relationship between the version of you that lives online and the one that walks around the earth? We think of our online selves as shadow versions of us which we can control. But in th...
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The Fifth Vital Sign from 2019-03-08T08:03
We look at how our culture's massive effort to address pain has paradoxically increased it. And we follow one young girl as she struggles through a bizarre and extreme treatment program. NOTE: The ...
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Season 5 Trailer from 2019-03-04T08:04:23
This moment in our culture can feel fraught. From 'fake news' to the opioid crisis, there's a lot of uncertainty about the future. So this season, Invisibilia helps you discern truth from fiction, ...
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BONUS: Catch-Up with Max Hawkins from 2017-12-22T16:24
In this bonus episode, we catch up with a character from Season 3 of Invisibilia... Max Hawkins, a San Francisco-based computer programmer who initially built an app to help him break out of his pr...
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BONUS: Catch-Up with Bill Millar from 2017-09-12T20:44
In a special podcast bonus, co-host Hanna Rosin checks in with Bill Millar, who we met in Season 2's "Flip the Script." They talk about dating, cats, and how love can look different for everyone. L...
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Rules for Road Tripping from 2017-05-30T22:08
Season 3 has ended but we're hard at work on Season 4! We'll see you soon, but in the meantime, we wanted to share Invisibilia's tips for a successful road trip.
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BONUS: Inside Out! from 2015-02-14T23:39
Alix and Lulu present a bonus podcast about why "Inside Out" was considered as a possible name for the show, but ultimately wasn't chosen.
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Invisibilia Preview from 2014-12-18T20:45
Starting January 9th, NPR brings you Invisibilia, a six episode series about the invisible forces that shape human behavior – ideas, beliefs, assumptions and thoughts. Invisibilia interweaves perso...
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Invisibilia Preview from 2014-12-18T15:45
Starting January 9th, NPR brings you Invisibilia, a six episode series about the invisible forces that shape human behavior – ideas, beliefs, assumptions and thoughts. Invisibilia interweaves perso...
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