Originally shared in our October 2026 Top of Mind Newsletter.
Martin Seligman, the University of Pennsylvania psychologist behind the research on learned helplessness and optimism, spends two Hidden Brain episodes with Shankar Vedantam on why some people act on what’s in front of them while others decide nothing they do will matter. In Part 1, he builds his case for agency, which he describes as having three parts, efficacy, optimism, and imagination.
To illustrate this, he explains that about a third of the people in his helplessness experiments never gave up, and that how they explained setbacks to themselves set them apart. These people exhibited high degrees of agency.
Part 2 is where the conversation gets practical. Seligman says agency can be learned and then provides us with some ways to do it. For example, when your mind jumps to the worst case, write down the worst outcome, the best, and the most likely, then plan for the likely one. Start absurdly small, like washing one cup from a pile of dishes, and build from there. Put your strongest traits to work on purpose.
Throughout the episodes, Seligman offers much wisdom for those of us who feel ourselves stuck, limited, or otherwise languishing.