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You Are Not So Smart

You Are Not So Smart

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.

  • 39 minutes 41 seconds
    338 - May Contain Lies - Alex Edmans (rebroadcast)

    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.

    27 April 2026, 4:59 am
  • 59 minutes 39 seconds
    337 - Cognitive Surrender - Gideon Nave and Steven D. Shaw

    How is AI reshaping human reasoning? What is cognitive surrender, and how do we avoid its negative impact? What is system three thinking, and how can we get the most out of it? Artificial intelligence researchers Gideon Nave and Steven D. Shaw have some answers, some questions, and some suggestions.

    Previous Episodes

    Thinking: Fast, Slow, and Artificial

    Gideon Nave's Website

    Steven D. Shaw's Website

    How Minds Change

    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.

    13 April 2026, 4:59 am
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    336 - The 3.5 Percent Rule - Erica Chenoweth (rebroadcast)

    If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change the national status quo, you don't need half the country, you only need 3.5 percent of the population to join – but there are some caveats, and Erica Chenoweth whose research led to the discovery of the 3.5 Percent Rule, explains them to us in this episode.

    Previous Episodes

    Erica Chenoweth's Website

    Why Civil Resistance Works (the paper)

    Why Civil Resistance Works (the book)

    The TED Talk

    The Q&A

    List of Protests by Size

    How Minds Change

    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.

    30 March 2026, 4:59 am
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    335 - Align Your Mind - Britt Frank (rebroadcast)

    Therapist, teacher, speaker, and trauma specialist Britt Frank tells us all about her new book, Align Your Mind, an all-access pass to understanding, befriending, and leading the multiple voices within yourself.

    Grounded in the latest research on Parts Work and Internal Family Systems, and offering proven techniques from Frank’s clinical practice and personal challenges, this engaging guide is a user manual to your own mind—and presents a road map for finding peace, confidence, and a deeper understanding of who you truly are.

    Patreon

    Previous Episodes

    Britt Frank’s Practice

    Align Your Mind Website

    Britt Frank’s Instagram

    How Minds Change

    Newsletter

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney's Bluesky

    YANSS Twitter

     


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

    16 March 2026, 4:59 am
  • 1 hour 19 minutes
    334 - Magical Thinking - Matt Tompkins (rebroadcast)

    In this episode, the story of Clever Hans, the horse who changed psychology for the better. We also sit down with psychologist and magician Matt Tompkins. Matt is the author of The Spectacle of Illusion, a book about the long history of the manipulation of our own magical thinking and how studying deception can help us better understand perception, memory, belief, and more.

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    YANSS Twitter

    Matt Tompkins

    The Spectacle of Illusion

    Prisoners of Silence

    Clever Hans

    Wilhelm von Osten

    Carl Sagan Quote

    Science of Magic Association

    Society for Psychical Research

    Skeptical Inquirer Magazine

    Houdini's Debunking

    Newsletter

    Patreon


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

    2 March 2026, 5:59 am
  • 38 minutes 14 seconds
    YANSS 333 - Selective Perception - Jay Van Bavel

    How can two people watch the same video yet see two different things? How can two people witness the same event but arrive at two different truths about what they witnessed? How can the same evidence lead people to drastically different realities? In this episode, Dr. Jay Van Bavel at NYU explains.

    Kitted Executive Academy

    The Power of Us Website

    They Saw A Game

    Jay Van Bavel’s Twitter

    Jay Van Bavel’s Website

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    Newsletter

    Patreon


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

    16 February 2026, 5:59 am
  • 1 hour 8 minutes
    332 - Concordance Over Truth Bias (rebroadcast)

    In this episode, we sit down with three disinformation researchers whose new paper found something surprising about both our resistance and our susceptibility to both true news we wish was fake and fake news we wish was true.

    Our guests are three of the scientists exploring a newly named cognitive distortion, one that every human being is prone to exhibiting, one that is so common and so easily provoked that nefarious actors depend on it when distributing disinformation and propaganda.

    Samuel Woolley, Katie Joseff, and Michael Schwalbe will share their methods, findings, and takeaways. They will also explain the troublesome nature of something they are calling concordance over truth bias – a distortion that most often appears in those who have the most (undeserved) confidence in their own (not-so-objective) objectivity. 

    - How Minds Change

    - Show Notes

    - Newsletter

    - David McRaney's BlueSky

    - David McRaney’s Twitter

    - YANSS Twitter

    - Why Do We Share Our Feelings With Others?

    - Concordance Over Truth Bias

    - Samuel Wooley

    - Katie Joseff

    - Michael Schwalbe

    - Geoffrey Cohen


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    2 February 2026, 5:59 am
  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    331 - Wicked Problems - Martin Carcasson

    Dr. Martin Carcasson tells us how he, as the Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State, trains people how to facilitate deliberation and overcome wicked problems so that they can "spark processes that are particularly designed to avoid triggering the worst in human nature and tap into the best."

    Kitted Executive Academy

    The Center for Public Deliberation

    The Listen First Coalition

    Better Together America

    Martin Carcasson

    The Toulmin Model

    Wicked Problems

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    Newsletter

    Show Notes

    Patreon


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

    19 January 2026, 5:59 am
  • 1 hour 4 minutes
    330 - A More Beautiful Question - Warren Berger (rebroadcast)

    Warren Berger has made a career out of classifying, categorizing, and making sense of the many varieties of questions that we ask and in this episode he explains how we can ask more beautiful questions that can lead to all manner of better outcomes.

    Warren Berger's Website

    Warren Berger's Twitter

    A More Beautiful Question

    Carl Sagan on Asking Questions

    Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Sky Is Blue

    The Real Reason the Sky is Blue

    How Does Rayleigh Scattering ACTUALLY Work? (The Blue Sky)

    Kitted

    How Minds Change

    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.

    5 January 2026, 5:59 am
  • 51 minutes 52 seconds
    329 - Point Taken - Steven Franconeri

    Dr. Steven Franconeri explains the powerful insights and opportunities offered by a game he and his team created for having better disagreements about just about anything, but especially about the sort of topics that often lead to arguments, fights, and terrible holiday dinners.

    Kitted Executive Academy

    Point Taken

    The Visual Thinking Lab

    Steven Franconeri

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    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.

    22 December 2025, 5:59 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    328 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg (rebroadcast)

    We sit down with Jordan Ellenberg, a world-class geometer, who takes us on a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything

    His writing has appeared in Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, and he is the New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong – but in this episode we will discuss his new book, Shape: The hidden geometry of information, biology, strategy, democracy and everything else.

    Kitted Executive Academy

    Jordan Ellenberg’s Website

    Jordan Ellenberg’s Academic Website

    Jordan Ellenberg’s Twitter

    Shape

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    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.

    8 December 2025, 5:59 am
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