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Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg — Science
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you’ll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making. • We take on important, thorny questions like: • What’s the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy of our thinking? What are the advantages of using our “gut” to make decisions? And when should we expect careful, analytical reflection to be more effective? Why do societies sometimes collapse? And what can we do to reduce the chance that ours collapses? Why is the world today so much worse than it could be? And what can we do to make it better? What are the good and bad parts of tradition? And are there more meaningful and ethical ways of carrying out important rituals, such as honoring the dead? How can we move beyond zero-sum, adversarial negotiations and create more positive-sum interactions?

Latest Episodes:

Shamanism, witchcraft, and the power of narrative (with Manvir Singh) Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

What do westerners misunderstand about "tribal" cultures? How does justice in very small communities differ from justice in large nation-states? Why do some cultures have bride prices (i.e., groom's family pays bride's family) and others have dowries (i.e., bride's family pays groom's family)? How do cultures differ with respect to the body parts they sexualize? How many cultures across time have used psychedelics? Do all religions make moral demands? How do religions change as the people who practice them grow in number? How strong is the link between religious belief and individual behavior? To what extent are anthropologists conscious of their own behaviors and biases? Why do certain types of false beliefs persist for so long? How do shamanism and witchcraft differ? Aside from their official roles, what de facto roles do shamans play in their communities? What personality traits and/or mental health conditions are linked to wanting to become a shaman? Are any taboos universal across all human cultures? Why are taboos against incest and cannibilism so common? What is the value of anthropology?

Manvir Singh is an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, where he writes about cognitive science, evolution, and cultural diversity. He studies complex cultural traditions that reliably emerge across societies, including dance songs, lullabies, hero stories, shamanism, and institutions of justice. He graduated with a PhD from Harvard University in 2020 and, since 2014, has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Mentawai communities on Siberut Island, Indonesia. He is the author of Shamanism: The Timeless Religion (2025). Follow him on Twitter / X at @mnvrsngh or @manvir on Bluesky, or learn more about him on his website, manvir.org.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists
Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant

Music

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Which Spencer is real? Spencer vs. his AI clone May 28, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Can you tell which is the real Spencer and which is his AI clone? How irrational are people really? What do most people misunderstand about psychology? What are the best tools to use to accomplish various societal goals? How good are we at predicting the future? Why do we have such a hard time overcoming our tribal instincts in politics? How many people get into politics for narcissistic reasons? What systems could be put in place to help prevent government corruption? Do we have free will? Are numbers real? Is beauty real? What are some things religious people might be right about?

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists
Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant

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Too many mental health challenges and not enough psychiatrists (with Jacob Appel) May 21, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

How big is the current mental health crisis? What's causing it? What do we know about the age distribution of people suffering from mental health issues right now? Is the crisis just that more people are suffering from anxiety and depression, or is there an increase in other disorders as well? Why are psychiatrists seemingly very picky about which insurance policies they'll accept? What percent of hospital psychiatric patients are repeat visitors? What would an ideal mental health system look like? How effective are addiction detox programs? Why might suicide prevention programs backfire? Which disorders are associated with the highest risks of suicide? If a person attempts suicide but is saved, how likely are they to attempt it again? When is it better to see a psychologist than a psychiatrist and vice versa? What are some of the most exciting and most worrying parts of genetic medicine? How should we decide which diseases to study and which treatments to develop? What's an "invisible" victim? Is there any solution to the problem of invisible victimhood? How effective was the Affordable Care Act (AKA "Obamacare")? Are we collectively spending too much money on end-of-life care? How can medicine better incorporate preventive care? What is body integrity disorder? Why do we have such a hard time combating our biases relating to physical beauty? Should polygamy be morally and/or legally permissible? Should medical aid in dying (AKA "assisted suicide") be morally and/or legally permissible? Are doctors too willing to resuscitate dying patients?

Jacob M. Appel is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where he is Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry, Associate Director of the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities, and Medical Director of the Mental Health Clinic at the East Harlem Health Outreach Program. Jacob is the author of five literary novels, ten short story collections, an essay collection, a cozy mystery, a thriller, two volumes of poems and a compendium of dilemmas in medical ethics. He is Vice President and Treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle, co-chair of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Committee on Psychiatry & Law, and a Councilor of the New York County Psychiatric Society and of the American Academy of Psychiatry & Law. Learn more about him at his website, jacobmappel.com.

