You Are Not So Smart (You Are Not So Smart)
Explore every episode of You Are Not So Smart
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 May 2024 | 288 - Fluke - Brian Klaas | 00:50:44 | |
In this episode we sit down with Brian Klaas, author of Fluke, to get into the existential lessons and grander meaning for a life well-lived once one finally accepts the power and influence of randomness, chaos, and chance. In addition, we learn not to fall prey to proportionality bias - the tendency for human brains to assume big, historical, or massively impactful events must have had big causes and/or complex machinations underlying their grand outcomes. It’s one of the cognitive biases that most contributes to conspiratorial thinking and grand conspiracy theories, one that leads to an assumption that there must be something more going on when big, often unlikely, events make the evening news. Yet, as Brian explains, events big and small are often the result of random inputs in complex systems interacting in ways that are difficult to predict. | |||
| 19 Mar 2022 | 228 - The Power of Regret - Daniel H. Pink | 00:43:08 | |
NO REGRETS - Our guest in this episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast is Daniel Pink, the five-time NYT Bestselling author of When and To Sell is Human and Drive and A Whole New Mind. His new book is The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, a rebuke of the concept of "no regrets" and exploration of the benefits of regret and how to harness them. | |||
| 23 Jan 2022 | 224 - The Conversation Lab - Misha Glouberman | 01:02:30 | |
In this episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast, we sit down once again with Misha Glouberman, an expert on conflict and conversation, to discuss how best to improve your communication skills and turn what you suspect will be a difficult interaction into something marvelous and fruitful - the sort of talk that strengthens your relationship with the other person and leaves you both feeling like you gained and learned something – the kind you'd like to have again. Mentioned in the show, here is the link to a free online class with Misha Glouberman on Feb 1st. | |||
| 28 Oct 2024 | 299 - Debunkbot | 01:09:17 | |
Our guests in this episode are Thomas H. Costello at American University, Gordon Pennycook at Cornell University, and David G. Rand at MIT who created Debunkbot, a GPT-powered, large language model, conspiracy-theory-debunking AI that is highly effective at reducing conspiratorial beliefs. In the show you’ll hear all about what happened when they placed Debunkbot inside the framework of a scientific study and recorded its interactions with thousands of participants. | |||
| 14 Apr 2024 | 285 - What Do You Mean? - Celeste Kidd (rebroadcast) | 00:48:50 | |
Is a hotdog a sandwich? Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive science, the odds that your concept of a sandwich is the same as another person's concept are shockingly low. In this episode we explore how understanding why that question became a world-spanning argument in the mid 2010s helps us understand some of the world-spanning arguments vexing us today. | |||
| 29 Apr 2024 | 286 - Notes on Complexity - Neil Theise | 00:57:46 | |
In this episode we sit down with professor Neil Theise, the author of Notes on Complexity, to get an introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave – from cells to human beings, ecosystems, the known universe, and beyond – and we explore if Ian Malcolm was right when he told us in Jurassic Park that "Life, um, finds a way." | |||
| 04 Apr 2021 | 203 - Transcend - Scott Barry Kaufman | 01:09:35 | |
In this episode we sit down with Scott Barry Kaufman, one of the most-influential and prolific psychologists working today, to discuss his new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization. Business Insider magazine named Kaufman one of the “50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world,” and you would agree after hanging out with him. In my experience, you feel seen, heard, respected, challenged, and above all, when you leave a conversation with Scott, you do so feeling either like you must work on your purpose in life from that point on, or you must work to find it. In the show, we discuss our shared desire to bring humanistic psychology back to the forefront and walk through Kaufman’s re-imagining of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and trace Kaufman’s journey through Maslow’s unpublished journals about his unfinished theory of transcendence which Kaufman hopes to complete by picking up where Maslow left off just before his untimely death. | |||
| 20 Feb 2022 | 226 - The World's Greatest Con - Brian Brushwood | 00:54:06 | |
In this episode, we sit down with famed stage magician, infamous instructor of the school of scams, Brian Brushwood, whose new podcast explores the world's greatest con artists and con jobs from World War II to modern game shows. We cover everything in this episode from why you can't con an honest person to the power of shame and fame to folk psychology to how the British conned Hitler using one of the oldest tricks in the book to how one man broke the code for Press Your Luck earning him the most money ever awarded in a single day on any program in the history of game shows. | |||
| 12 Dec 2021 | 221 - Conversations and Conversions at the Portable Planetarium | 00:43:58 | |
In this episode we sit down with Joey Rodman (@okiespacequeen), a science educator in Oklahoma whose recent Twitter thread about using a portable planetarium to reach out to flat earthers went viral thanks to their counterintuitive advice about how to discuss science denial and conspiracy theories with people who may have never interacted with a scientist before. After years of on-the-ground, one-on-one conversations, Joey has developed a technique similar to those we've discussed on the show, including street epistemology, motivational interviewing, deep canvassing, and even the socratic method. It shares elements with all of these, but was developed in-person through conversations with people who met with Joey in their communities and home towns. | |||
| 13 May 2023 | 259 - Think Again - Adam Grant (rebroadcast) | 00:55:41 | |
How to manage procrastination according to Margaret Atwood, how to work around your first-instinct fallacy, the upsides of imposter syndrome, the best way to avoid falling prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect, how to avoid thinking like a preacher, prosecutor, or politician so you can think like a scientist instead – and that’s just the beginning of the conversation in this episode with psychologist, podcast host, and author Adam Grant. In the show, we discuss both his new book – Think Again: The Power of Knowing What you Don’t Know – and his TED Original Podcast, WorkLife, in which he interviewed Margaret Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, to learn how she deals with the constant allure of social media and streaming videos in a future where giving in to procrastination is easier than it has ever been. In the show, you’ll hear portions of that interview followed by a lengthy interview with Grant about his new book in this all-over-the-place, extensive exploration of how to rethink your own thinking. | |||
| 06 Mar 2022 | 227 - Imaginable - Jane McGonigal | 00:59:59 | |
Jane McGonigal's new books details how she creates alternate reality games in which people take part in virtual worlds, and, in so doing, gain a sensitively to the cues (and a familiarity with the conditions) that could lead to certain outcomes, making it possible to both prevent those outcomes and create the futures they'd rather live in instead.LINK TO LINK TO THE FREE CONVERSATION LAB WORKSHOP: https://www.mishaglouberman.com/free-convolab-march14 | |||
| 22 Aug 2022 | 240 - QAnon and Conspiracy Narratives (rebroadcast) | 01:21:17 | |
When we talk about conspiracy theories we tend to focus on what people believe instead of why, and, more importantly, why they believe those things and not other things. In this episode, we sit down with two psychologists working to change that, and in addition, change the term itself from conspiracy theory to conspiracy narrative, which more accurately describes what makes any one conspiracy appealing enough to form a community around it and in rare cases result in collective action.
