Curious Minds at Work

What does artificial intelligence mean for the future of machine consciousness and the human mind? Every week, artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role in the products that we use. Think of Siri, Alexa, Netflix and Spotify. But are we seriously considering what the future holds when it comes to the role AI will play in our lives? Susan Schneider, author of the book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, asks the questions that companies often don’t. Among those discussed in this interview are: Could AIs become conscious? and, What does it really mean for humans to merge with AIs using brain implants or other devices? In this interview, she shares her concerns: “If you enhance your brain in radical ways would you still be you, or would you basically be changing yourself in such incredibly radical ways that you are no longer the same person you were before?” Susan believes we should be asking these kinds of questions now, before these technologies become mainstream. She argues that if we don’t, important aspects of human life may be decided by people who design first and ask questions later. She says, “Think of Anthony Hopkins’ character in Westworld. In a way he’s a consciousness engineer. He made decisions, together with other characters, to create or not create sentient beings.” Susan Schneider is a philosopher and cognitive scientist. Currently, she’s the NASA Chair at the Library of Congress and the Director of the AI, Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Financial Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian. Her books include The Language of Thought, The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, and Science Fiction and Philosophy. The Host Head here to learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli. Episode Links @DrSueSchneider Singularity Transhumanism Ray Kurzweil Philosophical zombie John Searle Chinese Room thought experiment NASA, Astrobiology and Paul Davies, Seth Shostak, and Steven Dick A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence by Karthik Hosanagar Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom Derek Parfit The Postbiological Universe by Dr. Steven Dick, NASA The Mind is the Software of the Brain by Ned Block Merging with AI Would Be Suicide for the Human Mind by Susan Schneider, FT Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe. You'll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. You'll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Overcast Google Play

Is there a certain type of leader whose management approach gets more from their teams? Gartner, a research and advisory firm, recently conducted a study of thousands of managers and employees. They wanted to find out if there were certain types of management practices that had the greatest impact on employee growth and development. In this interview, Sari Wilde, co-author of the book, The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Built Exceptional Talent – and Others Don’t, shares their findings. Sari explains that what the researchers learned surprised them: not only did one management type have an outsize impact, but it was also a type they never would have predicted. They named it the Connector Manager. According to Sari, this type of leader not only provides targeted feedback and coaching, but also readily “connects employees to others, either within the team, or across the organization, who might be better suited to provide the right kind of coaching and development.” Sari also shares key characteristics of Connector Managers, as well as some of the tools they use in their work. For example, she describes one tool managers can use to assess employee motivation. It’s one Sari found so insightful that she used it with her team. Today, it frames how they do their work: “[The team’s] top five motivators were things like growth, achievement, transparency, inclusion, so that has changed the way that I communicate, the way I run my team meetings.” Sari is a Managing Vice President at Gartner where she leads global teams focused on creating research and products to improve outcomes. She’s been studying organizations for more than 15 years, advising executives at hundreds of Fortune 500 companies on their leadership and talent management practices. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson Sari Levine Wilde Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Does college have a greater impact on the lives we lead than we ever imagined? Is college still a tool for upward mobility or is the system engineered to advance the wealthy? Paul Tough, author of the book, The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, answers this question and more. For example, he explains differences in how many rich and poor students choose their colleges and how those choices impact lifetime earnings. He also discusses how financial aid really works: “College wants us to think that financial aid is this very linear process where colleges decide who they want to admit, and then they give them the aid that they need and it’s a very straightforward process….But that’s not true.” Though he discusses how the system of higher education is broken, he also offers insights on how to fix it. He explains that a hundred years ago, the U.S. government saw how technological advances made it necessary for young people to have a high school education to compete for jobs. They tackled that problem by creating a system of free, public high schools. Paul sees parallels today: “Clearly a high school degree is not