unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

What are the limits to free speech in a university setting? And how does our society define what is permissible speech and what is not? When Ulrich Baer wrote What Snowflakes Get Right, his hope was to expand free speech on campuses and provoke a debate on the proper scope of conversation in the classroom.Ulrich is a professor of comparative literature at New York University and is the author and translator of multiple books of translation and criticism, including The Poet’s Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke and a novel, We Are But a Moment. Ulrich and Greg discuss the unique emphasis that Americans place on free speech, especially in a higher education context, and how free speech can sometimes be in conflict with other values.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:What things should be up for debate? What should not be up for debate?50:33: We should allow everybody to debate: What is the true meaning of equality? Those things should have to be open for debate precisely because we don't want to impose that on people to say, this is the way our society is functioning.The importance of free speech9:43: If free speech is restricted, the first thing that goes is creative literature because it's obscene, offensive, or anything. But free speech is a value, and it's also federally mandated and enshrined in the First Amendment.The power of opening yourself up to other ideas and perspectives52:02: The most amazing thing is what happens in universities when people actually change their minds. Actually, as a teacher, I think about this a lot. I cannot change my students' minds. I cannot make them have an imagination. All I can do is give them moments and opportunities where that happens for them.Show Links:Recommended Resources:TikTok Congressional hearingsUnite the Right rallyUlrich’s press: Warbler Press Title IXDiversity, Inc: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at New York University Ulrich Baer's Website Ulrich Baer on LinkedInUlrich Baer on TwitterUlrich Baer on YouTubeHis Work:Ulrich’s podcast: Think About It Podcast What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Truth, and Equality on Campus The Poet’s Guide to Life: The Wisdom of RilkeRilke on LoveWe Are But a Moment  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Philosophical problems are all around us. From economics to games and sports, most people in the world are philosophizing every day, maybe without even realizing it. David Papineau is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at the King’s College London. He’s written numerous books, including The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience and Knowing the Score: What Sports Can Teach Us About Philosophy (And What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Sports). David is also a visiting professor at City University of New York.David and Greg discuss how philosophy can be applied to virtually anything, even sports. They delve into questions around the role sports play in our lives, what sports can reveal about conscious control and the philosophical puzzles regarding fandom. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How our performance function differs in sports19:01: In sports, when you are competing, there's not much that can be left to unmonitored routine. I mean, there's a difference between somebody who's doing the vaulting horse in gymnastics or a hundred-meter sprint. There's a level of focus and intensity in competition that you can't reproduce every time in practice. And if you don't have it in mind now, we're competing. What's to tell your body that you're not in practice mode? You've got to gear things up and keep them there.A general point about conventions and morality29:01: This is a general point about conventions and morality. We need some rules to have all kinds of things that we benefit from and enjoy, but exactly which set of rules we have doesn't matter too much up to a point.How much control do we really have over our consciousness? 13:21: Many of my philosophical colleagues would say that if you are acting intentionally, your eyes are open, and you are awake, then your consciousness is playing a controlling role all the time. And that was the idea I wanted to resist by saying that in these fast sporting contexts, there isn't any time.Conventions are like contracts21:18: There are some sports where, maybe more so in the past, where it wasn't acceptable to say anything to distract your opponent. And then there are sports where it's acceptable. Everybody knows you might get inside somebody's head a bit, but that's part of the game. But you are allowed to make jokes and make certain kinds of comments, but you aren't supposed to be talking, making comments, or disreputable comments about their wives or mothers. And so, the way I think about it is that these conventions, which vary from sport to sport, are like a kind of contract or deal.Show Links:Recommended Resources:The Great British Bake Off Roger FedererRafael Nadal2006 World Cup clip2023 Super Bowl holding callArsenal Football ClubTottenham Hotspur Football ClubRory McIlroySol CampbellRussell’s ParadoxContinuum HypothesisGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at King’s College LondonVisiting Professor profile at City University of New YorkDavid Papineau’s WebsiteDavid Papineau on TwitterHis Work:David Papineau on Google ScholarArticles on AeonThe Metaphysics of Sensory ExperienceKnowing the Score: What Sports Can Teach Us About Philosophy (And What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Sports)Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and SetsThinking about ConsciousnessIntroducing Consciousness: A Graphic Guide Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gloria Mark, Chancellor's Professor at UC Irvine, discusses her book 'Attention Span' and the importance of understanding attention in today's digital world. They explore the causes of shorter attention spans and the link between attention, sleep, health, and success. They also discuss the trade-offs of taking breaks, multitasking and stress, and the need to be intentional and self-aware with technology.