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| 19 Feb 2024 | 281 - More Chat, Less Bot - Jeremy Utley, Kian Gohar, Henrik Werdelin | 01:10:52 | |
Jeremy Utley, Kian Gohar, and Henrik Werdelin sit down to discuss the surprising results of a new study into what happens when groups of people work together to brainstorm solutions to problems with the help of ChatGPT. Based on their research, Utley and Gohar created a new paradigm for getting the most out of AI-assisted ideation which they call FIXIT. | |||
| 16 May 2021 | 206 - Narcissism | 00:58:06 | |
In this episode we explore what narcissism is and what is most-definitely is not. You will learn is that narcissists are not psychopaths, and vice-versa, but there is a form of narcissism which had been, up until now, confused with psychopathy, and vice-versa. According to the research of the two psychologists in this episode, narcissism may even need to be renamed, because it isn't excessive self-love, it's excessive self-loathing. Narcissists like Don Draper in Mad Men cope with their insecurity by donning a mask, and then spend most of their lives protecting that mask out of a fear of what will happen if people ever see what it hides. - Show notes at www.youarenotsosmart.com | |||
| 19 Aug 2024 | 294 - Living Constitutionally - A.J. Jacobs | 01:28:25 | |
In this episode we sit down with A.J. Jacobs, a journalist who noticed some striking similarities between Biblical fundamentalism and constitutional originalism, and since he once wrote a NYT bestselling book about titled The Year of Living Biblically in which he tried to live for a year as a fundamentalist, he tried to do something similar by living for a year following the Constitution's original meaning as if he were an originalist and then writing a book about it. He soon learned that donning a tricorne hat and marching around Manhattan with a 1700s musket, though fully within one's constitutional rights, will quickly lead to some difficult encounters and altogether strange circumstances. The Year of Living Constitutionally | |||
| 01 Oct 2023 | 270 - Defining Genius | 01:12:25 | |
In this show you'll hear the first episode of a documentary series I made for Himalaya, an audio service devoted to inspirational and educational content that asked me if I had any ideas for a book that I had yet to pursue, and sure enough, I did. The series is all about the difficulty of defining the word "genius," and out of that launching point it goes deep into the science of human potential and the history of the both the word and all the ideas we have attempted to understand and express when using it. | |||
| 20 Jan 2024 | YANSS 279 - Pluralistic Ignorance (rebroadcast) | 01:25:48 | |
There are several ways to define pluralistic ignorance, and that’s because it’s kind of a brain twister when you try to put it into words. On certain issues, most people people believe that most people believe what, in truth, few people believe. Or put another way, it is the erroneous belief that the majority is acting in a way that matches its internal philosophies, and that you are one of a small number of people who feel differently, when in reality the majority agrees with you on the inside but is afraid to admit it outright or imply such through its behavior. Everyone in a group, at the same time, gets stuck following a norm that no one wants to follow, because everyone is carrying a shared, false belief about everyone else’s unshared true beliefs. | |||
| 08 Aug 2021 | 212 - The Power of Us - Jay Van Bavel | 01:35:39 | |
In this episode, we sit down with psychologist Jay Van Bavel to discuss his new book, The Power of Us, an exploration of "the dynamics of shared, social identities. What causes people to develop social identities? What happens to people when they define themselves in terms of group memberships? Under what conditions does the human proclivity to divide the world into “us” and “them” produce toxic conflict and devastating discrimination? And how can shared identities instead be harnessed to improve performance, increase cooperation, and promote social harmony?" | |||
| 27 Mar 2022 | 229 - What's Your Problem? - Jacob Goldstein | 00:48:34 | |
In this episode, Jacob Goldstein, the longtime host of NPR’s Planet Money, talks about his new podcast about technology and business called What’s Your Problem? with Jacob Goldstein. Goldstein spent more than a decade as co-host of Planet Money reporting stories that make economic journalism approachable. In his new weekly show, What’s Your Problem?, Goldstein’s curiosity leads him into conversations with top global entrepreneurs and engineers about the cutting-edge problems they’re trying to solve. Each episode focuses on a new company and innovator and their challenges, from teaching computers to understand humans better to running a niche business where access to consumers hinges on tech company algorithms. | |||
| 06 Aug 2023 | 266 - Project Alpha - Brian Brushwood | 01:06:03 | |
We sit down with Brian Brushwood to discuss how he put together this most recent season of The World's Greatest Con, his podcast about incredible scams. This season is all about how two teenagers pulled off an incredible hoax called Project Alpha, a con job and a publicity stunt, meant to improve scientific rigor and methodology when it comes to studying the possibility of the existence of psychic phenomena. Links: | |||
| 31 Mar 2025 | 310 - Align Your Mind - Britt Frank | 01:12:55 | |
Therapist, teacher, speaker, and trauma specialist Britt Frank tells us all about her new book, Align Your Mind, an all-access pass to understanding, befriending, and leading the multiple voices within yourself. | |||
| 03 Oct 2022 | 243 - Psychological Tweetathon with Jay Van Bavel | 01:08:41 | |
In this episode we sit down with NYU psychologist Jay Van Bavel who is very good at Twitter. His feed is always overflowing with the absolute latest and greatest research from psychology with links to papers as they come out – on many of the topics we so often explore on this podcast – and in this episode we discuss ten of those tweets and the research he’s shared.
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| 09 Jan 2022 | 223 - To Persuade is Human? | 01:05:53 | |
This episode, featuring Andy Luttrell of the Opinion Science Podcast, is all about a machine, built by IBM, that can debate human beings on any issue, which leads to the question: is persuasion, with language, using arguments, and the ability to alter another person’s attitudes, beliefs, values, opinions, and behavior a uniquely human phenomenon, or could you be persuaded to change your mind by an artificial intelligence designed to do just that? If so, what does that say about opinions, our arguments, and in the end, our minds? | |||
| 27 Nov 2022 | 247 - Narcissism (rebroadcast) | 00:56:51 | |
In this episode we explore what narcissism is (and what is most-definitely is not). There is a form of narcissism which has been, up until now, confused with psychopathy. But a new paper, the result of years of experiments, suggests narcissists are not psychopaths, and psychopaths are not narcissists. In the psychological literature, narcissism comes in two varieties. Grandiose narcissists tend to really, truly love themselves and heavily manipulate their social environment for personal gain. Vulnerable narcissists don’t love themselves, not their true selves. Vulnerable narcissists love their image, and they are highly aware of the fact that it is an image and work very hard to prevent anyone else realizing that. According to the research explored in this episode, there is no such thing as a grandiose narcissist – that’s just another way to describe a psychopath.
