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Steven Pinker Podcasts

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Think with Pinker

BBC Radio 4

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Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking. Now he wants us to join him. For this series Professor Pinker has created a critical thinking toolkit which he hopes will help all of us make better decisions about - well, everything. Steven will be joined by some big thinkers, and people who have to deal with the consequences of irrationality, as he sets out to steer us away from common fallacies and logical traps set by our own animal brains. Think with Pinker is produced ...
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Delve deep into the labyrinth of the human mind with Professor Steven Pinker as he demystifies the complexities of the human condition using the tools offered by cognitive psychology. Steven is a world-renowned Cognitive Psychologist, Linguist and Professor who has taught at Harvard, MIT & Stanford Universities, and has made it to Time Magazines’ 100 Most Influential People in the World Today. Calling Professor Pinker a Titan in his field would definitely be an understatement! In this 20 cha ...
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How I Write

David Perell

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Before book sales and PR buzz, your favorite writers began with two things: the blank page and an idea. Each week on How I Write, we go behind-the-scenes with today’s top writers to uncover the meta-mechanics of writing and the lifestyle behind it. You’ll be the first to hear writers deconstruct their creative process: from banging their head on the keyboard to marking the last period of their final draft. Victory. Come discover how great writing is made. And who knows? Maybe you’ll be next. ...
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The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

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Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.
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Conversations on Peaceful Change

Global Research Network on Peaceful Change

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Conversations on Peaceful Change is a series of interviews facilitated by Dr. T. V. Paul, James McGill Professor in International Relations at McGill University and the Founding Director of the Global Research Network on Peaceful Change. Scholars such as Dr. Steven Pinker from Harvard University, as well as Dr. Michael Barnett from George Washington University, are interviewed on the subject of peaceful change in contemporary world politics to better comprehend the complexity of the modern-d ...
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Can we harness our ingenuity to elevate the human experience? Join technology lawyer and entrepreneur Fred Pinto as he explores the mindsets, stories and insights of leading entrepreneurs, thought leaders and innovators. https://fredpinto.com/
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Meet The Leader

Linda Lacina, World Economic Forum

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How the world's top leaders tackle the toughest challenges. In these one-on-one conversations, host Linda Lacina interviews the world's top leaders, change-makers and experts on the solutions they're building to tackle the world's biggest challenges, the habits they can’t work without, and their lessons learned, all from the World Economic Forum.
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Hope Is A Verb

Fix The News

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What does it take to change the world? This podcast will introduce you to the people who are who are mending our planet, stitching together a new future and showing us the best of what it is to be human. Hosts: Angus Hervey, Amy Davoren-Rose
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Point of Inquiry

