You Are Not So Smart

Patty Walter, journalism professor who builds science-literacy tools; Brad Zachran, curriculum designer for gamified learning; Noor Kattali, management scholar who studies intergroup conflict; Eli Finkel, social psychologist of relationships and polarization. They discuss the Litowitz Center’s training modules, a science-literacy game, telescoping interview drills, argument-mapping activities, and strategies to foster curiosity and productive disagreement.

Alex Edmans, a London Business School finance professor and author focused on trust and misinformation. He breaks down how narratives, stats, and articles mislead. Short takes cover confirmation bias, selective skepticism, black-and-white thinking, and a four-step Ladder of Misinference. Practical tips show how to spot which rung you’re on and when to seek counterarguments.

Steven D. Shaw, a postdoc bridging neuroscience and AI research, and Gideon Nave, a cognition-focused marketing professor with computation background, discuss how AI reshapes human reasoning. They define cognitive surrender versus offloading. They explain why people overtrust language-style AI, present experiments showing adoption of AI answers, and offer practical ways to resist surrender.

Erica Chenoweth, political scientist who leads Harvard’s Nonviolent Action Lab and coined the 3.5% rule, explains how concentrated, sustained participation can topple regimes. She contrasts nonviolent and violent campaigns, explores why 3.5% grabbed attention, and lays out limits, mechanisms like elite defections, and strategies movements use to build pressure.

Britt Frank, licensed neuropsychotherapist and trauma specialist who wrote Align Your Mind, guides you through Parts Work and Internal Family Systems. Short takes cover protectors, reactors, story keepers, and weirdo parts. She explains regulation, excavation, and activation steps, reframes the inner critic, and shows how to align competing parts so values and behavior cooperate.

Matt Tompkins, an Oxford‑educated experimental psychologist and magician studying deception and magical thinking. He recounts Clever Hans, how unconscious cues and double‑blind tests reshaped experiments, and how magicians help reveal perception, memory, and false testimony. Short takes on fake mind‑reading devices, cold reading, and why magical thinking persists in modern culture.

Jay Van Bavel, NYU professor of psychology and neuroscience who studies how group identity shapes perception. He explores why people watching the same footage see different realities. Topics include how attention and eye movements build subjective experience. He links group identity, naive realism, and social media dynamics to explain widening perceptual divides.

Michael Schwalb, Stanford social psychologist studying polarization; Katie Joseff, social neuroscience researcher on partisanship and misinformation; Samuel Woolley, professor of computational propaganda and disinformation. They discuss a new cognitive distortion called concordance over truth bias. Short takes cover how political alignment beats factual accuracy, study design and surprising predictors, and why interventions and platform policy matter.

Martin Carcasson, the Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State, shares insights on how to tackle wicked problems through deliberation. He explores the transition from rhetorical criticism to practical facilitation, blending social psychology with dialogue practices. Carcasson defines wicked problems as complex, value-laden issues needing negotiation. He discusses a fascinating values card-ranking workshop designed to surface differing priorities, aiming to elevate conversations and foster collaboration in civic discourse.

Warren Berger, a self-described 'questionologist' and author, dives into the art of asking better questions. He introduces techniques like the 'Wait' question to encourage active listening and the AWE method to dig deeper in conversations. Berger shares insights on how curiosity fuels innovation, illustrating this with anecdotes from his journalism career. He emphasizes that asking ambitious, actionable questions can transform business strategies and foster creativity, reminding us to nurture our questioning spirit, especially in children.