One of the most challenging aspects of the slow and difficult tread toward the land of grad school and advanced study is, in my opinion, getting exposure to an appropriate number of fields in an undergrad curriculum. I'm currently in my last semester at a small liberal arts college, at which the Econ department is relatively small.
After reading Freakonomics during my Freshman year I, like many others, decided that behavioral economics was the way of the future. Years later, I still hold that opinion, but my understanding of behavioral models is somewhat more elevated and not due to my attendance in any such course. Some students have the luxury of attending a larger institution where "Psychology and Economics", "Behavioral Economics", or some other such course may be offered. I envy you. However, for a number of us, taking such courses is simply not an option ( I did end up taking Game Theory during my sophomore year, but this certainly does not capture everything that one may see in behavioral studies, even if it is requisite for such study).
Thus I found myself trolling various blog posts and econ websites for info (see here, here, and here).
But even knowing more information about a particular field does not tell someone how research in this field is performed. So, to keep up with (wonkish) info in a couple of sub-fields, I've taken to skimming through the lists of papers registered each week with IDEAS, which is hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Of course, with only an undergraduate education (and depending on how much math that has included) many of these papers are somewhat inaccessible to us. But a simple scan and, perhaps, a dive into an interesting paper will give you an idea of what's going on. I know that my current research interests and goals have definitely been shaped by a semi-regular perusal of these works.
For the subscription link to the neuroeconomics NEP mailing list, see this. For all others, check out the above link.
