Two Guys on Your Head

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November 29, 2013

We Can Choose Our Delusions

By: Rebecca McInroy

Merriam-Webster defines delusion as “a belief that is not true; a false idea.” But who’s to decide what is true? Being tagged as delusional carries a negative, unpleasant connotation – calling to mind straight jackets, or maybe some scenes from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But thanks to our powers of perception – and Drs. Bob Duke and Art Markman – you can choose to change your definition of delusion. When you get down to it, much of human existence is delusional. We use our imaginations to fill in meaning, value, expectations and definitions around a small sliver of what we can actually observe in our surroundings. Our mental state – essentially our level of happiness or unhappiness – is based on how we choose to define and perceive our circumstances.


Episodes

February 14, 2025

The Word Love

Our producer, Rebecca McInroy, spent a lot of time in Greece as an undergraduate studying and living there; she adores the country and the language. On one of her first trips there, a Greek man accused her of being from a country of “barbarians” because in the English language, there is only one word for […]

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February 7, 2025

Disappointment: Trauma and Expectations

Disappointment is unpleasant, and many times, when we’ve experienced past disappointments, we adjust our expectations so we don’t have to go through that again. Still, sometimes, that isn’t the best way to navigate our emotional lives. In the third and final episode of our series on the psychology of disappointment, Two Guys on Your Head, Art […]

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January 31, 2025

Disappointment: Discipline

Disappointment is unpleasant, but we rarely take the time to reflect on the social dimensions of the feeling. In the second episode of our series on the psychology of disappointment, Two Guys on Your Head, Art Markman, Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy talk about the role of disappointment as discipline.

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January 24, 2025

Dissapointment: Expectations

Feeling disappointment is not pleasant, but rarely do we take the time to reflect on how re-calibrating our expectations can help us navigate disappointment more constructively. In the first episode of our series on the psychology of disappointment, Two Guys on Your Head, Art Markman, Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy talk about the role of expectations.

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January 17, 2025

Planning

It’s the start of the new year, and for many of us, it’s a time to plan projects and events or set goals. However, even with the best-laid plans, why do we have difficulty accomplishing all we set out to do or feel a sense of relief rather than joy when we complete big tasks? […]

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January 10, 2025

The Psychology of The Artifical

*This episode contains artificially generated audio content. As humans, understanding what is “real” vs. what is “artificial” is something we are continuously coming to terms with. Feeling duped by something you thought was something else can be disconcerting. As part of The University of Texas Year of AI, Two Guys on Your Head, Art Markman, Bob Duke, […]

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January 3, 2025

Explaining Intuition

When we see experts in action, there can be something mysterious about how they work; they seem to just “know” what to do. That process of knowing is no accident, but trying to explain that process is almost impossible. In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Art Markman, Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy discuss the psychology of explaining […]

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December 27, 2024

Educating Intuition

When we see true experts in action, there can be something mysterious about how they work; they seem to just “know” what to do. That process of knowing is no accident. In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Art Markman, Bob Duke, and Rebecca McInroy talk about the psychology of educating intuition.

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