Have you ever considered rowing across the Atlantic? How about making it even more challenging by doing it whilst wearing an ECG monitor and filling in psychological questionnaires? Claudia Hammond speaks to the first Austrian woman to row the Atlantic, Ciara Burns, who collected data throughout her 42 day crossing. And to the professor who studied the data, Eugenijus Kaniusas from the Vienna University of Technology, about the three big dips in mood along the way. Ciara talks about the emotional highs and lows of rowing to America, about the night skies, meeting whales, and how it feels when the Atlantic comes crashing down on you.
Sports psychologist Peter Olusoga from Sheffield Hallam University, discusses mental preparation for an adventure like Ciara's and how being in the middle of the Atlantic, with the astronauts on the international space station as your nearest other humans, can provide a lasting perspective change.
Peter also describes a new piece of research showing that smelling other people's sweat, collected whilst they watched scary films, can help us to be more observant and overcome a well-established psychological effect known as inattentional blindness.
And Claudia talks to Tiago Pereira, a Portuguese psychologist who is calling for psychologists to put a full stop to poverty. He says that psychologists are uniquely placed to communicate the causes and consequences of poverty, and to use that information to demand governmental policy changes.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Lorna Stewart
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
Production Co-ordination: Siobhan Maguire
Editor: Holly Squire
The psychology of hope
Seasonality, learning to hope, and the gender citation gap
How nightmares link to real-life fears, and new research tackling post-cardiac arrest PTSD
The science behind screentime, the effect of live music, and can you imagine sounds in your head?
What's going on with girls' mental health?
Eating to improve memory, and a new play about mental health services
What Mastermind can tell us about blinking, how music shapes memory and why anger can be a useful emotion
The impact of bad news, compassion fatigue, and the psychology of whistleblowing
ADHD medication shortage, life after being a carer and the benefits of keeping positive secrets
Belief in conspiracy theories, exercising before work, and living with OCD
New psychosis drug, why its hard to recall 2021, and counselling in later life
Grieving when estranged, musical hallucinations and the benefits of snoozing your alarm
Increasing humility, suppressing negative thoughts and talking about mental health at work
All in the Mind Awards Ceremony
Male friendship
The perfection trap: do you feel 'good enough'?
Can we fix mental health care?
Stories of Loss and Hope
Supporting a son with schizophrenia
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