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| 18 Apr 2021 | 204 - On Being Certain - Robert Burton | 00:54:55 | |
In this episode, we sit down with neurologist Robert Burton, author of On Being Certain, a book that fundamentally changed the way I think about what a belief actually is. That’s because the book posits that conclusions are not conscious choices and certainty is not even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of “knowing” as he puts it, are "sensations that feel like thoughts, but arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that function independently of reason." | |||
| 09 Dec 2024 | 302 - A More Beautiful Question - Warren Berger | 01:02:00 | |
In this episode we sit down with Warren Berger, the author of A More Beautiful Question – and a man who has made a career out of classifying, categorizing, and making sense of all the many varieties of questions we ask, when we are likely to ask them, and how that can lead to all manner of outcomes, some positive, some negative. Carl Sagan on Asking Questions Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Sky Is Blue The Real Reason the Sky is Blue | |||
| 09 Jul 2023 | 263 - The Truth Wins - Tom Stafford (rebroadcast) | 00:45:48 | |
Deliberation. Debate. Conversation. Though it can feel like that’s what we are doing online as we trade arguments back and forth, most of the places where we currently gather make it much easier to produce arguments in isolation rather than evaluate them together in groups. The latest research suggests we will need much more of the latter if we hope to create a new, modern, functioning marketplace of ideas. In this episode, psychologist Tom Stafford takes us through his research into how to do just that. | |||
| 07 Jan 2024 | 278 - An Admirable Point - Florence Hazrat | 01:00:07 | |
On this episode we learn about the history of the exclamation point, the question mark, and the semicolon (among many other aspects of language) with Florence Hazrat, a scholar of punctuation, who, to my great surprise, informed me that while a lot of language is the result of a slow evolution, a gradual ever-changing process, punctuation in the English language is often an exception to this – for instance, a single person invented the semicolon; they woke up and the semicolon didn’t exist, and then went to bed that night, and it did! | |||
| 16 May 2022 | 233 - The Puzzler - A. J. Jacobs | 00:57:21 | |
Link to preorder How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome His new book, The Puzzler, is a fun, weird, refreshingly scientific book all about the human brain's fascination with puzzles. Seriously, there’s all sorts of explorations in the book about neural pathways, behavioral routines, how we learn, what gets us into loops, and - this is true - a few attempts to solve the puzzle of our very existence. Patreon: www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart Twitter: www.twitter.com/notsmartblog | |||
| 22 Jul 2024 | 292 - The Society Library - Jamie Joyce | 01:23:36 | |
Our guest in this episode is Jamie Joyce who is the president and executive director of The Society Library, an organization that extracts arguments, claims, and evidence from various forms of media to compile databases that map all the bickering and debating taking place across our species. They take all our conversations about all the major issues facing society and restructure them into something a single person, or a committee, or someone whose job affects millions can understand and then use to make better decisions. The NYT's Coverage of Plandemic The Society Library's Analysis of Plandemic The Society Library's Analysis of AI Debates | |||
| 31 Oct 2021 | 218 - Unwinding Anxiety - Jud Brewer | 00:57:22 | |
In this episode, Dr. Jud Brewer, a neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist, discusses the biological origins of anxiety and how to unwind our feedback loops using techniques derived from his lab’s research. Since his last appearance on the show, Dr. Jud has written and published a book which is now a NYT bestseller titled Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind which he describes as, “a clinically proven step-by-step plan to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits.” | |||
| 05 Aug 2024 | 293 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn (rebroadcast) | 00:45:00 | |
Sedona Chinn, who studies how people make sense of competing claims – scientific, environmental, health-related – joins us to discuss her latest research into doing your own research. Her research has found that the more a person values the concept of doing your own research, the less likely that person is to actually do their own research. In the episode we explore the origin of the concept, what that phrase really means, and the implications of her study on everything from politics to vaccines to conspiratorial thinking. | |||
| 13 Jun 2022 | 235 - Tough - Terry Crews | 01:09:50 | |
Terry Crews, actor, athlete, artist, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, host of America’s Got Talent - that Terry Crews joins us to discuss his new book, Tough. In the book, Terry shares the raw story of his quest to find the true meaning of toughness and in so doing fundamentally change his concept of himself by uprooting a deeply ingrained toxic masculinity and finally confronting his insecurities, painful memories, and limiting beliefs. Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards
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| 23 Aug 2021 | 213 - Vaccine Hesitancy | 02:51:19 | |
In this episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast, we sit down with eight experts on communication, conversation, and persuasion to discuss the best methods for reaching out to the vaccine hesitant with the intention of nudging them away from hesitancy and toward vaccination. Mentioned in the show, here is the link to a free online class with Misha Glouberman where you will learn how to have better conversations with the vaccine hesitant: LINK
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| 18 May 2020 | 180 - Meltdown - Chris Clearfield | 01:48:25 | |
In this episode we sit down with Chris Clearfield, author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It | |||
| 31 Mar 2024 | 284 - Awe - Dacher Keltner (rebroadcast) | 00:54:18 | |
In this episode we sit down with psychologist Dacher Keltner, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of emotion, the man Pixar hired to help them write Inside Out. In his new book – Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life – he outlines his years of work in this field, the health benefits of awe, the evolutionary origins and likely functions, and how to better pursue more awe and wonder in your own life.
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| 14 Apr 2025 | 311 - Cascades of Change - Greg Satell (rebroadcast) | 01:06:52 | |
In this episode we sit down with Greg Satell, a communication expert whose book, Cascades, details how rapid, widespread change can sweep across groups of people big and small, and how understanding the psychological mechanisms at play in such moments can help anyone looking to create change in a family, institution, or even nation, prepare for the inevitable resistance they will face. • Special Offer From Greg Satell • Kitted | |||
| 29 May 2022 | 234 - The Truth Wins - Tom Stafford | 00:48:47 | |
Link to preorder How Minds Change and get your preorder bonuses: https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Deliberation. Debate. Conversation. Though it can feel like that’s what we are doing online as we trade arguments back and forth, most of the places where we currently gather make it much easier to produce arguments in isolation rather than evaluate them together in groups. The latest research suggests we will need much more of the latter if we hope to create a new, modern, functioning marketplace of ideas. In this episode, psychologist Tom Stafford takes us through his research into how to do just that. | |||
| 04 Sep 2022 | 241 - The Status Game - Will Storr | 01:17:42 | |
In this episode we welcome back author Will Storr whose new book, The Status Game, feels like required reading for anyone confused, curious, or worried about how politics, cults, conspiracy theories communities, social media, religious fundamentalism, polarization, and extremism are affecting us - everywhere, on and offline, across cultures, and across the world. What is The Status Game? It’s our primate propensity to perpetually pursue points that will provide a higher level of regard among the people who can (if we provoked such a response) take those points away. And deeper still, it’s the propensity to, once we find a group of people who regularly give us those points, care about what they think more than just about anything else. In the interview, we discuss our inescapable obsession with reputation and why we are deeply motivated to avoid losing this game through the fear of shame, ostracism, embarrassment, and humiliation while also deeply motivated to win this game by earning what will provide pride, fame, adoration, respect, and status.
