For nearly 15 years, National Medal of the Arts award-winning poet and author Julia Alvarez has focused on writing picture books and novels for children. But earlier this year, she published her first novel for adults in more than a decade, called Afterlife . The protagonist, Antonia Vega, is a woman in her late 60s reckoning with isolation and her new identity after her husband’s sudden death. In a world upended by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and wrestling with its own kind of communal grief, the themes of the novel resonate in ways that Alvarez never could have predicted.

Artists and arts organizations were quick to adapt to quarantine and coronavirus. Museum tours, operas, Broadway shows, author talks, home concerts and classes for kids sprung up online shortly after closures were announced. But as the dust begins to settle on our new normal, many worry about the long-term economic impact and outlook for the artists, performers and independent organizations essential to the cultural ecosystem.

Billy Bragg is many things: a poet, punk rocker, folk musician, and singer-songwriter. He’s also an activist, music historian, and best-selling author. In the words of another poet, he contains multitudes. Bragg’s newest work, The Three Dimensions of Freedom , is a slim volume that makes a weighty argument. It’s a pamphlet in the tradition of Thomas Paine, whose influential polemics helped spark the American Revolution, and later got him convicted of sedition.

Some dream researchers have seen a 35% uptick in dream recall since the start of the pandemic. And when people process traumatic events — like a terrorist attack, or widespread health crisis — scientists have noticed that people's dreams start to follow similar themes and patterns. We want to know: How have your dreams changed since the start of the pandemic? Call and leave us a voicemail at 404-500-9457 with your wildest, craziest COVID-19 dreams, and share your reflections on how dreaming as a whole may have shifted for you during the pandemic.

From pit bulls to political humor and feminist literature to Folsom State Prison, we’ve got five more stories from the On Second Thought archive to help you weather another Monday. 1) One Man's Mission To Protect 'The Dog America Loves To Hate' This past January, we interviewed Jason Flatt, founder of the Dallas, Georgia-based “ Friends of the Forlorn” Pitbull Rescue . Flatt moved to Georgia after a family tragedy and faced his grief by adopting a pitbull puppy named Angelo. He was inspired to create a sanctuary for pitbulls, which have been widely stereotyped as violent. His organization has become nationally-renowned for its open arms and willingness to take on the most disadvantaged dogs. 2) Rebels and Ramblers: New Ken Burns 'Country Music' Documentary Ken Burns has won acclaim for his documentary work covering wars, disasters, and social movements. His most recent work, “ Country Music, ” aired on PBS in September of last year. We sat down with writer and producer Dayton Duncan to

Compared to the lockdowns and shuttered businesses in countries across the world, Sweden is an outlier. Swedish officials have advised citizens to work from home and avoid travel, but most schools and businesses have remained open. This relaxed approach aims to minimize impact on the economy, and slow the spread of the virus through what is known as “herd immunity.” Now, as the U.S. weighs further spreading the disease against the impact of a tanked economy, some Americans — particularly conservatives — are looking toward Sweden’s model as an option. On Second Thought unpacks the merits, risks and strategy behind Sweden’s approach, and what has become a political talking point here in the U.S.

In addition to changing many aspects of our waking lives, coronavirus has also shifted how we dream. Institutions around the world have been collecting examples of dreams since the outset of the pandemic, and some researchers found a 35% increase in dream recall since lockdown. On Second Thought sat down with Harvard University Assistant Professor Deirdre Barrett to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on our dreaming minds. Barrett has analyzed dreams of World War II soldiers, 9/11 first responders, and Kuwaitis under Iraqi occupation. Since March, she’s collected details on more than 7,000 dreams to study how people are responding to coronavirus in their dreams.

Compared to the lockdowns and shuttered businesses in countries across the world, Sweden is an outlier. Swedish officials have advised citizens to work from home and avoid travel, but most schools and businesses have remained open. This relaxed approach aims to minimize impact on the economy and slow the spread of the virus through what is known as “herd immunity.” But striving for herd immunity without a controlled vaccine in place can also prove risky.

