Alix Spiegel
Alix Spiegel has worked on NPR's Science Desk for 10 years covering psychology and human behavior, and has reported on everything from what it's like to kill another person, to the psychology behind our use of function words like "and", "I", and "so." She began her career in 1995 as one of the founding producers of the public radio program This American Life. While there, Spiegel produced her first psychology story, which ultimately led to her focus on human behavior. It was a piece called 81 Words, and it examined the history behind the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
In January 2015, Spiegel joined forces with journalist Lulu Miller to co-host Invisibilia, a series from NPR about the unseen forces that control human behavior — our ideas, beliefs, assumptions, and thoughts. Invisibilia interweaves personal stories with fascinating psychological and brain science, in a way that ultimately makes you see your own life differently. Excerpts of the show are featured on the NPR News programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The program is also available as a podcast.
Over the course of her career in public radio, Spiegel has won many awards including a George Foster Peabody Award, a Livingston Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Spiegel graduated from Oberlin College. Her work on human behavior has also appeared in The New Yorker magazine and The New York Times.
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Some 100 evacuees from towns like Seaside Heights are now staying at a Red Cross shelter on the New Jersey mainland. They don't know where they will live, or what they will do, or what tomorrow will bring. -
Early on in American history, before radio and television, charisma wasn't particularly useful, one scholar says, since most decisions were made behind closed doors. Not so today. But how much difference do personality characteristics and charisma make? -
Teachers' expectations about their students' abilities affect classroom interactions in myriad ways that can impact student performance. Students expected to succeed, for example, get more time to answer questions and more specific feedback. But training aimed at changing teaching behavior can also help change expectations. -
Our capacity to forget is as important, and certainly as interesting, as our ability to remember. But can we train ourselves to suppress certain memories, or the meaning we attach to life events? -
A new study suggests using the term psychopath adds an average of five years to criminal sentences. But once a biological explanation was included, the length of the sentence dropped. In other words, our sympathy for the idea that biology might be responsible for criminal behavior is powerful.
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What is the source of the dysfunction in the FEMA trailer parks, and what can possibly be done to help? In the second part of the Scenic Trails story, reporter Alix Spiegel talks to government officials, mental health counselors, church volunteers and others.
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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has watched the amount of money paid to cover treatment for claims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) rise significantly in the last five years. Some researchers believe veterans who aren't eligible for PTSD compensation are claiming disability. But efforts to redefine PTSD is alarming some veterans' advocates.
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How much does the era you grow up in affect your personality? Psychologist Jean Twenge, a researcher at San Diego State University believes that a key factor in determining primary character traits is the generation that people are born in — and there may be credence to the notion of "The Greatest Generation."
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Some mental health workers are using untested therapies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina -- and that is prompting concern. One such treatment is thought field therapy, in which tapping on a series of acupuncture-type points in the body is thought to free the sufferer from emotional pain.
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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, almost half the residents of New Orleans are in need of mental health services. Health experts say African Americans experiencing emotional problems are not likely to seek care. This is the final of four reports in a series on mental health after the storm.
