
The Standard Deviations podcast is a weekly production that looks at money, mind and meaning, all through a psychological lens. Each week, psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Daniel Crosby interviews a fascinating new guest, experts in everything from finance to literature to wellness. Each guest provides listeners with three concrete ways to apply what was learned that week, ensuring that weekly listening becomes part of a path to a richer life. Episodes are brief, research-based, and designed to fit perfectly within your commute time. So, tune in for practical news that will help you make more, think...
10

<p>Tune in to hear:</p> Where do people consistently misperceive their own behaviors and their own financial tendencies? Also, what are the forces that drive those blindspots? Why do so many financial planning tools optimize for all the wrong things and how can we make client services better center the client and their goals? What are Marla’s hopes for the world of tech when it comes to minimizing the “knowing-doing gap?” Do people need more financial literacy or self-literacy/self-awareness? In the medium term, how does Marla see the role of the financial advisor changing with respect to AI? Wh...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>What does Swiss-born British author Alain de Botton have to say about Macbeth’s cynical soliloquy on the brevity and meaningless of life? Why does he state that despair and hope are two sides of the same coin?How does storytelling make a truth durable in our minds by linking an idea to an ego?Why is our internal dialogue one of the most important stories that we tell? How can we go about making it a more productive dialogue and less self-depricating?How can Albert Ellis’ “ABC Model” help us counteract irrational thoughts and cogn...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>What does the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Chanoyu, symbolize beyond the ritualized preparation of tea?Why are rituals so important and how can we incorporate ritual into our modern lives?What did Polish Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski discover about the importance of fisherman's rituals in Papua New Guinea?How can rituals ease neural tension after a difficult day and give us a sense of control during chaotic times in our lives?Why is active participation in a ritual a prerequisite of reaping their potential benefits?How do we, practically, go about ritualizing our own life purpose?<...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>How did Florence Nightingale transform the healthcare landscape in her time?How did Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring, call for a greater awareness of environmental degredation and a heightened awareness of the fragility of our planet?Why did Norman Borlaug win The Nobel Prize, The Presidential Medal of Freedom and The Congressional Gold Medal? Where can his legacy be seen in the present day?Why does participating in activism lead to a greater sense of wellbeing?Why are greater levels of activism also correlated to greater physical health?<p>Links</p>The...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>How can southern author Flannery O’Conner’s emphasis on the importance of truth be seen in both her writing and the way she lived her life?What did German-American psychoanalyst Erich Fromm have to say about the difference between the “having” and the “being” modes of existence? Also, what can Tennyson’s and Basho’s poems on flowers teach us about each mode of existence?How does contemporary advertising encourage us to confuse having and being?Why does a focus on having often come at the expense of being?<p>Links</p>The Soul of WealthOr...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>How was the Japanese art of ceramic repair, kintsugi, born out of Ashikaga Yoshimasa’s happy accident with a piece of Chinese ceramics?What lessons can we take from the art of kintsugi, or more broadly Wabi-sabi, regarding resilience, rebirth and the acceptance of imperfection?What has scientific research uncovered about the value of learning from past mistakes?Why does nearly winning provide more motivation than winning or losing by a big margin?What do scientific studies have to say about the optimal rate of failure for personal growth? Why might this hold true fo...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>Why did Diogenes of Sinope stand out among other Cynic Philosophers of the time and how did he use “principled unseriousness” to bring levity and illuminate truths about life?What did the lantern that Diogenes carried with him symbolize metaphorically?Why was Plato such a strong critic of laughter and why did he believe that it was an emotion that can override self-control?What styles of humor are most predictive of improved functioning and thriving? What styles of humor predict just the opposite?What did Viktor Frankl say about the critical role of humor in h...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>What mindset differences does Brad notice between advisors who are barely getting by and the ones who are 2-4xing their business?Why is focusing on talent acquisition and having a convincing growth story such an important part of growing your business?What is the baseline mindset that Brad often has to move advisors away from to encourage their growth?What distinguishes high-growth cultures from mediocre cultures and what are some actionable ways a company can improve their culture?What’s the psychology behind closing the knowing-doing gap for advisors?What are two actionable th...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>What is “The Betty Crocker Effect” and what psychological principle explains this phenomenon? What does this say about the perceived relationship between effort and value?Why is effort generally thought of as a cost in classical economics and why does this way of thinking about it often get it wrong?Thomas Payne stated “that which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.” How does this play out in the case of money that is inherited, or won, versus money that was worked for?Do animals also show a preference for rewards they worked for vers...

<p>Tune in to hear:</p>What did Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha, discover when he left his father’s palace and how did this inform his philosophy going forward? What are Buddhism’s “four signs” that he then witnessed and how did this spur on his quest for enlightenment?For Proust, what is the only true voyage of discovery and foundation of eternal youth?What does mindfulness look like in practice? Also, what have researchers discovered as the constituent parts of mindfulness?How do “reappraisal” and “savoring” play into the relationship between mindfulness and meaning in MMT (Mindfulness to Meaning Theory)?Try an e...