Author Sue Monk Kidd was raised in a conventionally Baptist family in Sylvester, Georgia. Her memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter , follows her turn from fundamentalism into sacred feminine traditions. While best known for The Secret Life of Bees , Sue Monk Kidd has written three bestselling novels. Her newest novel, The Book of Longings , imagines the life of a first century woman named Ana, who becomes the wife of Jesus of Nazareth.

There are many places to air your grievances online, and you might think that the rant itself makes you feel better, and you would be half right. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, sharing your problems and interacting with problem solving strategies...

We may think that we prefer something brand-new to something we’ve seen before, but the truth is we are more likely to enjoy things we are familiar with. In this edition of Two Guys On Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology behind why we like sequels.

When thinking about what drives human behavior there is what we say, what we do, and then what we reward. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, people tend to respond to these things in reverse order.

In our last episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talked about how to influence behavior using rewards first, then examples, and finally verbal direction. However, things aren’t that simple when it comes to building teams and motivating groups, especially in the workplace. In this follow-up edition, they...

One of the reasons it’s so difficult to relate scientific findings to the general public is because the same words literally take on different meanings in those realms. In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke deconstruct two such terms–significance and theory– and talk about why knowing...

Humiliation can make us feel small and insignificant, so why do humans humiliate one another? In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of humiliation and how you can make choices in your life to prevent you from feeling humiliated when the bullies...

Struggle has a way of defining us. But while we often use struggles to teach lessons and build resilience, a struggle without a purpose doesn’t always yield positive results. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the difference between struggling and suffering, and why...

On average most policies are put in place to help people, protect people, or regulate dangerous behavior, so why don’t these policies work? In the most recent episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the unintended consequences of policy, and how psychology can help us discover...

The high reliance on painkillers by the medical community has become an increasingly controversial topic.  For patients, that reliance can easily transform a treatment into an addiction. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the relationship between pain and the brain. And they touch...

As gratifying as applied research is, to set out to answer a specific research question, it’s not always the best way to come up with new ideas, discover new things, and develop understanding. For these things you need basic research or just a curiosity about the world and how it works. As Dr. Art Markman...

A traumatic event in life is like a scratch on a record. Every time the record player, or your mind, runs over the scratch, it skips. This skipping record thought pattern is called rumination. Until we’re able to fill the scratch, it will keep skipping. So how do we fill the scratch, move on and...

Writer’s block! That phrase might induce panic and a recollection of a familiar experience. It’s a very common phenomenon. So what is it? When in the beginning stages of undertaking a new writing project, a writer might find themselves blocked – stuck in front of a blank page or screen with no thoughts coming to...

It can be said that ignorance is bliss, and when it came to football that was the case for our own Dr. Bob Duke. A lifelong football fan, Duke was thrown into a dilemma by a recent study done by researchers at Boston University that revealed that, “chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive, degenerative brain...

Yes, we are a people divided, but what does that really mean and how can we come together? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of political polarization.

Have you ever told someone, “Hey, I read that book!” then continued with a guilty, “…well, I listened to the audio version.” It’s time to wash that guilt right out of your soul, because in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, talk about how our brains process...

For many of us, Thanksgiving means spending time with our families, carrying out traditions that we’ve practiced for years. While it can be very stressful, messy, and challenging to spend time with family members you don’t see very often, it can also be a beautiful time of recentering. Traditions serve a psychological function. By repeating...

When was the last time someone said to you, “just take a breath?” It’s a way to slow down, be in the moment, create space. It’s also a big part of a mindfulness trend. As Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, there are...

There are many benefits to mindfulness, but it might not be for everyone. On this week’s edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the more negative elements of being present.

When it comes to mindfulness there is clear evidence that practicing it can be beneficial, but perhaps not for everyone all the time. It might even have some adverse effects on memory. In our final piece in our series on mindfulness, Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke talk about...