Should we separate decisions related to love and money, approaching finance and career-related decisions solely in a rational way while relying more on our emotions in the personal domain? Perhaps it's time to start using both our heads and hearts together when making life's most significant decisions.Myra Strober is an emerita Professor at the Schools of Education and Business at Stanford University. She also sits on the board of the journal Feminist Economics and is the former president of the International Association for Feminist Economics 9. Abby Davisson is a social innovation leader and career development expert. She is a senior leader on global retailer Gap Inc.'s Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) team and is President of Gap Foundation. She is also an alumni career advisor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.Together they wrote the book “Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions,” exploring how to navigate life’s most consequential and daunting decisions.Myra, Abby, and Greg discuss the importance of incorporating decision-making into an interdisciplinary curriculum at an early stage for students to equip them with the skills to make optimal strategic choices while avoiding the need to compromise their professional or personal lives. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The similarities of finding a business and a life partner17:08: [Myra Strober] People who say that you need to make love decisions with your heart are not entirely wrong. Your heart surely needs to be part of the decision, or your gut, or however you want to think about it. And you may find a co-founder for a business who works well with you, but you wouldn't like to spend your evenings and weekends with them. You wouldn't like to go on vacation with them. And that all works fine, but it doesn't work fine if this is your life partner. So certainly, before you have any conversations of any depth, you need to be sure that you're linked to this person in some way through your heart, through your gut, that you're excited about this person in some way.On making decisions you won’t regret16:03: [Abby Davisson] What we advocate and why we have a whole framework around decision-making is to slow down and bring in other elements to that decision that can help you make a decision you are less likely to regret.The huge impact of your work decisions12:40: [Myra Strober] The work decisions that you make, which you might assume are only work decisions, have a huge impact on your family. And if you're going to make a major work decision, you need to communicate your ideas with the people who matter to you.Humans and their short-term bias39:38: [Abby Davisson] Humans have a short-term bias, and we are much more likely to overweight the positive or negative consequences of decisions in the short term.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Lori GottliebDaniel KahnemanGuest Profile:Myra Strober Faculty Profile at Stanford UniversityMyra Strober on LinkedInAbby Davisson Author’s Profile on HarperCollins PublishersAbby Davisson’s WebsiteAbby Davisson on LinkedInAbby Davisson on TwitterTheir Work:Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions - Myra Strober and Abby DavissonSharing the Work: What My Family and Career Taught Me About Breaking Through (and Holding the Door Open for Others) - Myra Strober Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a world of either/or tradeoffs, it sometimes pays to explore the possibility of and/or. By changing our perspective and embracing paradox, we can see possibilities that were obscured by our tendency to see only tradeoffs.Wendy K. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Business at the University of Delaware and co-founder of the Women's Leadership Initiative. She is also an author, and with Marianne Lewis their latest book is Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, about how to navigate the inevitable paradoxes and demands of life and the world.Wendy and Greg discuss Wendy’s book and what she has learned about paradoxes and the changes made possible when you replace ‘Either/Or thinking with ‘Both/And’ thinking. They discuss this approach and how you can learn from fields as diverse as philosophy, therapy, and improv, as well as Wendy’s three conditions of Change, Plurality, and Scarcity.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The power of listening24:24: Listening is a form of respect. It doesn't mean you have to agree. It means you have to engage, or it doesn't mean that you are agreeing. It means that you are respecting somebody, that they have a different point of view than you, and you're engaging and accepting that there is a different point of view out there. And sometimes, listening to hard things that we absolutely don't agree with with curiosity can be a really powerful tool to be able to get to a better point.Adopting a paradox mindset is two things29:40: Adopting a paradox mindset is two things: It's both experiencing the tensions that are out there and applying a both/and approach to those tensions.Navigating the both/and space21:02: In order to effectively navigate in this both/and space, we have to be able to pull apart the opposing tensions and do a deep dive into understanding each one in service of a more profound, thoughtful, creative, and understood holistic synergy.How do we understand the relationship between both/and inherent approach and a socially constructed approach?06:49: There is an inherent nature to our world that is paradoxical, and our understanding of the world, our social construction, our framing, our mindsets, and surfaces, makes that salient to us, which gives us the power or the tools, the possibility to navigate our competing demands in another way.