You Are Not So Smart

Latest Episodes:

350 - Pluralistic Ignorance Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

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. Strange and harmful behavior can follow from the fact that, on certain issues, most people believe that most people believe what, in truth, few people believe. Or put another way, pluralistic ignorance 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.

Deborah Prentice’s Website

Robb Willer’s Website

Robb Willer’s Twitter

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s Twitter

YANSS Twitter

Show Notes

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349 - AI Risk - Jesse Richardson Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

Jesse Richardson wants to improve our critical thinking about AI risk through the gamification of our rampant speculation. In this episode he explains AI safety isn't just one thing, there are a bunch of different risk profiles and each needs to be considered critically.

Previous Episodes

How Minds Change

Is It Game Over

School of Thought

Jesse Richardson’s Website

Your Bias Is

Your Fallacy Is

Melanie Mitchell on AI Intelligence

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney’s BlueSky

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348 - The Dress - Decoder Ring Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

We return to The Dress and the psychological lessons offered by one of the most viral moments in the history of the internet via an episode of Decoder Ring in which David McRaney shares some insights from his book, How Minds Change, with Willa Paskin, the host of Decoder Ring.

Decoder Ring

Decoder Ring's The Dress Page

Willa Paskin's Twitter

CBC Interview with Willa Paskin

Is It Game Over?

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s Twitter

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347 - Under Alien Skies - Phil Plait Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

Astronomer Phil Plait joins us to discuss his new book, Under Alien Skies, in which he describes what it would be like (through human eyes and real physical experiences) to actually travel to Saturn, Mars, asteroids, and distant stars. Also, we discuss the recent surge in UFO sighting as well as his famous talk at The Amazing Meeting.

Previous Episodes

How Minds Change

Under Alien Skies

Phil Plait's Newsletter

Phil Plait's Substack

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney’s BlueSky

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346 - No Nocebo Effect - Helen Pilcher Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

The suffering is real, but the source may not be what you assume. That's the essence of the nocebo effect, the placebo effect's evil twin. As neuroscientist Dr. Helen Pilcher explains, illness is not simply a matter of biology. Our thoughts, conscious or otherwise, can make lead to symptoms in unexpected ways.

Previous Episodes

How Minds Change

Dr. Helen Pilcher

This Book May Cause Side Effects

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney’s BlueSky

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345 - A Pox on Fools - Thomas Levenson Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

MIT professor Thomas Levenson, the author of the book A Pox on Fools, takes us through the same repeating patterns throughout history which have led to antivaxxers and vaccine hesitancy since the very first vaccines.

A History of Vaccines

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney's BlueSky

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344 - Intellectual Humility - Tenelle Porter Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

Can intellectual humility be measured? What influences it and affects it, limits it and enhances it? What even is it, scientifically speaking? We explore all of this and then play an episode of How to Be A Better Human featuring psychologist Tenelle Porter telling comedian Chris Duffy how she is researching how to conduct better research into intellectual humility.

Previous Episodes

Transcript at TED

How to Be A Better Human

The Gateway Drugs to Intellectual Humility

Tenelle Porter's Research

Tenelle Porter's Website

The Illusion of Explanatory Depth

Kitted Shop

The Story of Kitted

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s BlueSky

David McRaney’s Twitter

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343 - Misguided - Matthew Facciani Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

What is misinformation? How does it differ from disinformation or just plain ‘ole propaganda? How do we protect ourselves from people with nefarious intentions using all of these things to affect our thoughts, feelings, and behavior? That’s what we discuss in this episode with Matthew Facciani, social scientist and author of Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How it Spreads, and What We Can Do About It.

Matthew Facciani's Website

The Misguided Podcast

David McRaney's BlueSky

David McRaney’s Twitter

YANSS Twitter

Show Notes

Newsletter

Patreon

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342 - The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

Tim Harford of the podcast Cautionary Tales sits down with David McRaney to hear a story from David's book, How Minds Change, about how (and why) a prominent conspiracy theorist realized he was wrong.

Charlie Veitch was certain that 9/11 was an inside job. The attack on the World Trade Center wasn’t the work of Al-Qaeda, but an elaborate conspiracy. He became a darling of so-called “9/11 truthers” until he actually visited Ground Zero to meet architects, engineers and the relatives of the dead.

The trip changed his mind. His fellow “truthers” did not take Charlie’s conversion well.

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney’s BlueSky

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341 - Positive Rants - Heather Barnes Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

Communications professor Heather Barnes teaches us how to use what she learned teaching at Second City, managing the Museum of Science and Industry, and taking classes at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science to truly engage with difficult people through the power of positive rants.

The Center for Enlightened Disagreement

Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

David McRaney’s Twitter

David McRaney’s BlueSky

YANSS Twitter

YANSS Facebook