- 1 hour 47 seconds351 - Megachurches - Hahrie Han
What have scientists learned about the social infrastructure of megachurches that not only explains their growth but also their resilience, and how can we apply what we've learned to institutions that are not megachurches? Political scientist Hahrie Han joins us to explain why belonging is more important than belief when it comes to the push-pull of top-down and bottom-up within organizations that depend on fractal superstructures of cellular relationships in order to survive internal conflict.
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26 October 2026, 4:59 am - 1 hour 23 minutes350 - Pluralistic Ignorance
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. Strange and harmful behavior can follow from the fact that, on certain issues, most people believe that most people believe what, in truth, few people believe. Or put another way, pluralistic ignorance 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.
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12 October 2026, 4:59 am - 1 hour 12 minutes349 - AI Risk - Jesse Richardson
Jesse Richardson wants to improve our critical thinking about AI risk through the gamification of our rampant speculation. In this episode he explains AI safety isn't just one thing, there are a bunch of different risk profiles and each needs to be considered critically.
Melanie Mitchell on AI Intelligence
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28 September 2026, 4:59 am - 43 minutes 31 seconds348 - The Dress - Decoder Ring
We return to The Dress and the psychological lessons offered by one of the most viral moments in the history of the internet via an episode of Decoder Ring in which David McRaney shares some insights from his book, How Minds Change, with Willa Paskin, the host of Decoder Ring.
CBC Interview with Willa Paskin
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14 September 2026, 4:59 am - 1 hour 10 minutes347 - Under Alien Skies - Phil Plait
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.
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31 August 2026, 4:59 am - 59 minutes 30 seconds346 - No Nocebo Effect - Helen Pilcher
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.
This Book May Cause Side Effects
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17 August 2026, 4:59 am - 1 hour 6 minutes345 - A Pox on Fools - Thomas Levenson
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.
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3 August 2026, 4:59 am - 1 hour 7 minutes344 - Intellectual Humility - Tenelle Porter
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.
The Gateway Drugs to Intellectual Humility
The Illusion of Explanatory Depth
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3 August 2026, 3:00 am - 1 hour 8 minutes343 - Misguided - Matthew Facciani
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.
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6 July 2026, 4:59 am - 47 minutes 15 seconds342 - The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind
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.
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22 June 2026, 4:59 am - 45 minutes 20 seconds341 - Positive Rants - Heather Barnes
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.
The Center for Enlightened Disagreement
Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science
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