Cognitive Revolution

#108: Humanism and the conversation of the ages (feat. Sarah Bakewell)

Ludwik Zamenhof was born in 1859 in a small city in Poland. His family was Jewish, and the area he grew up in also had factions of Germans, Russians, and Poles, all of wh

#107: How a really good travel writer approaches her experiences abroad—and at home (feat. Erika Fatland)

The Person and the Situation is a book by social psychologists Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett, originally published in 1991. The argument made by Ross and Nisbett was that

#106: Rituals matter more than you think (feat. Dimitris Xygalatas)

Denis Dutton was a philosopher of art and media. He was born in the US but moved to New Zealand when he was 40, where he became interested in Oceanic Art. This interest l

#105: What can psychology tell us about meaning? (feat. Paul Bloom)

Recently, I’ve been workshopping an idea. Basically, I don’t believe there is such thing as an activity that is intrinsically meaningful. Sure, there are activities whic

#104: Palentine's Day (feat. Robin Dunbar)

We pay a lot of attention to our romantic relationships. Whether it’s selecting a mate or maintaining one’s relationship with them. Apps make millions of dollars promisin

#103: Tired, scared, and busy: why can't we all just get along? (feat. Mónica Guzmán)

One of the central themes of this show is the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves. But in focusing on the egocentric stakes of storytelling, one of the thin

#102: Awe is the emotional component of meaning (feat. Dacher Keltner)

I collect concise definitions of the good life. There’s something I really like about the idea of having a one sentence mission statement. It’s a kind of mantra to check

#101: Finding meaning in the maybe (feat. John Kaag)

For many of us, life is a process of minimizing uncertainty. We spend our days trying to eliminate uncertainty from our lives. Find the right career path, the right partn

#100: I interviewed 90+ scientists about their career. These are the 12 biggest lessons I learned.

The month before I began my PhD, in October 2019, I sat down with an idea. The concept was to reach out to people I admired—mostly academics and authors—and ask them abou

#99: There's a Reason You Can't Make Yourself Act like Everyone Else: You're Unique (feat. Chantel Prat)

For many of us, there are moments of realization we’ve had where we can’t look at our lives, or what we do in them, the same way ever again. I’ve had many. As a cognitive

A Small Exercise in Gratitude

And a minor resolution about friendship. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cod

#98: A Cognitive Scientist Tries to Convince Me the Mind is Flat; I Don't Think He Succeeds (feat. Nick Chater)

My guest today is Nick Chater, a Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. Nick is an influential cognitive scientist with a wide-range of interests, w

My Favorite Book of the Year

I believe when someone writes a perfect book, it deserves to sell a gazillion copies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribe

#97: Is the Biggest Fish in the Pond Happy? (feat. W. David Marx)

One of my favorite psychology papers of all time is called “Telling More than We Can Know” by Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson. The argument of the paper is that humans

Can Productivity Be Turned On Like a Faucet?

Two competing theories of inspiration: the 9am-ers and the lions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to

#96: How Words Get Their Meaning (feat. Gary Lupyan)

Language—who can use it, and how well—has been in the news recently. If you haven’t heard, a recent AI language model was released for public use. It’s a chatbot from the

The Off-Policy Theory of Happiness

Why the metrics we use to evaluate decisions are not the ones we should use to make them. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subsc

#95: The Value Landscape of Games—and How Companies Exploit It (feat. Adrian Hon)

Right now, over the course of the next couple weeks, somewhere in the neighborhood of one billion people will tune in to the same event. This event is not a geopolitica

Introducing: Meaning Lab

In a way, coming to the end of one’s PhD almost feels inappropriate. The pursuit of this degree gives a kind of structure to adult life—my life, anyway—as something on th

#94: Anxiety and the Hard Work of Being Human (feat. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary)

Anxiety. It is the only emotion my body believes is truly necessary for me to experience at three o’clock in the morning. To be sure I’d rather be sleeping. Usually how I