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PODCAST

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement

Sam Webster Harris | Growth Mindset Psychology

Most self-help advice is guesswork dressed up as wisdom. We dig into psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral science to find what actually changes lives. WHY LISTEN? Over 8 million downloads because we answer the questions that matter: How do I build mental strength? What creates lasting motivation? How can I understand my own mind well enough to work with it, not against it? This podcast is for curious skeptics who want frameworks backed by psychology studies, not Instagram quotes. Whether

education self-improvement

All Episodes

30:49

How to Catch Your Brain Lying to You: A Practical...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/10/06

It's easy to spend our lives defending a story about who we are, instead of finding out who we could become.This episode is an invitation to stop protecting your ego and start practising self-awareness as a craft. We look at how high intelligence can turn into a sophisticated self-deception machine, and how the stories we tell ourselves—“I’m the rational one”, “I learn from feedback”, “I’m different from those stubborn people”—are often the very things that keep us stuck. Through real examples

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38:50

Faster Than Normal - Living well with ADHD

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/10/02

The peculiar thing about attention deficit is that everybody seems to have it these days, whether they've earned it through proper diagnosis or simply absorbed it from an enthusiastic TikTok video filmed in someone's bathroom.What I've learned, from my own escapades, and partly through reading Peter Shankman's excellent book Faster Than Normal, is that whatever your brain does, you need to learn how to drive it. This conversation covers the four rules Shankman uses to turn a supposedly defective

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36:22

The Deep-Thinking Habits That Quietly Change Your Life

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/29

Train your brain to resist distraction, form your own opinions, and think like an intellectual.When every answer is one click away, we’ve forgotten how to enjoy the struggle of figuring things out. This episode explores the radical act of thinking more slowly in a fast-paced world. Modern life has made us intellectual snackers: we graze on headlines, notifications, and other people’s opinions until our minds feel full on intellectual candy floss. Drawing on ideas from Cal Newport, Charlie

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56:35

Can Psychedelics Really Help You Change Your Patterns?

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/25

Have you ever wonder if the thing keeping you stuck is yourself? Invisible rules your brain runs on that you have no choice over... In this episode, we go inside guided psilocybin retreats to see how people actually change deep mental patterns.As they say the “trip” is only the start. We talk with Gabriel Charalambides, founder of Odyssey, about what happens in the brain during these experiences: the default mode network quiets down, old self-stories lose their grip, and the mind becomes

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37:53

34 Unconventional Life Lessons That Changed My...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/22

Beyond money, status, and attractive partner where do we find meaning, and happiness? Across 34 unconventional life lessons, we explore the inner machinery behind a meaningful life: why status can behave like a sugary breakfast cereal, why exercise is cheaper than many illnesses, and why some of our finest ideas arrive only after we stop staring aggressively at a blank page. Along the way, we consider discipline, creativity, money, identity, empathy, confirmation bias, and the possibility that

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49:47

Why So Many People Secretly Struggle With Porn Addiction

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/18

An honest conversation on addiction, depression, and identity with recovery coach Powerful Eric.This week we talk about the strange modern epidemic of porn addiction, an affliction so quietly widespread that roughly one in nine men wrestle with it, yet almost nobody mentions it at dinner. Eric explains how the brain mistakes novelty for reward, why the "disease model" of addiction may be doing more harm than good, and how a golden Buddha buried under centuries of clay became his favourite

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32:13

Psychology of Mistakes: 7 Lazy Thinking Habits You...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/15

Human beings, it turns out, are magnificently good at fooling themselves. Sadly the mind has developed an elaborate way of hiding our worst thinking mistakes from us. Our shortcut-taking so instinctive we rarely notice it happening. This episode explores seven of these habits and on the way answers a lot of questions. Why do we blame the referee and ignore our own missed shots? Why does a friend's anecdote beat a mountain of statistics? Why do the people who commit history's worst atrocities

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25:19

8 Questions I asked Myself after 30

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/11

The World Record Breaking Jack Cai is back on the show. Asking Sam some of the deep life questions he asks himself a lot.To say this was a discussion on a single topic that stayed focused would be a big old lie. We discuss various random things: from making the most of your time on earth or with your grandparents to youtube thumbnail strategies. Should Sam keep building a podcast in a crowded market, or walk away entirely? Is a rootless, nomadic life actually freedom, or a disguise for avoiding

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33:17

How To Solve Complex Problems

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/08

This episode asks a simple question: what if the way forward isn't a bigger vision, but a smaller unit of thought? We trace this idea through history, biology, and the quiet architecture of the mind, showing how growth rarely comes from grand gestures. It comes from identifying the one reliable piece worth repeating. The paradigm shift isn't thinking bigger. It's thinking smaller, on purpose, until the small thing becomes unstoppable.Find the smallest version of the idea worth trying

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49:02

How to Shift Your Mindset and Take Control of Your...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/04

