Everything you ever wanted to know about… illusions, magic and the paranormal with Prof Richard Wiseman

Our guest Prof Richard Wiseman is a spectacularly creative scientist who started off his career as a magician before becoming a psychologist. Over the last few decades, Richard has studied the art of deception, parapsychology and the concept of good luck alongside many other aspects of the human mind.

Richard has a hugely popular YouTube channel called Quirkology, with a mere 2.15m subscribers and has written a book called Shoot For The Moon (£20, Quercus), which takes a closer look at the psychology that achieved the Moon landings.

Over two quickfire, 30-minute episodes, Richard tells BBC Science Focus magazine editor Daniel Bennett how to make himself luckier, whether magicians make the best psychologists and why the stories we tell ourselves matter.

And if you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, check out any of Richard’s books at richardwiseman.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @RichardWiseman

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Prof Richard Wiseman breaks down what studying illusions and magic tell us about the human mind.

Richard breaks down what we can learn from our relationship with the impossible.

Shoot For The Moon by Prof Richard Wiseman is out now (£20, Quercus)

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

• Everything You Wanted To Know About… Physics with Jim Al-Khalili
• Gustav Kuhn: Do you believe in magic?
• Richard Wiseman: The mindset behind the Moon landing
• Kevin Fong: Why is the Moon landing still relevant 50 years on?
• Jim Davies: How do you use your imagination?
• Dean Burnett: What’s going on in the teenage brain?