Alix Spiegel

Editor's note: This story first ran on Jan. 16, 2015, as part of NPR's Invisibilia podcast. It's about a man who decided he no longer wanted to be ruled by fear. Without realizing it, he used a standard tool of psychotherapy to help him stop dreading rejection.

And if ...

If you have two legs, there are a variety of ways you can get around. Walking, running, leaping, hopping, skipping, prancing, powerwalking, heck, even grape-vining. The list goes on and on. But what is the most efficient?

Not the fastest, but the most efficient: requiring ...

The latest episode of NPR's Invisibilia takes us online. Some people think interacting with these machines is changing us all — for better and worse.

Human relationships are entanglements, and those connections often aren't clear to us at all. When Maria Bamford impersonated her mom, she realized what she loved about her — and about herself.

Jason Comely's fear of rejection was so strong that he'd become completely isolated. So he set out to get himself rejected at least once a day, every day. Funny thing is, it worked.

Sure, you resolve to exercise more, but somehow it never happens. It could be that your environment is sabotaging you, psychologists say. A famous study about heroin and the Vietnam War explains how.

When we talk, we focus on the "content" words — the ones that convey information. But the tiny words that tie our sentences together have a lot to say about power and relationships.

The tobacco industry played an influential role in the funding and popularization of stress research. A vast document archive details the relationships between cigarette makers and key scientists.

After a suicide, family members are often devastated. Depression rates are much higher than when a loved one dies naturally. But Sandy Bem's family says her approach to suicide helped them mourn.

What we think about food may change how our bodies respond to it. Sip what you think is a rich milkshake, and your body acts as if you've had a fatty treat, even if it's really a lower-calorie drink.

We're all seduced by repetition, music research suggests — 90 percent of the music we listen to, we've heard before. Beyond music, this bias toward familiarity holds up in every culture. What gives?

When 3,000 average citizens were asked to forecast global events, some consistently made predictions that turned out to be more accurate than those made with classified intelligence.

Research suggests that after a basic standard of quality is met, what becomes a success and what doesn't is essentially a matter of chance.

Her hair is brown and tied back into a professional-looking ponytail. She wears a blue shirt, tan sweater and delicate gold chain. It's the first time she has met the man sitting across from her, and she looks out at him, her eyes curious.

"So how are you doing ...

Patricia East is a developmental psychologist who began her career working at an OB-GYN clinic in California. Thursday mornings at the clinic were reserved for pregnant teens, and when East arrived the waiting room would be packed with them, chair after chair of pregnant adolescents.

It was in this waiting ...

From the first explosion in Boston on Monday to the second, just 15 seconds elapsed. And in those 15 seconds, three people were mortally wounded, including an 8-year-old boy. The number of injured topped 100, and for those of us watching, it was a profound reminder of a reality we'd ...

All day long we're surrounded by faces. We see them on the subway sitting two by two, pass them on the sidewalk as we make our way to work, then nod to them in the elevator.

But most of those faces don't tell us much about the emotional life of ...

Were people happier in the 1950s than they are today? Or were they more frustrated, repressed and sad?

To find out, you'd have to compare the emotions of one generation to another. British anthropologists think they may have found the answer — embedded in literature.

Several years ago, more or ...