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Invisibilia

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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

  • Season 1 of the control season - an image featuring a power cord, a high-heeled show, a microphone, and an airplane window.

    The P-Word

    Alex is a comic who feels perfectly comfortable commanding a packed, rowdy audience, but consistently submits to what other people want in everyday life. This week, a look at how uncomfortable feelings about power can backfire on ourselves and the people we love. We get the help of a power expert - a dominatrix - to untangle Alex's power dynamics, and find out what it takes to treat a power allergy.
  • In a new season, Invisibilia takes on control.

    Invisibilia Takes Control

    2022 feels like walking a tightrope. We're grappling with control of our bodies, our time, the direction of our country - while trying to not spin out and just doomscroll. So this season, Invisibilia takes on control. The narratives we have about what's in or out of our control. Invisible tools of control. The crutches we use to FEEL in control but that might not be helping.

  • Talk to us.

    Uncomfortable with power? Tell us about it!

    Invisibilia is seeking stories about discomfort with power. Stories about leaders denying their power, organizations with supposedly flat power structures and invisible hierarchies, or personal relationships with difficult power dynamics. If you have a story about power – at a workplace, in a band, on a high school basketball team, etc... – send a short summary with the subject line – POWER – to invisibiliamail@npr.org. The deadline is March 11th.

  • Illustration by Hokyoung Kim

    The Nostalgia Bone from Throughline

    This week at Invisibilia, we're bringing you an episode from NPR's Throughline about an emotion you might be feeling a lot these days: nostalgia. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better days', many of us have been turning to 90s dance playlists, TV sitcoms, and sports highlights. We're looking for comfort and safety in the permanence of the past, or at least, what we think the past was. But, when it first appeared, nostalgia itself wasn't considered a feeling; it was a deadly disease. This episode traces the history of nostalgia from its origins as an illness to the dominating emotion of our time.
  • caption: Making friends as an adult is hard.

    How To Make Friends from Life Kit

    It's the end of the friendship season! We'll be back next year with more Invisibilia. In the meantime, if you're hungry for more friendship content, our friends over at Life Kit have done several episodes about it - from how to be a better listener, to what to do when a friendship changes. In this episode: practical tips on how to make new friends.
  • Two bodies tossing two heads to each other, in a therapist's office.

    Therapy, with Friends

    Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend?Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on her podcast.
  • An illustration of two thick strands of fecal matter hugging.

    Poop Friends

    Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships.

  • An illustration of a person with a necklace made of candy hearts around their neck. Figures at left and right are eating the candy hearts.

    Friends with Benefits

    A lot of us think that it's a bad idea to get physical with friends. We worry it'll get messy, maybe even ruin the friendship. But if physical intimacy between friends weren't so taboo, what could our friendships look like? In this episode, we explore the gray zone of sex and friendship, following a man who deliberately kept his friendships with women hazy and now wants to apologize, and a pair of BFFs who became close through sex.

  • An illustration depicting a friendly relationship at left and a series of people passing notes up a chain to the right, ultimately to a secret police officer.

    International Friend of Mystery

    You know the old saying--keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell the difference? In this episode, the story of two friends who got caught up in a Top Secret operation that tested their assumptions about trust, betrayal, loyalty, and power.
  • A group of nuns look upward toward the viewer, one holding flowers and another peeking at them.

    Nun of Us Are Friends

    It's a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. We look at two institutions that took away that choice: convents circa the 1960s and a summer program with unusual rules. What do we lose and what do we gain when we give up our preferences and try to make friends with everyone equally?
  • An illustration of a hand grasping at fading lips as another hand tries to push other lips into a smile.

    A Friendly Ghost Story

    It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.