HACKING HUMAN NATURE [SEASON 1 RECAP]—How Hope Rewires Your Brain, the Myth of Rationality, the Secret to Motivation (It's Not Willpower), the Joke That Disarmed a Nation

I’ve spent the last two months talking with innovators who’ve done wild things—from surviving homelessness to becoming a world-renowned hope researcher, to convincing a sitting President to get roasted on a comedy show to save a landmark policy.

This week, I’ve pulled the most powerful strategies from our recent episodes into one mixtape. The common thread? The most effective ways to create change often defy logic.

This episode is a toolkit for moments when the usual path doesn’t work, covering:

✅ The Science of Hope: Why setting “moonshot” goals improves performance & how to train your brain for bigger risks.

✅ Behavioral Science: How to motivate anyone using identity & social proof, not logic. 

✅ The Power of Awe: Using “lowercase awe” to reduce daily stress and rewire your brain.

✅ Strategic Humor: A look inside the White House’s plan to use comedy to achieve a high-stakes goal.

Plus: one quick how-to from Nathaniel’s episode—a two-part behavioral science playbook to move anyone, including yourself.

Putting these together, I realized it’s a sort of toolkit for moments when the usual path doesn’t work. Because when logic fails, human nature often leaves a side window cracked open.

Here's to breaking through,

— Molly

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🔗 View the full show notes at mollykawahata.com/podcast

🎥 Video episodes available on YouTube

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🎙️ Catch the full episodes for the full story—and the actionable how-tos you can use today:

• THE HOPE SCIENTIST Pt 1—Surviving Homelessness to Becoming the World’s Leading Hope Researcher: Dr. Chan Hellman on the Flaw in Optimism, Destroying Toxic Positivity, & the 3-Part Formula to Predict Success
• THE SILENT CLIMATE MAJORITY—How Behavioral Science Is Activating Millions, The NBA Pattern No One Can Explain, How to Hack Human Nature for Good
• DR. KIM NOLAN—“The Moment I Chose to Stay” (A Buddhist Chaplain’s Journey Through the Veil), the Biological Power of Awe, How to Hack “Timelessness”
• BRAD JENKINS—The Man Who Convinced Obama Into Getting Roasted: Inside the Viral Stunt That Saved Healthcare in America, Why Comedy is the Ultimate Weapon

🎧 Listen to the full Between Stories:

• 🧗‍♀️ THE RESCUE OPERATION I DIDN'T KNOW WAS MINE—A story about cosmic humiliation, climbing, tinder ghosts, and the surprising way humor saves us
• 🌌 WHEN I COULDN'T FIND THE BLACK BETWEEN STARS—A story about Yosemite, awe, and what happens when you hand someone a feeling they might not catch
• 🕓 THE 3AM WHITE HOUSE EPIPHANY—A story about climate, burnout, and the uncomfortable truth that fear might not be what moves us after all
• 🧠  LAUGHING ON THE WAY TO THE ER—A story about denial, Bipolar highs, and the cost of feeling invincible

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🕒 Timestamps

01:03 - Introduction to the science of hope

1:53 - Dr. Chan Hellman: the Science of Hope

13:19 - Nathaniel Stinnett: the silent climate majority

31:33 - Dr. Kim Nolan: the power of awe

41:24 - Brad Jenkins: The White House’s move to use humor to save policy

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