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Faculty Profile for Marya BesharovKelly Leonard with The Second CityThe Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model ExplainedThe Ontology of Organizational Paradox: A Quantum Approach by Tobias Hahn and Eric KnightCharles A. O’ReillyEllen LangerThe Second CityExploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning by James G. MarchGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of DelawareProfessional Profile on Academy of ManagementWendy K. Smith on LinkedInWendy K. Smith on TwitterThe power of paradox: Dr. Wendy K. Smith at TEDxUDHer Work:Wendy K. Smith on Google ScholarBoth/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We often think of the self as something that exists independent of social relations, but without society, there would be no need for a self or any of the concepts that relate to the self, including morality, duties, belonging, or reputation. Roy F. Baumeister is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland and is known for his work on several areas such as the self, self-control, self-esteem, motivation, and free will. His latest book is The Self Explained which builds on previous books, including The Power of Bad: And How to Overcome It, where he explores negativity bias and Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength.Greg and Roy discuss how the notion of the self is used and why it evolved in the first place, along with the ways that humans are different from animals psychologically. Roy identifies a few key features of psychology and traces some of psychology’s concepts historically. In the end, they discuss the practicality and efficacy of different ways of building character and avoiding temptations. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:What gets people to embrace morality? Why do they find it useful to do that? 16:48: We evolved to communicate and cooperate, that means your survival is essentially dependent on whether other people want to cooperate with you. So you need to figure out how to behave to keep cooperative partners in the future and to attract others. And morality is a blueprint for that. Morality is a set of rules: if you act this way and do the right things, other people will be glad to work with you and cooperate with you.35:50: You're not learning as fast if you're not being criticized or told that what you did is fine, even when it's not. It's essentially lowering the standards.On building up character46:07: If you want to build up your strength of character, you have to expose yourself to temptation and overcome it.Daily, regular exercise of self-control does make you stronger.45:59: So we think self-control works like a muscle. When you use it, it gets tired. That's the immediate depleted willpower—the ego depletion effect. But when it recovers, especially if you do it regularly, as with a muscle exercise, it becomes stronger.Punishment and criticism work better than praise and support30:35: I understand the education establishment has ambivalence about punishment. It can create resentment and other things, but purely in terms of learning, if you only have one or the other, the punishment and criticism work better than the praise and support. And certainly praising people and telling them they're doing great when they're not has to have some cost in the long run, although it feels good to all concerned. Informationally, the best thing is to get both praise and criticism.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Robinson Crusoe Ruth Bader GinsburgEdward E. JonesHarvey MansfieldJohn Tierney Guest Profile:Roy Baumeister’s websiteFaculty Profile at UPENNFaculty Profile at Florida State UniversityRoy Baumeister's WebsFaculty Profile at UPENNiteRoy Baumeister on TwitterHis Work:Roy Baumeister Podcast AppearancesRoy Baumeister on Google ScholarArticles on Psychology TodayThe Self Explained: Why and How We Become Who We Are (2022)The Power of Bad: And How to Overcome It (2019)Social Psychology and Human Nature, Comprehensive Edition 004 Edition (2016)Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength (2011)Is There Anything Good About Men?: How Cultures Flourish by Exploiting Men (2010)Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making?: A Hedgefoxian Perspective (2007)Evil: Inside human cruelty and violence (2001) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is poetry only for the elite? There are some who would reserve poems only for a specialized audience, but poetry can be found everywhere. Poetry is the language of heightened experience.Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Dana is a former California Poet laureate and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard. Dana’s latest book of poems is called Meet Me at the Lighthouse.Dana and Greg discuss the place of poetry in today’s society and how our relation to poetry differs from that of past eras. Dana goes over the different pathways to becoming a poet today and how his path differed from other poets. They talk about the advantages of being a poet working in business, and Dana also recites some of his poems for Greg. