Five Best Psychology Podcasts Of 2022

 Psychology podcasts are tailor-made for podcasting because the "talk therapy" process is inherently an audio system. Instead of a mental health provider speaking with a patient, we have a podcast host speaking with psychology professionals. 

Like almost any genre in podcasting, there are as many psychology podcasts as there are theories of psychological therapy such as cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and holistic therapy.

These five psychology podcasts all blaze a divergent path to mental awareness and psychological insights.

 All In The Mind

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) podcast All In The Mind is one of the best psychology podcasts I’ve encountered.

The show’s host is Sana Qadar, who was apparently born to host a podcast. It has to be genetic. She’s just too good to have learned the skills intrinsic to podcast hosting — a resonant voice soaked with empathy and a desire to inform, and a cadence that sounds like each spoken word is carefully curated before being uttered.

Qadar is an award-winning podcaster and journalist whose work has featured on the ABC, BBC, SBS, Al Jazeera, and NPR to name a few. Most recently she was acting Deputy Editor, Multicultural at ABC Life, and co-hosts the SBS podcast Eyes on Gilead, which won a 2019 Australian Podcast Award for Best Fancast.

Some of the notable episodes this year include ‘I’m going to cook my baby’, which looked at dolls and how they can tell us a lot about how kids see the world — especially when it comes to race. In the episode, one American researcher spent months watching pre-schoolers play with dolls, and what she observed shocked her.

The episode also answers this question. Did you know the very first study of children and their thoughts about dolls actually changed the course of American history?

Can you change your personality? looks at a wish many people make. I wish I could change my personality? Many people do, according to studies cited in the episode, and we would like to — become more extroverted, more agreeable and more conscientious.

The episode poses two critical questions. What does the evidence say about whether people do change? And can you tweak your personality deliberately?

You’ve got the music in you is the most recent episode at the time of this review. In this episode, All In The Mind explores how music affects us from the womb through the rest of our lives — and what new research tells us about its measurable impact on our mental health.

Plus, the ‘plink’ test — how our musical memories can identify a track from just a sliver of song, and the power of music to shape our emotions.

It's safe to say that "down under" is adept at talking about things "up top."

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain (created and hosted by Shankar Vedantam) is billed as a podcast that "explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world."

In almost every episode, Vedantam takes long-standing beliefs we hug like a "child's blankie"  and carefully strips away at our fortress of misconceptions. 

Consider the June 6th episode, where Vedantam posits a radical concept. From the episode's show notes: "The human drive to invent new things has led to path-breaking achievements in medicine, science and society. But our desire for innovation can keep us from seeing one of the most powerful paths to progress: subtraction. Engineer Leidy Klotz says, 'sometimes the best way forward involves removing, streamlining and simplifying things.'"

In the episode, Vedantam transports us to a corporate brainstorming session where overzealous and eager-to-please execs eject hundreds of ideas on new projects for the company to pursue. No one considers, however, that a more productive and fiscally responsible solution could be to do less -- cut unproductive projects and remove processes that increase cost and decrease flexibility. 

Hidden Brain acts as a sonic mirror, coaxing us to re-consider our emotional core, and intellectual scaffolding.  One of the best episodes to cool down the temperatures of polarized political debate is the March 7, 2022, episode, "Putting Our Assumptions To The Test." I dare you to listen and not come away questioning at least some of your current political beliefs.

No Stupid Questions

 No Stupid Questions, from the Freakonomics stable of podcasts, isn't, strictly speaking, a psychology podcast. But it should be. Psychologist and Grit author Angela Duckworth and Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner are a dynamic duo of intellectual and psychological truth seeking and (truth in advertising) asking all kinds of questions.

On one episode this year, the hosts discussed Seasonal Affective Disorder, aka SAD, although the interplay between the two hosts could be enough to brighten your mood.

The hosts talk through the latest research on seasonal changes affecting mood and mental health, and the effectiveness of the various tricks to combat it, from cognitive behavioral therapy to sitting in front of a light box. Plus, there’s an occasional detour into topics like “the whole school of diaper optimization.”

Episodes of note include improving your mental endurance, Duckworth's potty mouth and the psychology of cursing, the mental scarring from grudge holding, and why are rich countries so unhappy.

Speaking Of Psychology

Speaking of Psychology is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important, and relevant psychological research being conducted today. Produced by the American Psychological Association, these podcasts are billed as helping listeners apply the science of psychology to their everyday lives.

They can and they do.

The show is straightforward in its approach, with each episode tackling a different topic of psychology. The show's host Kim Mills, its external communications director, isn't the liveliest of hosts, but she asks probing questions and understands the concept of conversational flow.

Some of this year's best episodes include one about apologies. Women apologize more often than men, but they also take offense more often than men. Apologies that include the word "but" are counterproductive, and an apology doesn't include the phrase I'm sorry" isn't really an apology. Finally, offering an apology doesn't mean forgiveness is immediate. 

The episode on procrastination is a must-listen for those who still haven't taken down their Christmas lights by June. And relationship advice from a couples psychologist can save us from "conscious uncoupling."

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris

Ten Percent Happier was started by ABC News reporter Dan Harris.

Harris has assembled an impressive career at ABC. He joined ABC News in 2000. He anchored World News Sunday from 2006 to 2011 and frequently anchored World News, ABC World News Tonight weekend editions and Nightline. In August 2021, Harris announced that he would be leaving ABC News to focus on his meditation company, which is Ten Percent Happier.

After having a nationally televised panic attack, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists.

Eventually, Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had propelled him through the ranks of a hyper-competitive business, but had also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out.

Eventually Harris stumbled upon an effective way to rein in that voice, something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation, a tool that research suggests can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain.

Episodes of note this year include one dedicated to a serious mental dumpster fire called "overthinking," and one with Susan Cain (Bittersweet author) where she explores the roller coaster ride we all take from inherent joy to sadness.

In a world where recent research shows that antidepressant medications may be no more effective than mindfulness and meditation, Harris's predilection for such holistic therapies may be onto something.

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There has been an explosion of happiness podcasts, which, in many ways, are psychology podcasts. There are some good ones. First and foremost is the Happier with Gretchen Rubin, whose 2009 book, The Happiness Project jump-started the focus on happiness, The Science Of Happiness podcast, and Good Life Project.