The Cabrera Lab Podcast

#105: Think It Through: Helping Others See What They’re Missing

Get 20% off any STSI course with code SIMPLE20 — start building your mental fitness today! In this Think It Through episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University tackle a deceptively hard question: what do you do when someone is overwhelmed, talking a mile a minute, and stuck inside their own thoughts and emotions? Rather than offering advice or arguing content, they show how to slow a conversation down and help someone actually see their mental model. Using a realistic leadership example about a frustrated manager whose team isn’t meeting KPIs, they walk step-by-step through how systems thinkers uncover hidden structure using distinctions, part–whole thinking, relationships, perspectives, and zooming. Along the way, they reveal why frustration is usually aimed at the wrong thing, how leaders mistakenly place themselves outside the system they’re part of, and why reacting emotionally never improves understanding. By externalizing the mental model—onto paper, objects, or a map—the problem shifts from blaming people to understanding the system. This episode is a practical masterclass in real-time sense-making. If you want to help others think more clearly without controlling, fixing, or lecturing them, this episode shows you exactly how to do it.

#104: It’s Not Too Much Information—It’s Too Little Organization

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University tackle a problem nearly everyone feels but few can name: constant overwhelm in a world flooded with information. From social media and news to work demands and family pressures, it feels like there’s simply too much coming at us all the time. But the real problem isn’t information overload—it’s organization overload. The Cabreras explain why more information doesn’t make us smarter, more informed, or more grounded, and why burnout is often a signal that we’re failing to organize information into meaning. Drawing on decades of research, they show why mental models are built from information and structure, why modern systems teach memorization instead of organization, and how this leaves people vulnerable to manipulation, confirmation bias, and emotional reactivity. They also explore how industries intentionally disguise noise as signal, why phones turn from tools into masters, and how living a life of “tiny experiments” and “tiny peer reviews” can restore clarity in an age of misinformation. From parenting and education to leadership and daily life, this episode offers a powerful reframing: the future belongs to people who can organize information—not just consume it.

#103: Think It Through: When You Know What to Do—but Don’t Do It

Get 20% off any STSI course with code THINKING20 — start building your mental fitness today! In this Think It Through episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University tackle one of the most frustrating human experiences: knowing exactly what you should do—and doing the opposite anyway. Is this a motivation problem, a discipline problem, or something deeper? Using systems thinking and real-world examples like smoking, exercising, speaking up in meetings, and setting boundaries, they reveal the real issue: your behavior is faithfully executing a mental model you haven’t fully seen yet. They explain why mental models can contain contradictory “should” and “should not” rules at the same time, how behavior and language act as road signs to what’s really driving you, and why judging yourself only strengthens the wrong feedback loop. Through practical walkthroughs and a powerful workplace example, they show how to unpack, test, and reorganize mental models so behavior changes naturally—without force or shame. If you’ve ever wondered why willpower isn’t working, this episode will help you see what’s actually going on and give you a clear, humane way forward.

#102: Mental Fitness Explained: Why Intelligence Is More Than IQ

Get 20% off any STSI course with code MOTIVATION20 — start building your mental fitness today! In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University unpack a new research paper on mental fitness and challenge nearly everything we think we know about intelligence, burnout, and mental health. Mental fitness, they explain, isn’t a trait, a feeling, or a mindset—it’s a complex adaptive system made up of four interdependent dimensions: cognitive, emotional, motivational, and physical. When any one of these dimensions is neglected, we accumulate hidden “debt” that eventually shuts down our ability to adapt, think clearly, and perform well—even if we’re highly intelligent by traditional measures. They explore why IQ fails to capture what we actually mean by “smart,” how burnout emerges from unbalanced systems rather than personal weakness, and why many modern systems—education, healthcare, therapy—are producing worse outcomes despite good intentions. Along the way, they connect mental fitness to systems thinking, metacognition, emotional intelligence, and real-world adaptability. This episode reframes intelligence as the ability to coordinate the whole person under real constraints—and makes the case that if we want healthier, smarter, more resilient humans, we need to stop optimizing parts and start understanding the system.

#101: Think It Through: The Negative Inner Voice That’s Holding You Back

Get 20% off any STSI course with code MENTALFITNESS20 — start building your mental fitness today! In this Think It Through episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University explore a struggle many people quietly live with every day: a negative inner voice that puts you down, limits your confidence, and distorts what you believe about yourself. They explain how this voice often isn’t truly “yours,” but something you’ve adopted over time—sometimes from school, authority figures, or traumatic experiences. Drawing on systems thinking, metacognition, and identity–other dynamics, they walk through a practical process of learning to notice the voice, distinguish it from your own, and gradually flip the relationship so it loses its power. Through personal stories, vivid metaphors, and concrete daily practices, this episode shows how small, consistent acts of awareness can weaken the voice that hurts you and strengthen the one that’s actually yours. It’s not about silencing thoughts overnight—it’s about radical incremental change that restores agency, clarity, and self-trust. If you’ve ever wondered why you talk to yourself the way you do—or how to finally stop believing everything that voice says—this episode will help you think it through.