Meet Your Brain

Your brain knows different things than you think it does. Prejudice, bias and a number of other traits that we consciously decry may be more hard-wired in our subconscious than we think.

Shankar Vedantam, author of the Washington Post's "Department of Human Behavior" column, has taken a look at the scientific study of subconscious actions. Vedantam says that sexism, prejudice and other behaviors are deeply ingrained, sometimes in opposition to what we say we believe. But yet Vedantam says when people say they are not prejudiced, they aren't lying. They just don't really know what their brain thinks...

LISTEN: SHANKAR VEDANTAM - THE HIDDEN BRAIN

One Name, Two Fates

Wes Moore has made the most of his opportunities. He was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar at Johns Hopkins University. His military career led him to work as a Special Assistant to Secretary Condoleezza Rice at the State Department. He was a featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

About ten years ago Wes Moore learned about another man who had seemingly made as many bad choices as Moore had made good ones. That man's name was also Wes Moore. The other Wes Moore was involved in the tragic murder of a police officer. In reading about the crime and the man involved Wes Moore found some shocking similarities between himself and the other man who shares his name...

LISTEN: WES MOORE - THE OTHER WES MOORE