Media Commentary

Behavioral insight that brings clarity to complex public issues

Overview

Explain why people react the way they do under pressure, uncertainty, and rapid change.
Bring behavioral science into public debate without jargon or oversimplification.
Make sense of behavior that appears irrational, emotional, or contradictory.
Add psychological context to stories about work, leadership, technology, and social change.
Counter fear-driven narratives by explaining what’s actually driving reactions beneath the surface.

Details

What Journalists Gain from These Conversations

Media conversations often move fast, reward strong opinions, and leave little room for nuance. That’s exactly where behavioral science insights add value.

When journalists speak with me, they gain:

clear explanations of why people resist change, disengage, or polarize, in language audiences understand,
psychological context that sharpens stories without flattening them into slogans,
insight that reduces hype, fear, and false certainty rather than amplifying it.

Topics I’m Often Asked to Comment On

While each conversation is shaped by the specific context and story, I’m most often invited to comment on:

Work, wellbeing, and burnout: why exhaustion persists even in organizations that care.
Leadership and organizational change: why rational change efforts meet resistance, and why people cling to familiar ways of working even when change is necessary.
Technology, AI, and fear-driven narratives: why anxiety spreads faster than facts, and how to implement AI without stripping work of meaning.
Social polarization: why societies slide into “us vs. them” thinking and how social norms, identity, and evolutionary psychology shape public debates.
Behavior change in healthcare and public policy: why information and good intentions rarely lead to sustained change, from patient adherence to pro-social behavior.

When stakes and emotions run high, the “why” behind human behavior matters most.

How I Contribute to Media Conversations

In media conversations, my role is to:

explain underlying psychological mechanisms rather than judge outcomes,
add behavioral context without academic language or false certainty,
challenge oversimplified narratives in ways that increase clarity rather than defensiveness.

I don’t offer hot takes, predictions, or confident answers where none exist. I’m comfortable saying “we don’t know yet” when evidence is unclear, and equally comfortable pushing back when popular explanations don’t hold up psychologically. The goal is not to persuade, but to make sense — so audiences and decision-makers can better understand what’s actually going on in the world.

How Journalists Describe My Work

Miro Konkel

Journalist at Puls Biznesu

As a journalist for the Polish daily Puls Biznesu, I sometimes ask Julia Kolodko to comment on various phenomena related to the labor market, careers or leadership from the perspective of behavioral economics and evolutionary psychology. Each time, I am pleased with our creative collaboration.

She is an expert who combines theory with practice, scientific discovery with great life wisdom. Julia always shares the highest quality and latest knowledge and original insights. She sheds new light on old problems or age-old ethical dilemmas. Although I generally cover difficult topics, she explains them simply and understandably. I'm not the only one who thinks so. PB readers think the same way, resulting in a large number of their positive responses.

Julia Kolodko deserves to be called an opinion leader. At the same time, she is also an extremely kind and nice person. I recommend her posts. A real intellectual feast.

Jakub Jamrozek

Journalist at Polish Radio

One of the most important skills for both researchers and practitioners is the ability to explain complex topics in a way that is clear, engaging, and accessible to a broad audience. In my view, Julia has mastered this skill to perfection. She has appeared many times on my radio programs on Polish Radio Channel Four.

Her knowledge is impressive, but what truly sets her apart is how she communicates it — with clarity, precision, and always grounded in real-world examples. This allows her to bridge the world of science and practice in a way that few experts can.

I can say with full confidence that Julia is my number one expert in behavioral economics — and always an excellent conversational partner.

Get in touch if you’re looking for expert commentary, interviews, or background conversations — in both live and written formats.

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Global warming is one of the toughest problems to solve if we consider how our irrational minds work. This is why I support World Land Trust, a foundation that does great things to protect ecosystems around the world.