Plasticity in Practice Wired for This

What does it take to change a mind? In episode two of Wired for This , we’ll hear from Dr. Katy Milkman, James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and host of the behavioral economics podcast Choiceology . She cofounded the Behavior Change for Good Initiative and has advised organizations such as Google, the White House, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Her research on behavior change has been published in top journals and featured in her bestselling book How to Change . In 2022, Dr. Milkman was also named one of 10 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health by Fortune Magazine and won Penn’s highest teaching award,Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. Transcript Links/Sources mentioned : More from Dr. Milkman: Website How to Change , her self-help book Milkman Delivers , her behavioral science Substack Choiceology , her podcast on how to make better judgments and avoid costly mistakes Dr. Milkman’s studies: Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior . Management Science , 60(10), 2563–2582. Beshears, J., Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Benartzi, S. (2021). Using fresh starts to nudge increased retirement savings . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 167, 72–87. Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2014). Holding the hunger games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling . Management science , 60(2), 283-299. Other academic work discussed Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams . Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , by Carol Dweck Asch conformity experiments , designed by Solomon Asch Petrik, R., Vega, J., & Vindas-Meléndez, A. (2022). A Reflection on Growth Mindset and Meritocracy. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics , 12(1), 408–421. __________________________________ Wired for This is produced and edited by Nwabata Nnani and hosted by Celia Ford. Music by Nat Keefe ___________________________________ American Scientist has been in publication since 1913 and is published by the nonprofit Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. The magazine focuses on producing narrative-driven features by scientists about their own peer-reviewed work. The publication also produces shorter-form staff-written news articles, as well as blogs, multimedia, and social media. See more at

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Plasticity in Practice Wired for This is an episode from American Scientist Podcast by American Scientist Podcast.

This episode is 00:40:21 long.

This episode was published on Sep 24, 2025.

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