Thinking Clearly

Bob Froehlich-Retired Chemist, Counselor, Psychology Professor and Julia Minton-Technology Consultant

  • 59 minutes 7 seconds
    #99-How internet influencers, algorithms and crowds are altering our politics, our society and our very relationship to reality-with guest Renée DiResta.mp3

    Researcher, author and former Research Manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Renée DiResta, discusses how numerous internet-savvy individuals (influencers) are causing a profound shift in power and influence over our politics, beliefs and behavior, as outlined in her recent book: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. She also discusses: what can be done to mitigate the negative effects of this influence while harnessing the power of the internet to bring us together to thrive as we reestablish the trust and cooperation needed to meet our future global challenges.

    21 October 2024, 11:15 pm
  • 59 minutes 13 seconds
    #98-The Nature of Curiosity and it’s implications for Critical Thinking-with guest Jacqueline Gottlieb

    Professor Jacqueline Gottlieb, Principal Investigator at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute and former head of the Research Cluster on Curiosity at Columbia University’s Center for Science and Society, brings her research experience and deep thinking about the human brain's higher cognitive functions—including decision making, memory, and attention—to discuss that wonderful and invaluable human capability that we call curiosity.

     

    24 September 2024, 4:06 pm
  • 59 minutes 15 seconds
    #97-How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation-with guest Tania Israel

    Second time Thinking Clearly guest, Tania Israel, Professor of Counseling Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, guides us through how to overcome the toxic effects of consuming politicized news and social media in this current, highly polarized American environment and discusses how to more effectively communicate with people holding opposing views to ours. Professor Israel is the author of the recently published book: Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation.

    27 August 2024, 4:18 pm
  • 58 minutes 54 seconds
    #96-Using practices and tools from science while also learning how to weave together facts and values to rebuild trust and cooperation-with guest Robert MacCoun

    Calling on his experience in evidence-based policy making, teaching a course at UC Berkeley called Sense and Sensibility and Science, and coauthoring the book Third Millennium Thinking-Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, social scientist and law Professor at Stanford University, Robert MacCoun, discusses: how to avoid failure modes when making decisions; using practices, and tools of science to make better decisions in our every-day-lives; the value of probabilistic thinking; how to weave facts and values together; and how to reboot trust and develop a new collaborative approach to our shared problems and opportunities.

    23 July 2024, 4:51 pm
  • 59 minutes 20 seconds
    #95-Critical Thinking and the Nature of Human Consciousness-with guest Anil Seth

    Research and current theories about the nature of human consciousness are explored with guest Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. Topics include: how human consciousness can be thought of as controlled hallucination, the relationship of human consciousness to critical thinking, how thinking of the brain as a "prediction machine" affects how we form beliefs, and a number of other topics from Professor Seth’s international best selling book: Being You-a New Science of Consciousness.  Dr. Seth has co-authored close to 200 journal publications, and is a regular contributor to the New Scientist, The Guardian, and BBC.

    25 June 2024, 4:27 pm
  • 56 minutes 57 seconds
    #94-The Essence of Critical Thinking and Demonstrations of How to Have Civil Dialogues

    Thinking Clearly hosts Bob and Julia review their definition of critical thinking, discuss how doing a show about critical thinking has changed them, and do several demonstrations of best practices (using the LAP-EFI method) for having productive, civil dialogues with people who have different views than yours.

    28 May 2024, 3:28 pm
  • 59 minutes 18 seconds
    #93-Critical Thinking Fundamentals and how to find truth in all the noise-with guest Dr. Seema Yasmin

    Dr. Seema Yasmin, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, discusses: information disorder and its treatment, common techniques used for pushing lies, the use of narrative in communicating, the history and current state of journalism in America, how to best consume the news and mitigate the negative effects of social media, and a wide variety of other topics. Dr. Yasmin has investigated disease outbreaks for the CDC, worked as a CNN medical analyst and authored many books including: What the Fact? - Finding Truth in all the Noise.

    23 April 2024, 3:11 pm
  • 59 minutes 1 second
    #92-Election 2024 Preparation 4-Teaching Critical Thinking to American Military Future Leaders-with Guest Stephen Gerras

    In this fourth in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 Presidential Election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you’ll hear a previous episode that we recorded with Colonel (retired) Steve Gerras, who teaches critical thinking at the Army War College, sharing his advocacy and passion for critical thinking, and his experiences of teaching it to future military leaders. Professor Gerras has a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and has authored and coauthored many publications including the widely circulated: “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.”

    26 March 2024, 4:28 pm
  • 58 minutes 50 seconds
    #91-How artificial intelligence can help us understand human cognition-with guest Leslie Valiant

    The development of artificial intelligence naturally leads us to deeply explore what intelligence, reasoning and knowledge are; the processes required to achieve them; and the implications that has for human thought, belief and decision making—all topics that have been deeply thought about by our guest, Leslie Valiant, Harvard University Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Professor Valiant is the winner of the 2010 A.M. Turing Award and author of three books, including his recent book: The Importance of Being Educable-a New Theory of Human Uniqueness.

    27 February 2024, 5:34 pm
  • 59 minutes 18 seconds
    #90-Election 2024 Preparation 3-Hidden Tribes and the Perception Gap-with guest Stephen Hawkins

    In this third in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 presidential election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you’ll hear an episode that we recorded with Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common—a non-profit organization focused on understanding the forces driving us apart and working to bring us together to tackle our shared challenges.

    23 January 2024, 3:43 am
  • 58 minutes 51 seconds
    #89-Election 2024 Preparation 2-Political Depolarization and the Work of Braver Angels-with guest Ciaran O'Connor

    As we head into the US 2024 Presidential Election with the knowledge that America is now as polarized as it has been since the civil war and that this amount of polarization drastically impairs our democratic process, we revisit the organization Braver Angels, which was founded "to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic." From his experience as head of marketing, digital, and communications strategy for Braver Angels, Ciaran O’Connor, discusses political depolarization, the work of Braver Angels and what people who use the variety of free services offered at: braverangels.org can experience and use to improve their conversations and help heal our democratic republic.

    26 December 2023, 6:07 pm
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