Scarcity whispers that there isn't enough. Ego insists you deserve more anyway. Abundance is the quiet third option nobody mentions.Most of us were handed scarcity as a default setting. This episode sits with that tension: what scarcity actually protects us from, why ego is so loyal to it, and what shifts when abundance becomes a practiced choice instead of a lucky feeling. It's less about having more and more about needing less from the wrong things. Ask what your ego is really protecting

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29:26

7 Painful Paradoxes of Self-Improvement (And what...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/09/01

You know that feeling when you try so hard to seem normal that you become a weirdo? Self-improvement works the exact same way.The more you chase happiness, the further it runs. The more validation you seek, the emptier you feel. This episode breaks down 7 painful paradoxes when we take on personal growth — psychological traps where trying harder makes things worse. We dig into King George VI's stutter, Carl Jung's shadow work, and why Steve Jobs getting fired was the best thing that happened to

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46:32

Seeking Difficulty: The Habit System Behind Three...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/28

What if the thing you're avoiding is exactly what you should pursue?Jack Cai broke three world records solving Rubik's Cubes blindfolded, for teh same reason America suppsoedly went to the moon. "Not because it is easy, but because it is hard" This episode explores the mindset shift that happens when you stop asking "How can I make this easier?" and start asking "What's so hard that almost no one else is doing it?" Jack shares his five-year journey from curiosity to world record, the habit

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25:14

Psychology of Mental Strength: 3 Habits to build...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/25

We've been sold a myth: that mental toughness means gritting your teeth and pushing through, disregarding their emotions entirely.The people who actually build lasting resilience do something different. They get honest with what they feel and investigate it. They notice when their mind drifts into yesterday's mistake or tomorrow's fear, understanding why helps them choose the present instead. They learn to tell the difference between what they want right now and what they actually value and

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51:58

A Growth Mindset Alone Won’t Make You a Better...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/21

Explore the psychology of effective leadership and the hidden mental patterns that influence how you handle fear, failure, and change.A leader can learn new skills, adopt ambitious goals, and proudly claim a growth mindset—yet still remain trapped by the way they interpret the world. Sure, you might believe people can change, but... Are you willing to hear what you do not want to hear, pursue what matters instead of merely avoiding loss, and see the people around you as human beings rather than

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34:28

Master Finishing Things - Psychology vs Productivity,...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/18

Productivity gurus insist we must engineer ourselves into completion machines. This is nonsense, rather like insisting everyone should enjoy opera. The truth, as behavioral psychology reveals, is delightfully simple: we finish what we're motivated and able to do. Everything else is self-sabotage mistaken for ambition. Perfectionism, is a whole side mission that gets in the way of anything causing creative constipation. We can start working smarter by abandoning the unrewarding, delegating the

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26:47

AMA - How to choose meaningful opportunities, take...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/11

A meaningful life is not built by choosing perfectly. It is built by learning how to choose, revise, and continue.In this AMA, Sam examines the hidden forces that shape our decisions: fear of failure, the need to appear competent, resistance to unfamiliar ideas, and the pressure to follow paths that already look successful. The episode then asks a larger question: what is worth doing with the limited attention and time we have? The answer is not simply the most profitable idea or the most

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36:14

Start Before You Feel Ready - How to Overcome...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/07

Most people wait to feel ready before they begin. But readiness is often the the feeling we only enjoy after we have already taken the first step.Jonathan Petrides, founder of AllPlants, knows what it means to keep going when the obvious answer is “no.” He was rejected by every university he applied to, experimented with businesses that went nowhere, and eventually built a company around a simple insight: people may want to eat more plant-based food, but wanting something and making it easy are

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25:17

How to be remembered in a forgetful world - 3 rules...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/08/04

Most people don’t have a skills problem. They have a memory problem.. no one remembers them. So why is it you can say all the right things and still be forgettable? Because people don’t store information, they store feelings. Think about the last person you met. You probably don’t remember what they said. But you remember how they made you feel. In this episode, we break down the psychology of first impressions and why “telling” people your strengths quietly fails. Instead, you’ll learn how to

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37:03

How to Build Worldly Wisdom - The Greatest Mental...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/07/28

What if the goal isn’t to be right, but to be less wrong, over time?Charlie Munger didn’t chase brilliance. He built a philosophy. A quiet system for navigating uncertainty, grounded in psychology, humility, and a refusal to follow the crowd. In this episode, we explore what it means to develop “worldly wisdom”—a latticework of mental models that help you see reality more clearly. This isn’t about hacks or shortcuts. It’s about choosing to think differently. To question your instincts and notice

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25:33

Are You Creating Your Life, Or Uncovering It? — What...

Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of... ·

2026/07/21

Explore the psychology of identity, creativity, and timing in this deep dive on mindset, leadership psychology, and finding your path.Today we ask if success is not a thing you manufacture, but a pattern you learn to recognize? This episode explores a different model of growth: one where Confucius, Radiohead, and lightning rods all point to the same truth. The world is full of tension, potential, and unfinished energy. The rare person is not always the one who creates something from nothing, but

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