enough to compete in the current labor marketplace….Kids need more education. But we have not … pulled together to say well we’re going to solve that problem. Instead we’re saying to these young people, you’re on your own.” Paul is a contributing writer to New York Times Magazine where he’s written extensively about parenting, education, poverty, and politics. His writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Esquire, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Paul’s previous books include: Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why, and How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @paultough Raj Chetty and article about him: The Economist Who Would Fix the American Dream Caroline Hoxby and articles on her work: The College Board Tried a Simple, Cheap, Research-Backed Way to Push Low-Income Kids into Better Colleges. It Didn’t Work and The Nudges That Didn’t Work Anthony A. Jack and his book: The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez David Laude and his interventions to support college students at the University of Texas The High School Movement in the U.S. Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if advice we get to “follow your passion” is more complicated that it seems? Steve Magness is co-author with Brad Stulberg of the book, The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life. Steve coaches some of the world’s top distance runners and has propelled numerous athletes to Olympic trials, world championship teams, and the Olympics. He has been a featured expert in Runner’s World and the New York Times. When faced with the choice of what to do with our lives, we’re often told, “follow your passion.” Steve believes this advice can be overwhelming, incomplete, and, ultimately, defeating. That’s why he and Brad decided to study the topic. They wanted to demystify it. Along the way, they learned that passion not only fuels big accomplishments, but it can also be problematic. They share that, “passion and addiction are close cousins.” In this interview, Steve shares ways to develop our passion and insights on how failure can play a role in our search. He also gives tips on how to sustain our passion for the long haul by doing things like focusing on what we can control, rather than what our competitors are doing. He contends, “We can’t control what other people do and where that bar is. But what we can control is making the comparison point a previous version of yourself.” The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net Episode Links @stevemagness and https://www.scienceofrunning.com/ @BStulberg and https://www.bradstulberg.com/ Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein Instead of “Finding Your Passion,” Try Developing It, Stanford Scholars Say Les Passions de l’Ame: On Obsessive and Harmonious Passion Shalane Flanagan Obey the 24-Hour Rule Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if our IQ scores reveal far less about intelligence and reasoning than we think? We often assume that people with high IQ scores are more intelligent. We may even believe they’re able to think more critically and make wiser decisions. But is that true? In this interview, David Robson, author of the book, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, reveals that people with high IQ scores can actually be more prone to mental mistakes and that they don’t necessarily make wise decisions. He compares their intelligence to a car with a fast engine and tremendous power that, without “…a GPS, and good steering and reliable brakes…could actually be quite dangerous. It can drive you in the wrong direction. It can drive you off a cliff. It could just drive you around in circles.” David explains the origins and limitations of IQ testing, particularly how it overlooks other forms of intelligence, like creative, practical, and cultural intelligence. He also shares the evolutionary dynamics that explain poor decision making, as well as the advantages of measuring people’s ability to engage in wise reasoning: “The wise reasoning scores were actually very good at predicting how happy [people] were, how likely they were to suffer from depression, whether they were satisfied with the people around them – you know all of these really important things in their life.” David is an award-winning science journalist who specializes in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. He was a features editor at New Scientist and is currently a senior journalist at BBC Future. His writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @d_a_robson davidrobson.me Kary Mullis Lewis Terman Flynn effect Robert Sternberg Cultural Intelligence and Soon Ang Keith Stanovich and dysrationalia Daniel Kahneman Dan Kahan Curse of knowledge Farsighted by Steven Johnson Igor Grossmann and wise reasoning Philip E.Tetlock and superforecasting Silvia Mamede Adam Galinsky Richard Feynman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for Curious Minds on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Elizabeth Segal, a Professor in Social Work at Arizona State University and author of 'Social Empathy: The Art of Understanding Others,' dives into the crucial role of social empathy in shaping public policy. She highlights how Hurricane Katrina exposed the devastating lack of empathy toward marginalized communities. Through engaging classroom exercises, she demonstrates how to cultivate empathy among students. Segal also discusses the barriers to empathy, such as fear and dehumanization, and the importance of ongoing curiosity in bridging societal divides.

