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Invisibilia

Invisibilia is about the invisible forces that control human behavior – ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions. Invisibilia interweaves narrative storytelling with scientific research that will ultimately make you see your own life differently.

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Episodes

  • Dani Pendergast for NPR

    Tested (Ep 2): Questions of a Physical Nature

    We go back almost 100 years, to the beginning of women's inclusion in elite sports. It turns out that men had an odd variety of concerns about women athletes. Some doubted these athletes were even women at all. And their skepticism resulted in the first policies requiring sex testing. Tested is a six-part series, you can binge all the episodes now in the Embedded podcast and the CBC feed.

  • Dani Pendergast for NPR

    Tested (Ep 1): The Choice

    New from NPR's Embedded podcast and CBC in Canada: Would you alter your body for the chance to compete for a gold medal? That's the question facing a small group of elite athletes right now. Last year, track and field authorities announced new regulations that mean some women can't compete in the female category unless they lower their body's naturally occurring testosterone levels. You'll meet one of those runners, Christine Mboma, a reigning Olympic silver medalist, and hear about the difficult choice she faces. Tested is a six-part series, you can binge all the episodes now in the Embedded podcast and the CBC feed.

  • caption: The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store.

    Invisibilia Presents: Buffalo Extreme

    If you're a kid and a terrible thing happens, what do you do to feel safe? If you're an adult, how do you offer guidance to the kids when you can't even make sense of what's happened—and when it's your job to act as a shield to the children? Those are some of the questions that animate Buffalo Extreme, a new series from NPR's Embedded. Buffalo Extreme follows a group of Black cheerleaders, their coaches and their mothers in the year after a racist mass shooting at a supermarket just three blocks away from their gym. Several former Invisibilia staff worked on this documentary series, and we're bringing you the first of three episodes. You can listen to the rest of the series in NPR's Embedded podcast.

  • Invisibilia says goodbye.

    The Goodbye Show

    In their final episode, Invisibilia searches for the right way to say goodbye.

  • Illustration of a curious person standing in the midst of three attachment styles, with each style depicted as a textured wash of color.

    Life Kit: What's your attachment style?

    The new year is a time to be reflective and make changes - maybe to yourself or how you relate to others. With resolutions in mind, we bring you this NPR Life Kit episode exploring what attachment styles reveal about your relationships. Reported and guest hosted by our own Kia Miakka Natisse.

  • Art by Islenia Mil.

    Revisiting Love and Lapses: A Conversation with Code Switch host B.A. Parker

    Sometimes the holidays are filled with the people you love. Other times, they're marked by an absence. In this special holiday episode, new Code Switch co-host and former Invisibilia producer B.A. Parker tells a story about family, loss and preserving memories before it's too late. Then Parker joins Kia and Yowei to reflect on the making of this story, and what it means to her now.

  • Invisibilia Season 9, Episode 5

    Power Tools

    Bad bosses. Obnoxious coworkers. Unfair compensation. There are so many reasons people feel disempowered in the workplace. But how can our feelings about power enable or disrupt the larger dynamics we hate at work? This week, Yowei Shaw seeks answers from a power researcher and a union organizer.

  • Invisibilia Season 9, Episode 4

    Freedom Diving

    After months of working from home and retreating from the world, Kia Miakka Natisse is stuck - in her house, and in her head. In an attempt to break out of the funk, she's searching for wisdom at the bottom of the ocean with South Africa's first Black freediving instructor, Zandile Ndhlovu.

  • Invisibilia Season 9, Episode 3

    Therapy Ghostbusters

    In San Jose, California, a community clinic was stumped as to why their clients were seeing ghosts. This week, a story about grappling with ghosts of our past and one clinic's attempt to heal intergenerational trauma.

  • Season 9 Episode 2 of Invisibilia.

    A Little Bit Pregnant

    This week on Invisibilia, could the rebrand of a familiar pill open up a new way to control fertility in a post-Roe America?