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| 01 Nov 2020 | 192 - The Dunning-Kruger Effect (rebroadcast) | 00:56:58 | |
In this episode, we explore why we are unaware that we lack the skill to tell how unskilled and unaware we are. | |||
| 25 Nov 2024 | 301 - Cognitive Dissonance - Part Two | 00:57:59 | |
In this episode we welcome Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, a political scientist who studies how cognitive dissonance affects all sorts of political behavior. She’s also the co-host of a podcast about activism called "What Do We Want?" and she wrote a book that’s coming out in May of 2025 titled don’t talk about politics which is about how to discuss politics without necessarily talking about politics. | |||
| 13 Nov 2022 | 246 - Ideaflow - Jeremy Utley | 01:11:32 | |
In this episode we sit down with Jeremy Utley of the Stanford d.school to discuss his new book, Ideaflow, which is all about how to create a practice for producing and trading ideas in massive quantities – whether in an organization or as an individual entrepreneur or content-creator – along with a system for sorting the garbage from the gold. We discuss, among many other things, why it is important to focus on input more than output, how to stop obsessing over quality while generating quantity, and peanut butter pumps.
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| 11 Jul 2023 | 264 - Nobody's Fool - Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris | 00:48:46 | |
In an era in which we have more information available to us than ever before, when claims of “fake news” might themselves be, in fact, fake news, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, authors of The Invisible Gorilla, are back to offer us a vital tool to not only inoculate ourselves against getting infected by misinformation but prevent us from spreading it to others, a new book titled Nobody's Fool. | |||
| 27 Dec 2021 | 222 - The Power of Surprise - Michael Rousell | 01:01:38 | |
Not all surprises trigger change, but almost all change is triggered by surprise. In this episode, Micheal Rousell, author of The Power of Surprise, explains the science of surprise at the level of neurons and brain structures, and then talk about how surprises often lead to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, the different personal narratives that guide our behaviors and motivations and goals, and, perhaps most importantly, our willingness to be surprised again so that we can change and grow. | |||
| 03 Feb 2025 | 306 - I Never Thought of it That Way - Mónica Guzmán (rebroadcast) | 00:52:11 | |
This episode’s guest is Mónica Guzmán, the author of I Never Thought of It That Way – a book with very practical advice on how to have productive conversations in a polarized political environment via authentic curiosity about where people’s beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and values come from. It's also about how to learn from those with whom we disagree by establishing the sort of dynamic in which they will eagerly learn from us as well. | |||
| 28 Jul 2020 | 185 - Masks | 01:31:08 | |
In this episode we explore the psychology behind why some people don't want to wear masks, why they get angry at the idea, and why they sometimes take to the streets and city council meetings to voice that anger. Four guests help us to understand how masks, during a the COVID-19 pandemic, became politicized and what we can learn from this going forward to help prevent a similar reaction when it comes time to convince to public they should get vaccinated. | |||
| 21 Sep 2020 | 189 - The Vaccine | 01:43:32 | |
In this giant episode, experts on vaccines, epidemiology, psychology, and science communication explain how we created so much confusion about COVID-19, and how we can avoid doing it again when a vaccine is ready for widespread, public distribution. We also learn exactly what it will take to make that vaccine and when it will likely arrive. - Show notes at: www.youarenotsosmart.com | |||
| 28 May 2023 | 260 - The Science of Stuck - Britt Frank (rebroadcast) | 00:49:27 | |
Feeling stuck? Can't build momentum to escape all the loops keeping you from moving forward? Our guest in this episode is professor, author, therapist, and speaker Britt Frank, a trauma specialist who treats people with unique and powerful techniques and approaches which help clients to get out of the feeling of being stuck. In the show, we nerd out with Britt about how hard it is to be a person, and though this interview is supposed to be about her new book - "The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find your Path Forward" – at least of half of this interview turned out to be was wide-ranging conversation chasing down many nested tangents about everything from procrastination to somatic markers to trauma to the multitudes of the self and more. | |||
| 07 Aug 2022 | 239 - You're Invited - Jon Levy | 01:04:18 | |
Our guest in this episode is the behavioral scientist Jon Levy who wrote a book titled You’re Invited, the Art and Science of Cultivating influence. The book details how Jon was able to convince groups of Nobel Laureates, Olympians, celebrities, Fortune 500 executives, and even a princess to not only give him advice, but cook him dinner, wash his dishes, sweep his floors, and then thank him for the experience.
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| 14 Oct 2024 | 298 - Tribal - Michael Morris | 01:33:46 | |
In this episode we sit down with renowned cultural psychologist Michael Morris to discuss his new book, Tribal, in which he makes the case for seeing humans as an "us" species, not a "them" species. Morris says that since we genetically predisposed to collaborate, coordinate, and cooperate. He believes we can leverage our innate desire to work together to solve problems and reach goals to improve our lives, our relationships, and our jobs – and while we are at it, save the world. | |||
| 13 May 2024 | 287 - The Complexity of Genius - David Krakauer and Dean Simonton | 01:04:57 | |
In this episode, we are exploring the complexity of the concept of "genius" with two experts on the topic. First you’ll hear from David Krakauer, the president of The Santa Fe Institute, a research institution in New Mexico dedicated to the study of complexity science, and then you'll hear from professor Dean Keith Simonton, one of the world’s leading researchers into the psychological mechanisms and influences that generate the phenomenon we so often refer to as "genius." | |||
| 29 Nov 2020 | 194 - Because Internet - Gretchen McCulloch | 01:42:03 | |
Our guest in this episode is Gretchen McCulloch, who is a linguist, but also, I’d say a MEME-ologist, evidenced by that the fact that in her New York Times Bestselling book, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, she spends a good portion of the book tracing the history of memes and how we have used them all the way up to right now, which is part of her her overall exploration of how language itself has changed since the advent of text messaging, SnapChat, TikTok, emojis, gifs, memes, and the internet as a whole. If you still put periods at the ends of your texts and refuse to change your ways, you will definitely enjoy this interview, and if you fancy yourself some kind of memelord, this is certainly the episode for you. | |||
| 18 Oct 2020 | 191 - Livewired - David Eagleman | 01:13:41 | |
In this episode we sit down with neuroscientist David Eagleman to learn how brains turn noise into signal, chaos into order, electrical spikes into meaning, and how new technology can expand subjective reality in ways never before possible. • The Great Courses: www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/smart • BetterHelp -- Offer code: YANSS -- www.betterhelp.com/YANSS
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| 11 Dec 2022 | 248 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin | 00:47:58 | |
Temple Grandin was born in 1947 at a time when words like neurodivergent and neurotypical had yet to enter the lexicon, at a time when autism was not well understood, and since she didn’t develop speech until much later than most children she might have led a much different life if it hadn’t been for people around her who worked very hard to open up a space for her to thrive and explore her talents and abilities. In this episode we discuss all that as well as her latest book, Visual Thinking, all about three distinct ways that human brains create human minds to make sense of the world outside of their skulls.