Further reading

Jacob (2019 documentary)
"They Decide Who Lives, Who Dies" by Shana Alexander

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

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Misinformation from all sides (with Brian Dunning) May 14, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Why is misinformation a never-ending problem? What fraction of misinformation is intentionally manipulative? What's the difference between bullshit and other kinds of misinformation? What are the various kinds of beliefs we hold? How do the political left and right (at least in the US) differ in their production and consumption of misinformation? Have any conspiracy theories ever been proven right? Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself? Why do people listen to Alex Jones? Was Nikola Tesla a fraud? Why does any of this matter? What do we know about UAPs / UFOs? What is the "Christmas tree problem"? Could an advanced human or alien civilization invent interstellar travel technology? What's something you're wrong about?

Brian Dunning is the host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast; the writer and presenter of the documentary films The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See, Science Friction, and Principles of Curiosity; and the author of seven books such as Conspiracies Declassified (Simon & Schuster, 2018). He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. Learn more about him on his website, briandunning.com.

Further reading

Chart of conspiracy theories and political views

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

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A conversation with a rigid perfectionist who has OCPD (with Darryl Rossignol) May 07, 2025

Show notes

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What is obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and how does it compare to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)? Why is it relatively prevalent and yet also relatively unheard-of? What can people with OCPD do well? What does OCPD feel like from the inside? Which fictional characters might have OCPD? How do people with OCPD typically engage with religion? How can you have better relationships with people in your life who have OCPD? What should you do if you think you or someone you know might have OCPD? What are some treatments for it that actually work?

After struggling with the traits and symptoms of OCPD since childhood, Darryl Rossignol spent a decade deconstructing his own personality disorder and putting the pieces back together. In 2015, he launched a YouTube channel to document his journey. Within a few years, the project had reached tens of thousands of people in need. By 2022, the need for more was clear. With the assistance of some of the top OCPD mental health professionals, he was able to launch The OCPD Foundation. This foundation is now dedicated to assisting those with OCPD to successfully find the help that they need. Watch Darryl's videos on YouTube, learn more about OCPD at ocpd.org, or email Darryl at darryl@ocpd.org.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists
Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant

Music

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Simple and effective methods for helping people that nonprofits often ignore (with Kanika Bahl) Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

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Why do nonprofits often ignore the simplest, most obvious solutions for helping the world? Why do some problems get a lot of attention while others — often of equal or greater importance — go completely unaddressed? Why is behavior change so hard? When should or shouldn't NGOs collaborate with governments? Why are deworming effects not as immediately noticeable as might be expected? What sorts of incentive structures surround charities? How can NGOs and nonprofits gain the financial flexibility necessary to make better strategic bets and more principled decisions? What's more important for drawing in donors: stories or statistics? How do (or should) nonprofits measure the long-term economic effects on individuals of their interventions? How can you support the organizations and interventions mentioned in this episode?

Kanika Bahl is CEO and President of Evidence Action where she has been on the Board since 2015. She is also a Trustee of Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust. Previously she served as Managing Director at Results for Development (R4D), where she established and led the Market Dynamics practice. The practice has increased access to products such as childhood pneumonia treatments and malaria bed nets for millions of individuals in Africa and Asia. Prior to R4D, Kanika served as an Executive Vice President at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) where she established greenfield operations in 17 African countries. She launched and led a $400M, 33-country public-private facility focused on driving access to new HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostics. She received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and her BA in Mathematical Economics from Rice University. Find out more about the work of Evidence Action at evidenceaction.org, email them at info@evidenceaction.org, or connect with them on social media at @evidenceaction.

