You Are Not So Smart

Deborah Prentice’s Website

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YANSS 279 - Pluralistic Ignorance (rebroadcast) Jan 20, 2024

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. 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.

Robb Willer’s Website

Robb Willer’s Twitter

Florence Hazrat's Website

YANSS Twitter

Show Notes

Newsletter

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278 - An Admirable Point - Florence Hazrat Jan 07, 2024

Show notes

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!

An Admirable Point

YANSS Twitter

Show Notes

Newsletter

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277 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin (rebroadcast) Dec 25, 2023

Show notes

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.

Temple Grandin

Visual Thinking

Temple Grandin’s Twitter

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

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276 - How to Stand up to a Bully - Andrea Chalupa Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

In this episode David McRaney is interviewed by Andrea Chalupa about the psychological research covered in How Minds Change that could help if you expect to spend time with a family member this holiday who can't wait to pull you into an argument about politics, a wedge issue, or something else buzzing in the zeitgeist over which they'd love to start a fight. But, also, this is good stuff to know before ANY contentious conversation you might have in the future with someone who is quick to aggression and ready to get angry over how your opinion isn't their opinion.

• Gaslit Nation

• Transcript

• Andrea Chalupa’s Twitter

• Sarah Kendzior’s Twitter

• The Critical Thinking Alliance

• The Conspiracy Test

• Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic

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275 - Blight - Emily Monosson Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

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.

• Emily Monosson's Website

• 2013 Trailer for The Last of Us

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274 - Cascades - Greg Satell Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

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

• Greg Satell's Website

• Greg Satell's Blog

• Greg Satell's Twitter

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273 - The Conspiracy Test - Jesse Richardson Nov 12, 2023

Show notes

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).

• School of Thought

• The Conspiracy Test

• Metaconspiracy

• Jesse Richardson's Website

• Jesse Richardson's Twitter

• Your Bias Is

• Your Fallacy Is

• Free Learning List

• The Rules of Civil Conversation

(thanks for listening, share with abandon)

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272 - Quit! - Annie Duke (rebroadcast) Oct 29, 2023

Show notes

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.
In Quit, Duke teaches you how to get good at quitting. Drawing on stories from elite athletes like Mount Everest climbers, founders of leading companies like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, and top entertainers like Dave Chappelle, Duke explains why quitting is integral to success, as well as strategies for determining when to hold em, and when to fold em, that will save you time, energy, and money.

• Connections

• Annie Duke's Twitter

• Annie Duke’s Website

• School of Thought

• The Conspiracy Test

• The Alliance for Decision Education

• The Decision Education Podcast

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271 - Survival of the Richest - Douglas Rushkoff (rebroadcast) Oct 15, 2023

Show notes

In this episode we sit down with Douglas Rushkoff, a media scholar, journalist, and professor of digital economics who has a new fire in his belly when it comes to the world of billionaire preppers, which comes across in his new book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires – inspired by his invitation to consult a group of the world’s richest people on how to spend their money now to survive an apocalypse they fear is coming within their lifetimes.