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Today on Word of Mouth, we go inside the human brain to find out why thoughts and memories sometimes get stuck right on the tip of our tongues. We'll also talk with a researcher who's taking a neurological look at socio-economics, and we'll find out what's going on in our heads when we're shopping. Plus, why the world's bananas face possible extinction and writer Pagan Kennedy tells us why the best stories are plucked from real life.

(Photo by Piper Falk)

On today's show, we take a look at your brain. Specifically, your brain at that maddening moment when you run into an old acquaintance, but just can’t place their name. Ben? Bob? Brian? You’ve got the “b” part, but the rest just seems to stick on the tip of your tongue. Science editor and writer Jonah Lehrer, became fascinated with this phenomenon, and he stopped by our studio to tell us more.

We also look at the possible links between childhood poverty and brain development. Dr. Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, studies how the stress of growing up in a lower socio-economic status may be damaging to how the brain develops, and is providing new insight into the age-old question of why poverty persists.

And we hear a story from public radio station KQED's QUEST about researchers at Stanford University using complex brain imaging to study how we make financial decisions. They’re finding that emotions play a pretty big role in everyday purchases. Andrea Kissic visited the lab to see what the scientists are coming up with.

(Photo by Piper Falk)

Writer Pagan Kennedy made a living writing for newspapers and magazines while toiling away at fiction. But her fervor for eccentric, real world characters took over. Her forthcoming book, The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories, proves that the truth can often be more interesting than fiction. Her book profiles a bevy of characters, including a chemist who’s transforming the coast of an African nation, a psychologist who’s spent 27 years training an African Grey Parrot to make decisions, and a British biologist who imagined a utopia free from sexual mores or power struggles. She joins us on Word of Mouth to talk about her relationship with creative non-fiction, or, as she simply calls it, “not-fiction.”