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| 27 Nov 2023 | 274 - Cascades - Greg Satell | 01:10:40 | |
In this episode we sit down with Greg Satell, a communication expert whose book, Cascades, details how rapid, widespread change can sweep across groups of people big and small, and how understanding the psychological mechanisms at play in such moments can help anyone looking to create change in a family, institution, or even nation, prepare for the inevitable resistance they will face. | |||
| 19 Mar 2023 | 255 - Good Arguments - Bo Seo | 01:04:27 | |
This is the second episode in a three-part series about how to have difficult conversations with people who see the world differently, how to have better debates about contentious issues, and how to ethically and scientifically persuade one another about things that matter – in short, this is a three-part series about How Minds Change (which is also the title of my new book). There seems to be a movement afoot, a new wave of nonfiction about how to reduce all this argumentative madness and epistemic chaos. I want to boost everyone's signal on this issue, so I thought it would be nice to collaborate instead of compete, since that's part of what we are all proselytizing with these books. So this episode’s guest is Bo Seo, the author of Good Arguments – a book about how he became a world debate champion in which he not only teaches us how to apply what he has learned to everyday life but imagines communities built around, not despite, constant arguing and disagreement. Seo says that a political life without constant disagreement would be impoverished. As he puts it, quote, "Nations are, at their best, evolving arguments. As he writes, “In a liberal democracy, good arguments are not what societies should do but also what they should be.” See believes that on well curated, well moderated platforms, ones that value good faith interactions, arguing and disagreement would flip from being catalysts for polarization to the very engine of depolarization and change. In the interview, he not only tells us how to defend ourselves against bad arguments, but explains how in his mind a great democracy isn’t a place where everyone agrees and sees eye-to-eye, but one where we work to have better quality disagreements. - Bo Seo’s Website: www.helloboseo.com - How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome - David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney - YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog - Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com - Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com | |||
| 17 Feb 2025 | 307 - Concordance Over Truth Bias | 01:09:09 | |
In this episode, we sit down with three disinformation researchers whose new paper found something surprising about both our resistance and our susceptibility to both true news we wish was fake and fake news we wish was true. Our guests are three of the scientists exploring a newly named cognitive distortion, one that every human being is prone to exhibiting, one that is so common and so easily provoked that nefarious actors depend on it when distributing disinformation and propaganda. Samuel Woolley, Katie Joseff, and Michael Schwalbe will share their methods, findings, and takeaways. They will also explain the troublesome nature of something they are calling concordance over truth bias – a distortion that most often appears in those who have the most (undeserved) confidence in their own (not-so-objective) objectivity. | |||
| 25 Dec 2023 | 277 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin (rebroadcast) | 00:47:58 | |
Temple Grandin didn’t develop speech until much later than most children, and she might have led a much different life if it hadn’t been for people who worked very hard to open up a space for her to thrive. In this episode we discuss all that as well as her latest book, Visual Thinking, about three distinct ways that human brains create human minds to make sense of the world outside of their skulls.
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| 24 Jun 2024 | 290 - The Intention Action Gap - Britt Frank | 01:11:05 | |
In this episode, we sit down with therapist Britt Frank to discuss the intention action gap, the psychological term for the chasm between what you very much intend to do and what you tend to do instead. It turns out, there's a well-researched psychological framework that includes a term for when you have a stated, known goal – a change you'd like to make in your life – something you wake up intending to finally do or get started doing, but then don't do while knowing full well you are actively not doing what you ought and wish you had done by now. After we discuss this phenomenon and how to deal with it, we get into procrastination and how to escape all manner of dead-end behavioral loops. | |||
| 05 Feb 2024 | 280 - Supercommunicators - Charles Duhigg | 01:14:43 | |
Our guest in this episode is Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and writer for the New Yorker Magazine who is also the New York Times Bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better. His new book is Supercommunicators, a practical and approachable guide to what makes great conversations work. In the episode we discuss the science behind what it takes to form a connection with another human being through dialogue, how to generate or nurture a bond, and how to form, repair, and maintain a conversational pipeline through listening and communicating that guarantees reciprocation and understanding. | |||
| 25 Jul 2022 | 238 - Chess Queens - Jennifer Shahade | 00:59:44 | |
In this episode we sit down with Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker, and professional poker player whose new book, Chess Queens, is the true story of the greatest female players of all time interwoven with her own experiences as a chess champion.
