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Your future self might not want the life you're planning for them

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Future You.

When we look to the future, we assume we'll be the same person we are today. But journalist Shankar Vedantam says that's not always true — our goals and beliefs will likely change throughout our lives.

About Shankar Vedantam

Shankar Vedantam is the creator and host of the podcast Hidden Brain. Vedantam and Hidden Brain have been recognized with the Edward R. Murrow Award, and honors from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, International Society of Political Psychology, Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, Austen Riggs Center and American Psychoanalytic Association.

Vedantam was NPR's social science correspondent between 2011 and 2020. Before that, he spent 10 years as a reporter at The Washington Post. In 2009, Vedantam served as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Vedantam is the author of the non-fiction book The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives. He is also the co-author of the 2021 book Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Rachel Faulkner is a producer and editor for TED Radio Hour.