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Intelligence is in every profession17:03: Intelligence is in every profession. It's in every class. It's in every race. And poets are deluding themselves to think that if they try to engage a broader public, they're somehow lowering their standards. It's more difficult to write a poem which engages different people in different professions with different life experience. The magic spell of poetry19:59: Poetry allows us to talk to the dead, remember people, and renew our experiences. That's the magic spell of poetry.A big mistake academics make in poetry35:39: As a poet, you're trying to create something which has enough room for your reader. And that is the big mistake academics make. If they were writing this poem, they would give it to you, tell you how to interpret it, and then ironize it and go; then there's no room for anybody else to bring their interpretation into it.Poetry deepens your expression48:39:If you're trying to write poetry at the outermost extent of its possibilities, you are by nature wrestling with the mysteries of human existence. It clarifies and deepens your expression to have one of the great spiritual traditions behind you, underneath you, or in front of you.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Luise Glück Profile on Poetry FoundationYeats Reading His Own PoetryGuest Profile:Professional Profile on National Endowment for the ArtsProfessional Profile on Poetry FoundationProfessional Profile on  Poets.orgDana Gioia’s WebsiteDana Gioia on TwitterDana Gioia on YouTubeHis Work:Meet Me at the Lighthouse: PoemsPoetry Out Loud PageStudying with Miss Bishop: Memoirs from a Young Writer’s Life99 Poems: New & SelectedPity the Beautiful: Poems Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American CultureInterrogations at Noon: Poems Disappearing InkThe Catholic Writer TodaySeneca and the Madness of Hercules Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every business wants to become a platform business, believing that network effects and first mover advantages will lead to market power and competitive advantage. Indeed, some investors think that the advantages that come from being a platform are the only ones that matter in the digital economy. But not every great business is a platform, and not every platform is a great business.Jonathan Knee is the Michael T. Fries Professor of Professional Practice of Media and Technology at Columbia Business School and the Co-Director of their Media and Technology Program. He is also the author of several books, including his latest, The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Age of Tech Titans, where he explores the business models of tech companies, large and small.Jonathan and Greg discuss business strategy and how it looks different in the modern era. Jonathan also emphasizes the importance of vertical specialization in a world of big data, what really qualifies as a platform, and also what, surprisingly, does not. They discuss the features of a platform and how things like Amazon’s Marketplace and the travel site Booking.com made use of platforms to gain market share on their competitors and scale quickly. They also look at the changing career paths of today’s business school graduates.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:What is fundamental to being smart about strategy?02:49: The laws of economics and strategy, which are closely related, do not change just like the laws of gravity. But what does change, and what is fundamental to being smart about strategy, is industry structure. And industry structure drives strategy at the end of the day, and industry structure is extremely dynamic. And the key to being successful, in my view, is to overlay the timeless economic principles on top of the morphing industry structures.Defining platform16:44: What is the definition of a platform? It's essentially a business whose fundamental value proposition derives not from making something but from connecting, whether it's individuals, businesses, or otherwise.Something important to keep in mind if you have a network effect business23:33: If you've got a network effects business that has no significant fixed cost requirements and also has no real mechanism to have customer captivity, you're going to have a real shitty business.Why the merchant model is better in a hot market45:52: The reality is in a hot market, the merchant model is better because you bought a bunch of inventory cheap, and can sell it for a huge profit. And in a down market, you'd rather be an agency model. So you don't have a bunch of inventory on your balance sheet. So one isn't better than the other.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Harvard Business Review article Competing in the Age of AIGeneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets by Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean TiroleGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Columbia Business SchoolFaculty Profile at Yale Law SchoolProfessional Profile on EvercoreJonathan A. Knee on TwitterHis Work:Jonathan A. Knee on Google ScholarArticles on The AtlanticThe Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Age of Tech TitansClass Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in EducationThe Curse of the Mogul: What's Wrong with the World's Leading Media CompaniesThe Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed Wall Street  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As humans, we have undoubtedly dominated our planet like no other species before us.However, facing the sobering reality that our own actions could lead to our extinction demands the question: have the very traits that set us apart from other species also paved the way for our self-destruction?Justin Gregg is an Adjunct Professor at St. Francis Xavier University, a Senior Research Associate with the Dolphin Communication Project, a science writer, and the author of the book “If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity.”Justin and Greg discuss the unique features of human intelligence, such as causal inference, awareness of death, or the ability to make long-term plans, as well as its flaws, with our biology primarily focused on the present moment, leading us to make poor decisions for our future.