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| 08 Feb 2021 | 199 - Math Without Numbers - Milo Beckman | 00:56:25 | |
In this episode we explore the weirdness and wonder of Math Without Numbers with mathematician Milo Beckman who wrote a book about the math behind multiple infinities, strange topologies, and extra dimensions, all without using numbers to explain some of the most fascinating and complex ideas that usually only make sense when scribbled in strange notations on a blackboard. | |||
| 06 Feb 2022 | 225 - Blindsight and Neuromarketing | 00:59:30 | |
In this episode, neuromarketing experts Prince Ghuman and Matt Johnson discuss the many strange examples from their book, Blindsight, in an effort to make us all smarter consumers, empowered to make better decisions after touring a showcase of all the less-obvious ways marketing, advertising, venues, restaurants, shopping malls, casinos, social media companies, and more, knowingly use neuroscience and psychology to affect our behavior. | |||
| 28 Oct 2022 | 245 - The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind - Tim Harford | 00:44:48 | |
Here’s a special bonus episode featuring my recent conversation with Tim Harford, author, economic journalist, and host of the Cautionary Tales podcast. We discussed a story from my new book, How Minds Change, about a conspiracy theorist who was certain 9/11 was an inside job until he actually visited Ground Zero to meet architects, engineers and the relatives of the dead. Tim and I reflect on what he can teach us about those who hold strong beliefs even in the face of damning, contrary evidence and why persuasion, especially if attempted poorly, isn't always the right answer. • Hear more from Cautionary Tales at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/ctsmart • How Minds Change: https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome
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| 19 Aug 2023 | 267 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn | 00:41:53 | |
Sedona Chinn, who studies how people make sense of competing scientific, environmental, and health-related claims, joins us to discuss her latest research into doing your own research. In her latest paper she found that the more a person values the concept of doing your own research, the less likely that person is to actually do their own research. In the episode we explore the origin of the concept, what that phrase really means, and the implications of her study on everything from politics to vaccines to conspiratorial thinking. | |||
| 12 Nov 2023 | 273 - The Conspiracy Test - Jesse Richardson | 00:58:52 | |
In this episode Jesse Richardson tells us all about ConspiracyTest.org, a new project designed to be a weird, fun, and cleverly educational way to explore just how skeptical you are (and could be) about a variety of conspiracy theories. The whole thing is designed to be very sharable and very viral, and it's launching right before Thanksgiving 2023 so that you can share it with your conspiracy-theory-entertaining friends and family over the holidays, in person or over social media (but you should definitely try it out on yourself first). • The Rules of Civil Conversation (thanks for listening, share with abandon) | |||
| 23 Jul 2023 | 265 - Chess Queens - Jennifer Shahade (rebroadcast) | 00:58:29 | |
In this episode we sit down with Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker, and professional poker player whose new book, Chess Queens, is the true story of the greatest female players of all time interwoven with her own experiences as a chess champion. | |||
| 03 Apr 2022 | 230 - The Science of Stuck - Britt Frank | 00:50:41 | |
Feeling stuck? Can't build momentum to escape all the loops keeping you from moving forward? Our guest in this episode is professor, author, therapist, and speaker Britt Frank, a trauma specialist who treats people with a unique and powerful set of techniques and approaches which, taken together, helps clients to get out of the feeling of being STUCK. In the show, we nerd out with Britt about how hard it is to be a person, and though this interview is supposed to be about her new book - "The Science of Stuck, Breaking Through Inertia to Find your Path Forward - at least of half of this interview turned out to be was wide-ranging conversation chasing down many nested tangents about everything from procrastination to somatic markers to trauma to the multitudes of the self and more.
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| 17 Apr 2022 | 231 - On Being Certain - Robert Burton (rebroadcast) | 00:54:05 | |
In this episode, we sit down with neurologist Robert Burton, author of On Being Certain, a book that fundamentally changed the way I think about what a belief actually is. That’s because the book posits conclusions are not conscious choices, and certainty is not even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of “knowing,” as he puts it, are "sensations that feel like thoughts, but arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that function independently of reason." | |||
| 28 Nov 2021 | 220 - A Very Short History of Life on Earth - Henry Gee | 00:58:06 | |
In this episode, we sit down with Henry Ernest Gee, the paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and senior editor of the scientific journal Nature. | |||
| 05 Feb 2023 | 252 - Procrastination - Britt Frank | 00:41:36 | |
It’s February. It’s that time of year when we start to wonder if we might not follow through with our New Year’s resolutions. It’s that time of the year when procrastination becomes a centerpiece of our psychological concerns. Our guest in this episode is professor, author, therapist, and speaker Britt Frank, a trauma specialist who treats people with a unique and powerful set of techniques and approaches which, taken together, helps clients to get out of the feeling of being STUCK. Author of The Science of Stuck, she says, “Procrastination is not a character flaw. Nor is it a sign of weakness. Nor is it a sign of laziness. Procrastination is an indicator that internal consent has not been given. When our inner parts are distressed, afraid, sad, angry, grief-stricken or anxious, it is important to listen to their concerns, not to shame them or coerce them into action.” In the show you’ll learn about the physiological origins of procrastination – the inner brake pedal and gas pedal – and what to do to escape the two different versions of this universal challenge to getting unstuck and getting things done.
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| 03 Sep 2023 | 268 - The Status Game - Will Storr (rebroadcast) | 01:16:23 | |
In this episode we welcome back author Will Storr whose new book, The Status Game, feels like required reading for anyone confused, curious, or worried about how politics, cults, conspiracy theories communities, social media, religious fundamentalism, polarization, and extremism are affecting us - everywhere, on and offline, across cultures, and across the world. What is The Status Game? It’s our primate propensity to perpetually pursue points that will provide a higher level of regard among the people who can (if we provoked such a response) take those points away. And deeper still, it’s the propensity to, once we find a group of people who regularly give us those points, care about what they think more than just about anything else. In the interview, we discuss our inescapable obsession with reputation and why we are deeply motivated to avoid losing this game through the fear of shame, ostracism, embarrassment, and humiliation while also deeply motivated to win this game by earning what will provide pride, fame, adoration, respect, and status.
