Hidden Brain: "Perceptions" Tour with Shankar Vedantam
Shankar Vedantam brings a decade of Hidden Brain insights to the stage at Town Hall NYC — seven key ideas about the unconscious forces shaping our lives.
Why we picked this
A rare live version of one of science radio's most thoughtful programs — Vedantam has a gift for making behavioral science feel like a revelation rather than a lecture.
The question that launched Hidden Brain ten years ago — are there parts of our minds hidden from us? — gets a live treatment at Town Hall, where host and creator Shankar Vedantam distills a decade of behavioral science into seven foundational insights. This isn’t a simple podcast recording; it’s a performance of science and storytelling designed for the room, with space for audience exchange.
Vedantam has spent the past decade translating academic psychology and neuroscience into ideas that actually change how people navigate their relationships, work, and emotional lives. His ability to sit at the intersection of rigorous research and human narrative has made Hidden Brain one of the most listened-to science programs in the world, reaching millions across NPR and independent distribution.
What makes this particular evening distinctive is its cumulative structure — rather than one topic, Vedantam draws across the breadth of what the show has explored, constructing a portrait of the unconscious forces that shape perception, decision-making, and self-understanding. Whether you’ve listened to every episode or never heard the show, the evening is designed to leave you seeing your own mind differently.