The Invisible Rules of Time: Language and Behavior (With Keith Chen)

Katy Milkman explores how the language we speak shapes our decisions about money, health, and daily habits. Marc Röggla shares the dramatic history of South Tyrol's secret catacomb schools, where German was preserved under fascist oppression, setting the stage for a natural experiment on bilingual children's perception of time. Behaviorial economist Keith Chen then explains his foundational research showing that languages without a grammatical future tense (like German or Mandarin) erase the psychological distance between now and later, boosting savings, exercise, and lower smoking. The episode offers practical ways to reframe future goals in the present tense to trick your brain into better choices.