What if you design a product or service that prevents certain people from using it? These kinds of mismatches are everywhere: a computer mouse that works only for the right-handed; credit-card-only payment systems that exclude those without credit; and even game controllers for gamers who can’t use their hands. Inclusive design advocate, Kat Holmes, explains, “The design of the controller is an indicator of who gaming is for and who it is not for…to think that one little piece of plastic shaped in a particular way is a gateway requirement to who can and can’t participate…starts to become a really absurd idea.” When this kind of exclusionary design scales, it can shape entire industries and markets. And for many designers, these outcomes are unintended. That's why Kat Holmes, UX designer and author of the book Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, is a champion of inclusive design. In fact, she's developed a framework for design teams, so that more people can participate. Kat argues that inclusive design should be a priority, not an afterthought. In addition to all the ways it helps people, it’s often been a smart business decision. To that end, Kat shares all the ways design teams can make this an ongoing part of the creative process: “…whether it’s the team…the work environment, the tools…the assumptions, all of these things are…opportunities for either balancing towards exclusion or towards inclusion.” Kat served as Principal Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft and in 2017 was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Today she serves as Director of User Experience Design at Google. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @katholmes The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda World Health Organization on disabilities John Porter, UX Designer at Microsoft Susan Goltsman and the Emergence of Inclusive Design A Brief History of Closed Captioning (it all started with Julia Child) Pellogrino Turri and The Technology of Compassion Vint Cerf Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What’s the cost when women are left out of healthcare, education, and public policy data? Data drives decision making in critical areas. Yet, in most cases, as Caroline Criado Perez, author of the book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, points out, women are simply absent from the data. Why is this? Because we operate in a world where deeply ingrained cultural biases treat men as the data default and women as the exception. Caroline explains, “If we look at politics . . . news media . . . films, women represent about 20 percent of the people we see and hear about. . . we are taking in that information and thinking that this is what the world looks like. . . it creates this sense in our heads that we don’t have to collect data on women.” This data gap leads to bad decisions with devastating consequences. What’s even more shocking is that these gaps are hidden in plain sight, in places where it would seem like gender couldn’t possibly matter. For example, when one Swedish town studied which roads got cleared first following a snowstorm, they were surprised to learn their decisions were based on male commuting patterns. The result was that women were getting hurt, and the town was losing money. Caroline reveals that . . . “the cost of the accident and emergency admission was three times the cost of the winter road maintenance. And just by doing this simple switch of the order in which they do the snow clearing, that cost went down dramatically.” Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, and feminist activist and was named Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year. Her first book was titled, Do It Like a Woman. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links Pierre Bourdieu Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads by Angie Schmitt The Work that Makes Work Possible by Anne-Marie Slaughter Women Lack Access to Private Toilets Around the World Do the Math: Include Women in Government Budgets Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries Why Women Are No Longer Catching Up to Men on Pay by Ben Casselman Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds Podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if achieving our goals is not about willpower but about gratitude, compassion and pride? It’s natural to experience negative emotions, like discouragement, frustration, and even fear when we’re working on something hard. And every time these feelings arise, we may be tempted to overcome them with willpower. But rather than dismissing our emotions, what if we put them to work on our behalf? In this interview, David DeSteno, author of the book, Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride, explains: “Emotions push people to do hard things. And if we’re not utilizing those tools in the right way, we’re kind of fighting this battle with one hand tied behind our back.” In particular, the three emotions David champions are gratitude, compassion and pride. He explains that they not only fuel perseverance, but also “…reduce people’s blood pressure. There’s evidence they will help you sleep better at night. They will increase immune responses. In general, they basically act to destress the body.” David is a Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association where he served as editor in chief of the journal, Emotion. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @daviddesteno http://www.davedesteno.com/ and his Social Emotions Lab at Northeastern University Psychologist Walter Mischel The Grateful Don’t Cheat: Gratitude as a Fount of Virtue by David DeSteno, Fred Duong, Daniel Lim, and Shanyu Kates Hal Hershfield Episode 124 with Liz Fosslien on Emotions at Work on her book Tom Denson, Professor at UNSW in Sydney; he studies aggression David Brooks and resume vs eulogy virtues When Students Feel They Belong, They Thrive by G. M. Walton and G. L. Cohen Classroom Belonging and Student Performance in the Introductory Engineering Classroom Nilanjana Dasgupta, Social Psychologist at UMass Amherst Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Some Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

In a world where empathy is in decline, how can we learn to care more? If you’re sensing that people are less empathetic today than decades ago, your instincts would be right. We are. Though human beings are wired to care about each other, we need the right conditions for those feelings to grow. Jamil Zaki, author of the book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, argues that an increase in online interactions and urban living has made relationships more “…narrow, transactional, and anonymous.” He explains that in this kind of environment, it’s “…really not great soil for empathy to grow.”   His research reveals that empathy is a skill we can develop through training and that this training can leave people feeling not only more empathetic, but also kinder. In addition, Jamil shares that this kind of training can change the brain, that it can grow “…parts of the brain often associated with the experience of empathy.” Jamil is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. The Host You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. Episode Links @zakijam The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot Carol Dweck Tania Singer London taxi drivers and brain science Gordon Allport Contact hypothesis Emile Bruneau Nicholas Epley When Cops Choose Empathy by Jamil Zaki Jason A. Okonofua Elizabeth Levy Paluck Jeremy Bailenson Intensive Care Nursey UCSF Eve Ekman, Ph.D., MSW Kari Leibowitz Simple Ways to Support the Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple ways you can support our work. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You’ll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast