345 - A Pox on Fools - Thomas Levenson

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 YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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. Previous Episodes How Minds Change Thomas Levenson A Pox on Fools A History of Vaccines David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney's BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 YANSS Twitter Show Notes Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 Misguided Kitted Shop The Story of Kitted How Minds Change David McRaney's BlueSky David McRaney’s Twitter YANSS Twitter Show Notes Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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. Kitted Previous Episodes How Minds Change Cautionary Tales Tim Harford David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney’s BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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. Kitted Previous Episodes How Minds Change Heather Barnes Improv@Work Second City The Center for Enlightened Disagreement Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney’s BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are more possible chess moves than atoms in the universe, and chess champion Jennifer Shahade tells us how we can borrow from the best chess players' decision-tree approach to avoid considering every possible option and instead "think sideways" to consider the best choices on the board. Previous Episodes How Minds Change Jennifer Shahade’s Website Thinking Sideways Does chess need intelligence? David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney's BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Northwestern University just launched the Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, a real-world institution devoted to "research-backed approaches to cultivating open-mindedness, identifying one’s own cognitive biases, working collaboratively with others despite disagreement and more." In this episode, David McRaney details his time as a resident of the Center, teaching students how to ask questions that activate a person's introspection, and then follow up with questions that evoke a person's motivated reasoning, then keep going until the other side articulates things they may have never considered before, and, in so doing, reveal the deeper motivations and values generating disagreement. You'll learn about this and all the other modules of the Center's pilot program. You'll also learn about a new game they are designing to improve scientific literacy of news consumers and news creators. Previous Episodes How Minds Change The Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement Brad Zakarin Eli Finkel Nour Kteily Medill School for Journalism Patti Wolter The Center for Public Deliberation The Listen First Coalition Better Together America Heather Barnes Martin Carcasson Point Taken The Visual Thinking Lab Steven Franconeri Joshua Greene’s Website Tango Tango Quiz Game Research Love Factually Website Joshua Hudson Protein Research NYT Protein Deep Dive Tylenol Metastudy The Garage Monica Guzman Braver Angels Jacqui Banaszynski David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney's BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School, tells us how to avoid the Ladder of Misinference by examining how narratives, statistics, and articles can mislead, especially when they align with our preconceived notions and confirm what we believe is true, assume is true, and wish were true. Alex Edmans  May Contain Lies What to Test in a Post Trust World How Minds Change David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney’s BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Kitted Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.