How ‘magic words’ can help you get your way

In the latest episode of the Big Brains podcast, a scholar examines how the power of language—and how you use it—can change your life.

Everyone wishes they had a superpower. Well, it turns out you’ve had a secret power since you were a child, you just don’t know how to use it yet. That’s the power of language.

In a new book, Magic Words: What To Say To Get Your Way (HarperCollins, 2023), Jonah Berger of the Wharton School uses massive data sets and machine learning to tease out the “magic words” that can transform our lives.

Could changing just a single word in your mind help you stick to that diet? Could mastering when to say “you” and when to say “I” save your marriage? Does the word “could” make you more creative than “should”? Get the answers to these questions and more as the podcast delves into the science-backed power of words:

Read the transcript to this episode. Subscribe to Big Brains on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Source: University of Chicago