The Depths

The Story of Stories

Hidden Brain, 26 October 2026. The author is the guest. The book comes up at 56 min 49 sec in.

Jonathan Rottenberg, a Cornell University psychologist, returns to Hidden Brain to respond to listener questions about his book's argument that depression is not merely a chemical imbalance but a mood system that alerts us to threats in our lives. He addresses a listener critique about framing depression as having a 'silver lining,' discusses the link between depression and creativity, and urges finding ways to acknowledge vulnerability while minimising its destructiveness. Host Shankar Vedantam facilitates.

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