Further reading

Deworm the World

Sponsor ✨

This episode is sponsored by Animal Charity Evaluators.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists
Igor Scaldini — Marketing Consultant

Music

Affiliates

How to unleash student potential in education (with Jack Despain Zhou) Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

How bad are things in US education? Why does it seem that educational progress has stagnated? What parts of the US education system should be reformed? Is it better to group students by skill level or by age? How useful are standardized tests? Why is there so commonly a disconnect between what cognitive science tells us about how people learn and the practices that are actually implemented in classrooms? How much do we know about what it's like in schools today? What did the No Child Left Behind act get wrong? What should educational incentive structures look like? Is individual student progress constrained more by interest or intelligence? In the grand scheme of things, how big of a problem is classroom management? What happened in the FAA hiring scandal? Did it increase the risks associated with flying? How could the FAA have better achieved its own ends?

Jack Despain Zhou, also known online as Tracing Woodgrains, is the cofounder of the Center for Educational Progress, a nonprofit focused on reorienting education around a culture of excellence. Elsewhere, he is known for his coverage of institutional crises and online history, particularly the FAA's hiring scandal and Wikipedia abuse, and for cultural and political commentary from an ex-Mormon centrist perspective. He previously helped produce Blocked and Reported, a podcast about internet nonsense. He can be found on Substack as Tracing Woodgrains or on Twitter as @tracewoodgrains.

Further reading

Project Follow Through

Sponsor ✨

This episode is sponsored by Animal Charity Evaluators.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

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How f***ed is psychology? (with Adam Mastroianni) Apr 20, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Is the bar for what counts as new knowledge higher in psychology than in other scientific fields? Why did the field of psychology formally start centuries later than other scientific fields? Why is it so hard to make progress in psychology? How useful are social science "mega-studies"? What actually helps people stick to habits? What do scientists often get wrong about the philosophy of science? What have social scientists learned so far from the replication crisis? And how does that compare to what they should perhaps have been learning from it? Why is so much meaningless, useless psych research still being done? How can scientists communicate about their work more effectively? When might a blog be a better outlet than an academic journal for a scientific report? Is there a tension in science communication between honesty and explicability? What are the pros and cons of peer review?

Adam Mastroianni is a psychologist and metascientist who writes the popular blog Experimental History. He got his PhD in 2021 and then left academia to publish research directly to the public, like a crazy person. Learn more about him at his website, experimental-history.com.

Further reading

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

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A conversation with a multiple-time survivor of sexual abuse Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

Why might being the victim of sexual abuse increase the likelihood of being re-victimized? What warning signs, if any, might an abuser exhibit before becoming abusive? How might trauma differ when caused by someone the victim knows versus by someone who is a stranger to them? Why might victims choose to continue interacting with their abusers after receiving abuse? Why might trauma even cause a person to bond with their abuser? What is "affirmative" consent? Which states in the US recognize affirmative consent as a meaningful legal concept? What forms of refusal to engage in sexual activities are legally defensible? Why might victims choose to pursue legal recourse or not? What percent of victims pursue legal recourse? What sorts of things drive abusers to abuse others? Is it mere lust, or are there other factors? How often do abusers apologize or correct their behavior? How can you help a friend who has experienced sexual abuse?

Further reading

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

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A story can change the world (with Elizabeth Cox) Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

Read the full transcript here.

How important is story-telling for changing the world? What counts as a story? How closely should persuasive stories conform to the formula of "the hero's journey"? How much time do we spend on average thinking about stories? How can raw data be shaped into a story that's both true and compelling? What are some good examples of stories that have changed the world for the better? When, if ever, do scare tactics work? Can a bad guy with a story only be stopped by a good guy with a story? Why are there so many valid ways of understanding and treating depression? Why are anxiety and depression always so closely linked (if they're not just the same thing)? Is it true that most depression treatments will make most people feel worse before they begin to feel better? How far along are we in the development of artificial wombs? Why might some people be resistant to the usage or even to the development of artificial wombs?

Elizabeth Cox is the founder of Should We Studio, an independent production company dedicated to projects that raise awareness of the most important issues shaping the future, where she wrote and directed the award-winning animated series Ada. Before that, she was the Senior Editorial Producer at TED-Ed, where she wrote and edited the scripts for over 200 educational animated videos on all sorts of subjects which have hundreds of millions of views and more than 10,000 years of watch time. Learn more about her at her website, elizdcox.com, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Further reading

"The Many Models for Depression", by Spencer Greenberg

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
WeAmplify — Transcriptionists

Music

Affiliates

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