Top 5 Things Which Have Recently Blown My Mind

1. In the 1990s, the concept of repressed memory became popular among psychologists. Many therapists began attributing a patient's problems to traumatic events from the patient's past which he/she had subconsciously blocked from memory. This phenomenon eventually turned out to be much less common than was believed, and in the process many patients were unwittingly convinced that they had been the victims of abuse by their loved ones which never actually occurred.

2. Recent studies have shown that the placebo effect may not actually require a patient to be unaware the drug they are being given is a placebo. Researchers found that placebos benefited patients even when doctors explained to them that they were only taking sugar pills.

3. Renowned psychologist Daryl Bem has found that subjects do better on certain tests when they study—after the test. Bem has conjectured that the brain has a precognitive ability to travel through time and influence its past decisions when it receives a reward.

4. A story of remarkable redemption from my buddy the adventurous Mac Mitchell.

5. Shedding doubt on a few of the items in this list, scientists have observed that after repeating the same experiment over long periods of time, an effect that was observed to be very powerful in an early study will decrease in strength over time. No one knows exactly why, but the phenomenon may be affected by researchers' and scientific journals' eagerness to publish studies with conclusive results. Turns out the only problem with the scientific method is it requires humans to perform it.

Bonus thing: "The Invention of Money"—the most interesting podcast on the economy you'll probably ever listen to.

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