You Are Not So Smart

About this podcast

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.

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Science

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2021
211 - QAnon and Conspiratorial Narratives
When we talk about conspiracy theories we tend to focus on what people believe instead of why, and, more importantly, why they believe those things and not other things. In this episode, we sit down with two psychologists working to change that, and in addition, change the term itself from conspiracy theory to conspiracy narrative, which more accurately describes what makes any one conspiracy appealing enough to form a community around it and in rare cases result in collective action. Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
July 25, 2021
83 min
210 - Julia Shaw - The Memory Illusion (rebroadcast)
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Julia Shaw, the author of The Memory Illusion. Julia is famous among psychologists because she was able to implant false memories into a group of subjects and convince 70 percent of them that they were guilty of a crime they did not commit, and she did so by using the sort of sloppy interrogation techniques that some police departments have been truly been guilty of using in the past. From her book’s website: “In The Memory Illusion, Dr Julia Shaw uses the latest research to show the astonishing variety of ways in which our memory can indeed be led astray. Fascinating and unnerving in equal measure, the international bestseller The Memory Illusion has been translated into 20 languages and offers a unique insight into the human brain, challenging you to question how much you can ever truly know about yourself.” Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
July 11, 2021
72 min
209 - Masks (rebroadcast)
In this episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast, we sit down with four experts on human behavior to try and understand how wearing masks, during the COVID-19 pandemic, became politicized. In the show, we take a take a deep dive into tribal psychology, which, in essence, says that humans are motivated reasoners who alter their thinking, feeling, and behaving when thinking, feeling, and behaving in certain ways might upset their peers. Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
June 28, 2021
96 min
208 - The Extended Mind - Annie Murphy Paul
In this episode we sit down with Annie Murphy Paul, the acclaimed science writer, whose new book, The Extended Mind is all about how the brain is part of systems, and it is those systems that constitute the mind. In other words, our minds are not, as she puts it, brainbound, but they extend to our computers, our notebooks, our friends and neighbors and colleagues and partners. The environments in which we move, natural and otherwise, deeply influence how we think, what we think, and what we CAN think, and in addition, everything the brain does becomes a reference for extended thinking, and these feedback loops extend what the mind can do. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
June 13, 2021
66 min
207 - A Slight Change of Plans - Maya Shankar
A few weeks ago, Maya Shankar and her team reached out to me noting their new show, A Slight Change of Plans, which explores how various fascinating people have changed their minds, often after something unexpected happened in the story of their lives, overlapped in its interests and goals with You Are Not So Smart. One of her guests, Megan Phelps-Roper, was recently a guest on this show, and Daryl Davis is one of her guests who I’ve long wanted to feature on this podcast. So, as podcasters do from time to time, Maya wondered if she could come on this podcast to promote her podcast, and seeing as our interests and obsessions and work and overall mission aligned so strongly, I said, "Absolutely, I would love that," and this is that episode Show Notes at: www.youarenotsosmart.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 30, 2021
77 min
206 - Narcissism
In this episode we explore what narcissism is and what is most-definitely is not. You will learn is that narcissists are not psychopaths, and vice-versa, but there is a form of narcissism which had been, up until now, confused with psychopathy, and vice-versa. According to the research of the two psychologists in this episode, narcissism may even need to be renamed, because it isn't excessive self-love, it's excessive self-loathing. Narcissists like Don Draper in Mad Men cope with their insecurity by donning a mask, and then spend most of their lives protecting that mask out of a fear of what will happen if people ever see what it hides. - Show notes at www.youarenotsosmart.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 16, 2021
59 min
205 - Unfollow - Megan Phelps-Roper
In this episode we sit down with Megan Phelps-Roper, the author of Unfollow, a memoir of her time in Westboro Baptist Church, and an exploration what it took to convince her to leave. I interviewed Megan for my upcoming book, How Minds Change, and in this interview you will learn all about assimilation and accommodation, cult deprogrammers, and the steps Megan says one must take if they want to change someone's mind. - Vote for You Are Not So Smart at The Webby Awards! Link here: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2021/podcasts/general-series/science-education - Show notes at www.youarenotsosmart.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 3, 2021
111 min
204 - On Being Certain - Robert Burton
In this episode, we sit down with neurologist Robert Burton, author of On Being Certain, a book that fundamentally changed the way I think about what a belief actually is. That’s because the book posits that conclusions are not conscious choices and certainty is not even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of “knowing” as he puts it, are "sensations that feel like thoughts, but arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that function independently of reason." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
April 18, 2021
55 min

You Are Not So Smart

About this podcast

Categories

211 - QAnon and Conspiratorial Narratives

210 - Julia Shaw - The Memory Illusion (rebroadcast)

209 - Masks (rebroadcast)

208 - The Extended Mind - Annie Murphy Paul

207 - A Slight Change of Plans - Maya Shankar

206 - Narcissism

205 - Unfollow - Megan Phelps-Roper

204 - On Being Certain - Robert Burton

About this podcast

Categories