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Is there anything about humans that makes them worse than animals?26:35: Our biology is focused on the moment. So, when you're telling people how to invest properly, you have to bypass their natural inclination to not save money, to not put money away, like, have it happen automatically from their paycheck. Otherwise, they're not going do it. It's that disconnect between being able to know about the future and not actually doing anything about it and not caring. In some domains, that's a big problem. (27:27) That disconnect between how important the future feels to us and how important the moment feels to us causes all this trouble. And so, for that simple reason, because animals can't think about the future, they're focused on the here and now; they don't get into extinction-level trouble.Humans are designed to deal with the present, just as animals are.020:51: Humans can think about and plan for the future, but our brains are like animals designed to deal with the here and now. The power of causal inference06:20: Causal inference is something unique to our species that allows us to invent things like science. We can ask why things happen. We can design experiments to figure out whether or not the underlying proposed mechanisms are real or not, and that produces engineering and science and all of the stuff that we have. So, in that sense, It's very powerful.Distinguishing learned associations08:00: All of the intelligent behavior we see in other animals can be produced through learned associations, just as it is for you and me when we're going about our daily lives. So, it's hard to know, but you know it when you see it.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Friedrich NietzscheThe Mind of a Bee by Lars ChittkaPeter SingerStephen Jay GouldGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at St. Francis Xavier UniversityJustin Gregg's WebsiteJustin Gregg on LinkedInJustin Gregg on TwitterJustin Gregg on TED Audio CollectiveHis Work:Articles on Psychology TodayIf Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human StupidityAre Dolphins Really Smart: The Mammal Behind the Myth Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The fear of algorithmic decision-making and surveillance capitalism dominate today's tech policy discussions. But instead of simply criticizing big data and automation, we can harness technology to correct discrimination, historical exclusions, and subvert long-standing stereotypes.Orly Lobel is the author of “The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future” and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. Lobel is one of the nation's foremost legal experts on labor and employment law. She is also one of the nation's top-cited young legal scholars.Orly and Greg discuss how collecting more data and adding more inputs into decision algorithms may be beneficial to expose disparities in current frameworks in the real world, and help us to right past injustices and ongoing inequities.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The idea of data minimization22:24: At the EU level, there's this term that is now coming into the federal policy and legislation before Congress, which is "data minimization." This idea that the default needs to be that we need to collect as little as possible and use the data that we collect to a very narrow channel of predefined use because that will protect our privacy. And the assumption also kind of the next step in this fallacy analysis that's really flawed is that when we collect more information, we're actually going to be harming the more vulnerable.Is the law counterproductive?15:21: I think that we've designed our laws in ways that are counterproductive by restricting the inputs into decision-making rather than checking on the outputs.Rethinking the role of public investment37:21: We're at a moment where there's going to be acceleration. There's always been a lot of changes. But right now, for sure, there's going to be a leap in speed in which some jobs are going to be annihilated and others are going to be available. So there's very much a role for public investment there for digital literacy and re-skilling that will not necessarily be provided by the market.What makes an employee do their job well?31:56: When they think about their careers and their human capital as their own, even from time zero, employees will invest much more in doing the job well.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Yuval FeldmanGary BeckerSilicon Valley ShowGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of San DiegoProfessional Profile at Harvard UniversityOrly Lobel’s WebsiteOrly Lobel on LinkedInOrly Lobel on TwitterOrly Lobel on TEDxUCIrvineHer Work:Orly Lobel on Google ScholarThe Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive FutureYou Don't Own Me: The Court Battles That Exposed Barbie's Dark SideTalent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids, and Free Riding Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.