You Are Not So Smart podcast

You Are Not So Smart

You Are Not So Smart is a show about psychology that celebrates science and self delusion. In each episode, we explore what we've learned so far about reasoning, biases, judgments, and decision-making.

You Are Not So Smart is a show about psychology that celebrates science and self delusion. In each episode, we explore what we've learned so far about reasoning, biases, judgments, and decision-making.

 

#271

274 - Cascades - Greg Satell

In this episode we sit down with Greg Satell, a communication expert whose book about cascades details how rapid, widespread change can sweep across large groups of people, and how understanding the psychological mechanisms at play in such moments can help anyone looking to create change in any institution prepare for the inevitable resistance they will face. • [Special Offer From Greg Satell] (https://digitaltonto.com/speaking-and-consulting/the-content-audit/you-are-not-so-smart/) • [Greg Satell's Website] (https://gregsatell.com) • [Greg Satell's Blog] (https://digitaltonto.com) • [Greg Satell's Twitter] (https://twitter.com/Digitaltonto) • [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com) • [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) • [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) • [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) • [ Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) ... Read more

27 Nov 2023

1 HR 10 MINS

1:10:07

27 Nov 2023


#270

273 - The Conspiracy Test - Jesse Richardson

In this episode Jesse Richardson tells us all about [ConspiracyTest.org] (https://theconspiracytest.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). • [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com) • [School of Thought] (https://www.schoolofthought.org) • [The Conspiracy Test] (https://theconspiracytest.org) • [ Metaconspiracy] (https://metaconspiracy.org) • [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) • [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) • [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) • [Jesse Richardson's Website] (https://jesserichardson.com.au) • [Jesse Richardson's Twitter] (https://twitter.com/jesserichardson) • [Your Bias Is] (https://yourbias.is/) • [Your Fallacy Is] (https://yourfallacy.is/) • [Free Learning List] (https://freelearninglist.org/) • [The Rules of Civil Conversation] (https://therulesofcivilconversation.org) • [ Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) (thanks for listening, share with abandon) ... Read more

12 Nov 2023

58 MINS

58:52

12 Nov 2023


#269

272 - Quit! - Annie Duke (rebroadcast)

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] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-aAFz0ala0&t=1s) • [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com) • [Annie Duke's Twitter] (https://twitter.com/AnnieDuke) • [Annie Duke’s Website] (https://www.annieduke.com/books/) • [School of Thought] (https://www.schoolofthought.org) • [The Conspiracy Test] (https://theconspiracytest.org) • [The Alliance for Decision Education] (https://alliancefordecisioneducation.org) • [The Decision Education Podcast] (https://alliancefordecisioneducation.org/podcasts/) • [Show Notes] (www.youarenotsosmart.com) ... Read more

29 Oct 2023

59 MINS

59:24

29 Oct 2023


#268

271 - Survival of the Richest - Douglas Rushkoff (rebroadcast)

In this episode we sit down with [Douglas Rushkoff] (https://rushkoff.com/) , 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] (https://wwnorton.com/books/survival-of-the-richest) – 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. [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Douglas Rushkoff's Website] (https://rushkoff.com) ... Read more

15 Oct 2023

1 HR 01 MINS

1:01:24

15 Oct 2023


#267

270 - Defining Genius

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. [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Exploring Genius Audio Documentary] (https://www.himalaya.com/courses/exploring-genius-3353595) ... Read more

01 Oct 2023

1 HR 12 MINS

1:12:25

01 Oct 2023


#266

269 - Deconstructing How Minds Change - Michael Taft

In celebration of How Minds Change, my new book, turning one-year-old, in this episode Michael Taft interviews David McRaney about how minds do and do not change, the process behind writing a book about that, and what he has learned since writing and promoting it. Michael is a meditation teacher, bestselling author, and  a mindfulness coach – and he specializes in secular, science-based mindfulness training. If you are interested in a science-based, secular book about meditation and and mindfulness, I highly recommend his book,The Mindful Geek, snd I recommend guided meditation with him. He offers that at The Alembic in Berkeley. You can join them virtually, over the internet. Links below. I also recommend his podcast, Deconstructing Yourself. It is all about entheogens and neurofeedback and brain hacking. If you are a Carl Sagan loving, science endorsing, evidence based sort of person – a nerd, geek, or skeptic or humanist who wants to know more about meditation and deep dive into what we do and do not know about it – that's what his podcast is about. Sam Harris will be a guest on there soon, and I think many of you will love that episode. [Deconstructing Yourself] (https://deconstructingyourself.com) [The Alembic] (http://berkeleyalembic.org) [Michael Taft] (https://deconstructingyourself.com/michael-w-taft) [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) [Patreon] (https://www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

14 Sep 2023

1 HR 04 MINS

1:04:42

14 Sep 2023


#265

268 - The Status Game - Will Storr (rebroadcast)

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. ---Will Storr’s Website: [https://willstorr.com] (https://willstorr.com/) ---How Minds Change: [www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) ---Show Notes: [www.youarenotsosmart.com] (http://www.youarenotsosmart.com/) ---Newsletter: [https://davidmcraney.substack.com] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) ---Patreon: [ http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart] (http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

03 Sep 2023

1 HR 16 MINS

1:16:23

03 Sep 2023


#264

267 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn

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. [Sedona Chinn's Website] (https://www.sedonachinn.com) [Sedona Chinn's Twitter] (https://twitter.com/OMGBEARSS) [Sedona Chinn's Paper] (https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/support-for-doing-your-own-research-is-associated-with-covid-19-misperceptions-and-scientific-mistrust/) [The Other Paper Mentioned] (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02691728.2022.2146469) [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) [Patreon] (https://www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

19 Aug 2023

41 MINS

41:53

19 Aug 2023


#263

266 - Project Alpha - Brian Brushwood

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: [Brian's Website] (http://shwood.com) [Brian's Twitter] (https://twitter.com/shwood) [New Yorker Article about Spiritualism] (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/why-did-so-many-victorians-try-to-speak-with-the-dead) [The World's Greatest Con ] (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worlds-greatest-con/id1572307941) [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) [Patreon] (https://www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

06 Aug 2023

1 HR 06 MINS

1:06:03

06 Aug 2023


#262

265 - Chess Queens - Jennifer Shahade (rebroadcast)

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. [Jennifer Shahade’s Website] (https://jennifershahade.com/) [Jennifer Shahade’s Instagram] (https://www.instagram.com/jenshahade/) [Jennifer Shahade’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/JenShahade) [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) [Patreon] (https://www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

23 Jul 2023

58 MINS

58:29

23 Jul 2023


#261

264 - Nobody's Fool - Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris

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.  [Dan Simon's Website] (http://www.dansimons.com) [Christopher Chabris' Website] (http://www.chabris.com) [Nobody's Fool] (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/daniel-simons/nobodys-fool/9781541602236/?lens=basic-books) [How Minds Change] (https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome) [David McRaney’s Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidmcraney) [YANSS Twitter] (https://twitter.com/notsmartblog) [Show Notes] (https://youarenotsosmart.com) [Newsletter] (https://davidmcraney.substack.com/) [Patreon] (https://www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart) ... Read more

11 Jul 2023

48 MINS

48:46

11 Jul 2023