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| 11 Dec 2023 | 275 - Blight - Emily Monosson | 00:47:18 | |
How likely is the fungal infection in The Last of Us? The one that takes over human brains and brings humanity to the brink of extinction, could something like that really happen? In this episode we sit down with Emily Monosson, an expert on deadly fungal infections, and discuss the handful of fungi (we know of) that are today, right now, causing catastrophic declines in wildlife, eradicating trees, destroying crops, and increasingly impacting humans. Monsoon explains that many in the field worry that fungi are an underestimated threat and that our actions are causing an increase in invasive and deadly fungal epidemics. We explore what is at stake, why this is happening now, and what we can do to prevent future outbreaks. • Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic | |||
| 14 Nov 2021 | 219 - Irrational Labs - Evelyn Gosnell | 00:44:18 | |
In this episode we sit down with expert in behavioral economics Evelyn Gosnell, who is also the managing director of Irrational Labs, an organization that uses social science to help other organizations make big decisions, fight misinformation, and design better products and services. | |||
| 21 Mar 2021 | 202 - Desirability Bias (rebroadcast) | 00:28:13 | |
Confirmation bias is our tendency to seek evidence that supports our beliefs and confirms our assumptions when we could just as well seek disconfirmation of those beliefs and assumptions instead. Confirmation is such a prevalent feature of human cognition, that until recently a second bias has been hidden in plain sight. Recent research suggests that something called desirability bias may be just as prevalent in our thinking. When future desires and past beliefs are incongruent, desire wins out. - Show notes at: www.youarenotsosmart.com | |||
| 03 Mar 2025 | 308 - Magical Thinking - Matt Tompkins | 01:19:14 | |
In this episode, the story of Clever Hans, the horse who changed psychology for the better. We also sit down with psychologist and magician Matt Tompkins. Matt is the author of The Spectacle of Illusion, a book about the long history of the manipulation of our own magical thinking and how studying deception can help us better understand perception, memory, belief, and more. | |||
| 16 Oct 2022 | 244 - Quit - Annie Duke | 00:57:51 | |
I recently sat down for a live event and Q&A with the great Annie Duke to discuss her new book, Quit: The power of knowing when to walk away. This episode is the audio from that event. Quit is all about how to develop a very particular skill: how to train your brain to make it easier to know which goals and plans are worth sticking to and which are not. - How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome - Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com - Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com - Annie Duke's Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnieDuke
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| 27 Dec 2020 | 196 - Art (rebroadcast) | 01:42:15 | |
Moira Dillon studies how “the physical world in which we live shapes the abstract world in which we think,” and in this episode we travel to her Lab for the Developing Mind at NYU to sit down and ask her a zillion questions about how the brain creates the reality we interact with, and how we attempt to communicate that reality to others through language, art, geometry, and mathematics. | |||
| 16 Sep 2024 | 296 - Job Therapy - Tessa West | 00:55:09 | |
Are you unhappy at your job? Are you starting to consider a change of career because of how your current work makes you feel? Do you know why? According to our guest in this episode, Dr. Tessa West, a psychologist at NYU, if you are currently contemplating whether you want to do the work that you do everyday you should know that although this feeling is common, psychologists who study this sort of thing have discovered that our narratives for why we feel this way are often just rationalizations and justifications. In fact, it turns out that the way we psychologically evaluate the jobs we think we might not want to do anymore is nearly identical to how we evaluate romantic relationships we feel like we might no longer want to be a part of. The feelings are usually undeniable, but our explanations for why we feel the way we feel can be wildly inaccurate, and because of that, our resulting behavior can be, let’s say, sub-optimal. We sometimes stay far longer than we should or make knee-jerk decisions we later regret or commit to terrible mistakes that could have been avoided. | |||
| 08 Jan 2023 | 250 - Awe - Dacher Keltner | 00:54:18 | |
In this episode we sit down with psychologist Dacher Keltner, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of emotion, the man Pixar hired to help them write Inside Out. In his new book – Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life – he outlines his years of work in this field, the health benefits of awe, the evolutionary origins and likely functions, and how to better pursue more awe and wonder in your own life.
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| 04 Oct 2020 | 190 - Learned Helplessness (rebroadcast) | 00:43:05 | |
Stuck in a bad situation, even when the prison doors are left wide open, we sometimes refuse to attempt escape. Why is that? | |||
| 02 Apr 2023 | 256 - The Persuaders - Anand Giridharadas | 01:10:23 | |
This is the third episode in a three-part series about how to have difficult conversations with people who see the world differently, how to have better debates about contentious issues, and how to ethically and scientifically persuade one another about things that matter – in short, this is a three-part series about How Minds Change (which is also the title of my new book). There seems to be a movement afoot, a new wave of nonfiction about how to reduce all this argumentative madness and epistemic chaos. I want to boost everyone’s signal on this issue, so I thought it would be nice to collaborate instead of compete, since that’s part of what we are all proselytizing with these books. So this episode’s guest is Anand Giridharadas, the author of The Persuaders – a book about activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens who are on the ground working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy. | |||
| 03 Oct 2021 | 216 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg | 01:16:16 | |
In this episode, we sit down with Jordan Ellenberg, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His writing has appeared in Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, and he is the New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong – but in this episode we will discuss his new book, Shape: The hidden geometry of information, biology, strategy, democracy and everything else. | |||
| 03 Mar 2024 | 282 - They Thought We Were Ridiculous - Andy Luttrell | 01:09:15 | |
In 1974, two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, as the New Yorker once put it, "changed the way we think about the way we think." The prevailing wisdom, before their landmark research went viral (in the way things went viral in the 1970s), was that human beings were, for the most part, rational optimizers always making the kinds of judgments and decisions that best maximized the potential of the outcomes under their control. This was especially true in economics at the time. The story of how they generated a paradigm shift so powerful that it reached far outside economics and psychology to change the way all of us see ourselves is a fascinating tale, one that required the invention of something this episode is all about: The Psychology of Single Questions. | |||
| 25 Jun 2023 | 262 - If It Sounds Like a Quack - Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling | 00:49:58 | |
At the peak of COVID-19, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling set out to write a book about the widespread pushback against masks and vaccines as away to discuss the rise of the medical freedom movement in America. But after meeting a series of people within that movement his efforts took a sharp turn into the motivations, tribulations, and personal lives of the people who sell miracle cures and dietary supplements, skirting the law when they can, and heading to jail when they can't. The book is titled, If it Sounds Like a Quack, and it is a deep dive into the marketplace of snake oils and magical procedures sold by people who each claim to have found the one true cure for any and everything that could ever ail you.
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| 25 Jul 2021 | 211 - QAnon and Conspiratorial Narratives | 01:22:37 | |
When we talk about conspiracy theories we tend to focus on what people believe instead of why, and, more importantly, why they believe those things and not other things. In this episode, we sit down with two psychologists working to change that, and in addition, change the term itself from conspiracy theory to conspiracy narrative, which more accurately describes what makes any one conspiracy appealing enough to form a community around it and in rare cases result in collective action. | |||
| 11 Nov 2024 | 300 - Cognitive Dissonance - Part One | 00:56:51 | |
In this episode, the story of a doomsday cult that predicted the exact date and circumstances of the end of the world, and what happened when that date passed and the world did not end. | |||
| 06 Sep 2020 | 188 - The Happiness Lab - Laurie Santos (rebroadcast) | 01:06:13 | |
In this episode, we welcome Yale psychologist Laurie Santos who discusses her new podcast, The Happiness Lab which explores how wrong and misguided we can be when we pursue the things we think will make us happy or avoid the things that we think will make us sad. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale - the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history - The Happiness Lab is a tour of the latest scientific research into what does and does not make us happy. - Show notes at: www.youarenotsosmart.com | |||
| 08 Jul 2024 | 291 - Tough - Terry Crews (rebroadcast) | 01:11:09 | |
Terry Crews, actor, athlete, artist, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, host of America’s Got Talent - that Terry Crews joins us to discuss his new book, Tough. In the book, Terry shares the raw story of his quest to find the true meaning of toughness and in so doing fundamentally change his concept of himself by uprooting a deeply ingrained toxic masculinity and finally confronting his insecurities, painful memories, and limiting beliefs. | |||
| 27 Jun 2022 | 236 - How Minds Change | 01:44:16 | |
In this episode I read an excerpt from my new book How Minds Change, a portion concerning how to change minds about abortion rights, and Chris Clearfield interviews me about that very same book - which is out now and available everywhere.