Last month on All Things Considered NPR’s Kelly McEvers and Pop Culture Happy Hour‘s Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon talked about this era of TV and movies, many of which are catering to Gen X nostalgia. Weldon asserted that, “…the strongest nostalgia you feel is for the stuff that you chose. So in your teens...

Because we know “how” things work sometimes we think we understand “why” these things work as they do, and that can be a problem. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the difference between “how” vs. “why” knowledge, and why it’s important to recognize...

There are a lot of factors that help to regulate our overall health and wellness. If we are content in our lives and relationships, we are more likely to be healthy. If we exercise and eat well, we reap the benefits in our mind and body. Also, as recent studies by Ted Kaptchuck and others show,...

This is too good to leave on the cutting room floor. Dr. Art Markman explains new research on how dogs read human facial expressions and what it could tell us about how they think.

We might think that in order to keep order in our households, workplaces, or classrooms, that it’s important to hold people accountable for their negative behavior. However, what that can lead to is a playing field that allows for either nothing to happen or punishment. It is more important to focus on the behaviors we...

Dr. Art Markman offers some advice on how to talk to your children about the Austin bombings.

It turns out you can have too much of a good thing when it comes to your charismatic leader. On this week’s edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explore why that is.

Leadership is not as easy as it might appear. At times even leaders themselves might not be aware of everything that makes their leadership effective. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about leadership and they muse about how it’s easy to work harder than...

Time is important, especially when it comes to the brain. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how our brains process and understand Time, and how we can reorient out goals within tasks to stay motivated and get more done.

Framing negotiations in terms of winning and losing w can set us up for disappointment, not only when it comes to how we negotiate with others but also how we negotiate with ourselves. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke off some other options that might...

Understanding what we want to make public and what we want to keep private might seem like an easy choice. However, as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss in this episode of Two Guys on Your Head when it comes to life online, our brains aren’t quite equipped to navigate the complexity of...

Humans may take the card we swipe for granted at the grocery store when we buy food. We might look at our bank balance and not even think of how unique it is that we can translate those little numbers into experiences and things. It’s merely one of the benefits of having big brains. In...

Last week’s conversation on editing left us thinking, maybe one reason why people are hesitant to edit their work is that they might be seen as going back on their ideas, or flip-flopping. In this week’s edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about why flip-flopping is seen...

We may think that civil discourse is a good idea, but when it gets down to practicing it how skilled are we? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke take on the psychology of civility.

Say a store you love changes hands and you aren’t too fond of the new place. So why do you continue to go back to the store when you know it’s not the same? Turns out a lot of psychology goes into the decision-making process around this dilemma. On this edition of Two Guys on...

A few weeks ago we came across an article on “The Cheerleader Effect,” or the idea that people seem more attractive in a group than in isolation. Although there does seem to be evidence that this is true, we couldn’t help but speculate as to why. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head,...

Can you remember what it was like for you to learn your native language?  Probably not, but why is that? As humans, we begin learning to speak our native language during the earliest stages of our lives, in infancy.  Most people don’t have many accessible memories from this period of development. How do we do...

We might feel like we’ve been duped when we believe a lie someone has told us, and we may want to crawl in a hole when we share “fake news” on Facebook. But in actuality, we have evolved to trust vs. to question, which is why our tendency toward credulity if easily taken advantage of....

We might fancy ourselves as responsible, socially conscious people, but when new technologies such as communal scooters are introduced into our environments all that can easily fly out the window. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the psychology of scooter culture in Austin.

If you’re in a leadership position you know you have to make some difficult decisions. Some of those decisions might put you in the doghouse for a while, but if you are motivated by the good of the group as opposed to the need to be liked, things tend to work out better. In this...

On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke continue their discussion on leadership with a look at the psychology of leadership and the importance of trust.

The two cheapest and easiest things we can do for our health is sleep more and exercise more, so why don’t we do it? Sleep and exercise have an immense impact on physical and mental health both in the moment and for your future self. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr....