Shankar Vedantam

Shankar Vedantam is an American journalist, writer, and science correspondent for NPR. His reporting focuses on human behavior and the social sciences. Vedantam earned an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering in India, and a master's degree in.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:It is the season for college admissions letters to go out, which means students from across the country are frantically checking their mailboxes or inboxes in their email. If this year, though, is anything like years past, we'll continue to see a dearth of low-income students admitted to the most selective colleges. New social science research suggests a possible solution, and to explain, we're joined by NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam. Hi, Shankar.SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:If you ever tell a lie, it would be normal for your conscience to bother you. But here's a question. If you tell many lies, does that voice inside go quiet?

Neuroscientists recently explored this idea. And our colleague Rachel Martin sat down to talk about it with NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam.RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:Hi, Shankar.SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hey, Rachel.MARTIN: So we're talking about neuroscientists. They were studying the brain, as they are known to do.VEDANTAM: (Laughter). DAVID GREENE, HOST:And, you know, all over the world people say they make friends by breaking bread together. There's this assumption that when you sit down to eat with one another, you become closer. Well, let's talk about that with NPR social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam, who is going to break bread with me.

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Hey, Shankar.SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: (Laughter) Hi, David. How are you?GREENE: We've broken bread. We're already friends.VEDANTAM: Indeed.GREENE: Well, so what's this research you're looking at? DAVID GREENE, HOST:You know, when we think about disparities in American education, we think about things like race, gender. There is also income, which is one of the most persistent disparities. Children from more affluent families do better in school on average than children from poor families. And there's new social science research exploring why this is the case.

To talk about it, I'm joined by NPR social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam. Hey, Shankar.SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, David.