9 mind-expanding podcasts to listen to if you only have 30 minutes

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The average morning commute in the US is just shy of 30 minutes.

That's no fun if you spend it in rush-hour traffic, but it's a good time to try out a new podcast, especially one that upends the way you see and think about the world.

From business to history to psychology, here are some of the most mind-expanding podcasts that you can gobble up in a half-hour or less.

Hidden Brain

In Hidden Brain, host Shankar Vedantam guides listeners through their own cognitive missteps, biases, and blind spots.

He reveals the many hard-to-see ways our decision making and judgment are influenced by various forces, such as our built-in fear of losing money and our tendency to romanticize the past.

There's a lot we don't know about the human brain, but Vedantam illuminates the fascinating things we do know — but probably don't notice.

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin has written extensively on happiness — both her own and others' — and distills many of the big concepts in her weekly podcast, which she co-hosts with her sister, Elizabeth Craft.

Many of the episodes center around cultivating happiness through the building of good habits (and the avoidance of bad ones).

Though happiness can seem elusive for many people, the co-hosts present it as something well within reach.

Arming the Donkeys

Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely is an expert in human irrationality.

In Arming the Donkeys, he sits down with authors, researchers, and fellow social scientists to discuss the many ways humans seem to violate their own self-interest through behavior.

That can mean overpaying for certain goods, feeling bad when you should be feeling good, and generally misunderstanding the world around you.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider