NPR’s Hidden Brain Launch goes Behind the Scenes

You might assume NPR is a quiet place. But on Wednesday, the public radio station decided to toot its horn, celebrating podcasts with its Hidden Brain event, a special preview to a new podcast that begins September 22nd.

The exclusive event drew a crowd, attracting many who expressed their love of specific podcasts and the people who work at NPR. Shankar Vedantam, an NPR science correspondent who did a book signing of his book, “The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives,” was happy to be at the pulpit with people he can relate to.

“You are my people,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean that Vedantam produces esoteric stories. He thinks it’s important to make knowledge from experts accessible to many people.

NPR’s Stephen Thompson, who participates in Pop Culture Happy Hour and works at All Songs Considered and the Tiny Desk Concerts, kept up with the theme of the day, but said with humility and humor that he might not have anything smart to say. After dedicating a lot of time to learning about music, Thompson decided that he wanted to learn more about other types of pop culture, including horror movies. One of his goals with Pop Culture Happy Hour is to produce a show that contains “informed, intelligent, engaged” content that people don’t have the time to look for themselves.

Guy Raz, who is the host at TED Radio Hour, said that he tries to connect with his audience by imagining that he is having a one-on-one conversation with someone. In Raz’s radio show, he also tries to get away from what divides human beings.

“What I’m interested in is what connects us as human,” he said.

The Hidden Brain podcast will begin later this month, but you can check out a sample of the podcast here.