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| 11 Jun 2023 | 261 - Hack Your Bureaucracy - Marina Nitze | 00:42:01 | |
Marina Nitze is a professional fixer of broken systems – a hacker, not of computers and technology, but of the social phenomena that tend to emerge when people get together and form organizations, institutions, services, businesses, and governments. In short, she hacks bureaucracies and wants to teach you how to do the same. - Hack Your Bureaucracy: https://www.hackyourbureaucracy.com - Marina Nitze: https://www.marinanitze.com - How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome - David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney - YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog - Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com - Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com | |||
| 10 Jul 2022 | 237 - Reactance - Michele Belot | 00:40:22 | |
New research suggests people on opposite sides of wedge issues want to listen to each other. We are each eager to hear differing opinions and understand opposing views, and when we do it can change our minds (at least a little), but only when we aren't triggered by the psychological phenomenon of reactance - one of several ideas we explore in this episode.
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| 24 Dec 2022 | 249 - The Power of Surprise (rebroadcast) | 01:00:38 | |
In this episode, Micheal Rousell, author of The Power of Surprise, explains the science of surprise at the level of neurons and brain structures, and then talk about how surprises often lead to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, the different personal narratives that guide our behaviors and motivations and goals, and, perhaps most importantly, our willingness to be surprised again so that we can change and grow. In the show, you will how we can use the current understanding of how surprise leads to learning, and how learning depends on interpretation, to improve our lives, and the lives of others
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| 19 Sep 2021 | 215 - Jerks at Work - Tessa West | 01:20:10 | |
In this live taping of the podcast at Caveat in NYC, Dr. Tessa West, the author of Jerks at Work, conducts quizzes to see what kind of jerk you are and what kind of jerk most-easily persuades you in the workplace. You will also learn how to counteract the behaviors of people who make work suck more than it should. West is a leading expert on interpersonal interaction and communication and will explain how to make work suck less as we return to our offices and figure out how to balance working remotely with working in-person after a year of re-imagining what work even means. West’s new book is an exploration of all the psychological research into how and why gaslighters, bulldozers, neglectors, micromanagers and more do their thing in our workplaces and how to use what we know from decades of psychological research to counteract their Machiavellian machinations. | |||
| 01 Jun 2020 | 181 - Pluralistic Ignorance (rebroadcast) | 01:26:16 | |
There are several ways to define pluralistic ignorance, and that’s because it’s kind of a brain twister when you try to put it into words. On certain issues, the majority of the people believe that the majority of the people in a group believe what, in truth, the minority of the members believe. Or put another way, it is the erroneous belief that the majority is acting in a way that matches its internal philosophies, and that you are one of a small number of people who feel differently, when in reality the majority agrees with you on the inside but is afraid to admit it outright or imply such through its behavior. Everyone in a group, at the same time, gets stuck following a norm that no one wants to follow, because everyone is carrying a shared, false belief about everyone else’s unshared true beliefs. -- Show Notes at: youarenotsosmart.com -- -- Become a patron at: www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart -- SPONSORS • BetterHelp: BetterHelp.com - offer code YANSS | |||
| 03 Sep 2021 | 214 - Exploring Genius | 00:35:03 | |
Over the course of this audio documentary series, David McRaney explores the history and science of intelligence, IQ, and remarkable talent through interviews with dozens of intelligence experts and actual "geniuses" (a 5-year-old prodigy, the man with the highest IQ ever recorded, etc). McRaney wrestles with the complexity of GENIUS as a cultural construct and considers how we can unlock its positive potential within ourselves. LINK TO GET THE HEAR FIRST EPISODE AND GET TWO-WEEKS OF HIMALAYA FOR FREE What You'll Learn: From the creator of YANSS, a new 6-part, 7-hour audio documentary exploring the science and history of the idea and word, “genius,” featuring dozens of interviews with experts and those with extraordinary talents and extreme intelligence. | |||
| 16 Apr 2023 | 257 - What Do You Mean? - Celeste Kidd | 00:49:14 | |
Is a hotdog a sandwich? Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive science, the odds that your concept of a sandwich is the same as another person's concept are shockingly low. In this episode we explore how understanding why that question became a world-spanning argument in the mid 2010s helps us understand some of the world-spanning arguments vexing us today. • Celeste Kidd's Website: https://www.kiddlab.com • Celeste Kidd's Twitter: https://twitter.com/celestekidd • How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome • David McRaney’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmcraney • YANSS Twitter: https://twitter.com/notsmartblog • Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com • Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com • Latent Diversity in Human Concepts: https://tinyurl.com/25544m3v | |||
| 11 Jul 2021 | 210 - Julia Shaw - The Memory Illusion (rebroadcast) | 01:11:38 | |
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Julia Shaw, the author of The Memory Illusion. Julia is famous among psychologists because she was able to implant false memories into a group of subjects and convince 70 percent of them that they were guilty of a crime they did not commit, and she did so by using the sort of sloppy interrogation techniques that some police departments have been truly been guilty of using in the past. From her book’s website: “In The Memory Illusion, Dr Julia Shaw uses the latest research to show the astonishing variety of ways in which our memory can indeed be led astray. Fascinating and unnerving in equal measure, the international bestseller The Memory Illusion has been translated into 20 languages and offers a unique insight into the human brain, challenging you to question how much you can ever truly know about yourself.” | |||
| 25 Jan 2021 | 198 - Reflection and Insurrection | 00:52:21 | |
In this episode, we explore the psychological mechanisms that led to the the storming of the Capitol, an event that sprang from a widespread belief in a conspiracy theory that, even weeks later, still persists among millions. | |||
| 18 Mar 2024 | 283 - Cultures of Growth - Mary C. Murphy | 01:05:07 | |
In this episode we welcome psychologist Mary C. Murphy, author of Cultures of Growth, who tells us how to create institutions, businesses, and other groups of humans that can better support collaboration, innovation, performance, and wellbeing. We also learn how, even if you know all about the growth mindset, the latest research suggests you not may not be creating a culture of growth despite what feels like your best efforts to do so. | |||