Center for Inquiry

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Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry's flagship podcast, where the brightest minds of our time sound off on all the things you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table: science, religion, and politics. Guests have included Brian Greene, Susan Jacoby, Richard Dawkins, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugenie Scott, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, and Francis Collins. Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y.
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Welcome to Episode 144 (Part I of II), where Richard Dawkins interviews Steven Pinker on the past and future of humanity. This is a live recording from our recent show – The Future of Humanity – held on 3 June 2025 at London’s Royal Institution Theatre. The event was a conversation between psychologist Steven Pinker and biologist Richard Dawkins – …
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I’m here at Harvard in the office of Steven Pinker. He’s written nine books and spent his life studying language, cognition, and writing. In this interview, we started with the practical: the rules of writing. But what makes him unique is that he’s been thinking about AI since the 1980s. So if you’re interested in doing great non-fiction writing in…
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Dr. Steven Pinker is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, whose books include The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. (00:00:00) In this episode (…
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Nadya Okamoto launched her nonprofit Period as a teenager at the height of startup mania, hustle culture and girlboss memes. It grew to become one of the largest youth nonprofits in the world, but the fast growth led to burnout and a harsh cost to her well-being. She talks about how she learned to value rest, set boundaries and get 10 hours of slee…
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Psychologist and author Scott Barry Kaufman joins Reason's Nick Gillespie to discuss his new book Rise Above, which challenges the growing embrace of victimhood as identity. They explore how traits such as neuroticism and vulnerable narcissism are shaping modern culture, why social media rewards grievance over growth, and what it really takes to de…
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I interviewed Robert Macfarlane, a writer who has mastered the art of nature writing. What makes him fascinating isn’t just that he writes beautifully about landscapes, but how he thinks about language itself. We talked about why he rewrites first sentences hundreds of times, what happens when entire languages die forever, why AI makes all writing …
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In this special collection episode, top women leaders in business, non-profits and more share the books that inspired them, informed them and changed their minds. These books will make you take a second read of a classic - whether it's a favorite business book or an Agatha Christie mystery. And these insightful picks will have you thinking differen…
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Today's guest is the former MTV video jockey and current Fox News personality Kennedy, who emerged in the 1990s as a leading voice of Gen X when it came to politics and culture. Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with her about how a generation raised on neglect, nuclear nightmares, and Nirvana forged an ethos of irreverence and independence that still …
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I interviewed Paul Harding, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his very first novel Tinkers. Unlike most novelists, he’s not really interested in plots, and only halfway interested in characters. So what is he interested in? He’s focused on describing the wonders and mysteries of life, teaching us how to see, hear, and feel more vividly, an…
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Today's guest is Helen Lewis, a British journalist and podcaster who is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Her new book is The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea, and it explores how the definition of what it means to be a genius has changed radically over the centuries, how it became linked to all sorts of weird biological theories, …
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We’re living through a mental health crisis. In Europe, use of antidepressant has more than doubled in the past twenty years, and one in five children are now living with a recognised mental health condition. These numbers are striking, and the suffering they reflect personal, and clouded in mystery. But have we always been like this? Or has someth…
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Ezra Klein is one of the internet’s most influential journalists. He co-founded Vox in 2014, and it was there he really pioneered this new era of online journalism. Remember those Vox explainer videos that were so popular? As I’ve recorded this, he’s got the #1 book on the New York Times bestseller list. We talked about the state of media, why piec…
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Today's guest is the legendary journalist and New Yorker staffer Lawrence Wright. He is the author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief; The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11; and The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid. Wright talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about The Human Scale, his new novel set i…
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Did mainstream conservatives and libertarians lose a generation of young men to the post-liberal, reactionary right? Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with C. Bradley Thompson, author of the Substack newsletter The Redneck Intellectual, and Jeremiah Johnson of the Center for New Liberalism, who wrote the article "Weak Men Create Hard Times: And Weak Me…
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Women's health is under-researched and under-funded, leading women to live longer in poor health than men. However, tackling this gap can boost lifespans and GDP, a fact Paula Bellostas Muguerza understands well. This global head of healthcare and life sciences at consulting firm Kearney, discusses the role that policy and collaboration can play in…
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"You don't get conned because you're stupid—you get conned because you're human." That's the message of this week's guest, Brian Brushwood. He's an Austin-based magician, podcaster, and professional skeptic. With shows like Scam Nation and The Modern Rogue, he's taught millions of us how to upgrade our B.S. detectors in a world where truth is more …
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Dune. Forrest Gump. Benjamin Button. Eric Roth wrote all of them. He’s been nominated for seven Oscars and won Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump. I got the chance to ask him about how you find a deeper theme in a story, what a writer can do to really move people, and what it’s actually like working with people like David Fincher, Steven Spie…
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Slavery is not a problem cast to the annals of history. Modern slavery and forced labour are hidden in plain sight, found everywhere from nail salons to pristine factories, estimated to impact millions worldwide. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s John Schultz explains more about this worsening problem and how it impacts economies and communities. He als…
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We’re living through a mental health crisis. In Europe, use of antidepressant has more than doubled in the past twenty years, and one in five children are now living with a recognised mental health condition. These numbers are striking, and the suffering they reflect personal, and clouded in mystery. But have we always been like this? Or has someth…
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Are you part of the growing stoicism movement? Built on virtue, reason, and self-control, the ancient Roman philosophy is gaining popularity in a world that just seems to get crazier and crazier. Today's guest is a self-described stoic. Robert Rosenkranz is the author of The Stoic Capitalist: Advice for the Exceptionally Ambitious, which takes a de…
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Today's guest is evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins, whom Reason's Nick Gillespie interviewed last fall in Milwaukee as part of his "Final Bow" tour. Gillespie and Dawkins talked about why he believes science can't thrive without freedom, why gender ideology is starting to look a lot like Soviet Lysenkoism, and why some tr…
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Michael Jamin has been writing Hollywood sitcoms for 28 years on shows like King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head. Unlike most comedy writers, he’s not focused on punchlines, he’s more focused on building rich characters, developing deep storylines, and layering the comedy on top.But how do you do that? That’s what this episode is all about. En…
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"I feel fear… because they're somewhat vindictive people. I don't care who you are, having this set of people mad at you is not comfortable." That's today's guest, Cliff Asness, talking about President Donald Trump, his administration, and his supporters. Asness is the outspoken billionaire co-founder of AQR Capital Management. He is also a pioneer…
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Today's guest is Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Pinker and Reason's Nick Gillespie discuss recent shifts at Harvard toward greater institutional neutrality and free speech, while warning that threats to academic freedom now come from both internal ideologies and external political forces—including pressure from the federal government under Pre…
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Dean Koontz has written over 100 books and sold more than 500 million copies, making him one of the best-selling authors of all time. I visited Dean at his home and personal library to understand what truly sets him apart. Unlike most mass-market writers, Dean is obsessed with the craft. He doesn’t just write stories, he truly lives for the beauty …
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Staffing giant president Christophe Catoir of Adecco got an early start at the firm as an intern. He’s had a front-row seat to how work has evolved since. He shares the insights from the firm’s annual skilling report, giving compelling statistics on the percent of workers globally trained in AI so far and what’s needed to keep workers both engaged …
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Food is one of the most universal and essential parts of human life. From gourmet steaks to the everyday, humble, packet of crisps, food consumption is everywhere. But what do we actually know about how our food is grown? How is it processed? And how does it ends up on our supermarket shelves or in our restaurants and takeaways? While we may look b…
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The world isn’t made of atoms, it’s made of stories. I’ve never heard anyone speak so deeply about interviewing. Johann Hari has written four books, and for each one he travels the globe to record hundreds of conversations. In this episode, he’ll explain exactly how he does it, sharing stories of getting up close and personal with homeless people i…
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Today's guest is John Arnold—the former Enron wunderkind and billionaire philanthropist (and Reason Foundation supporter) who's determined to hack America's most expensive and least accountable public sector systems in areas such as criminal justice, education, and pensions. (Fun fact: He was once called "the most hated man in pensionland" by Gover…
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Will Storr has written 7 books and he’s basically a scientist for storytelling. Now you might be thinking: Do we really need another storytelling guy? But Will is different. That's because he doesn’t just talk about plot or the hero’s journey, he focuses on character. Great stories don’t start with plot… they start with people. The best part? By th…
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Jeffrey Singer, a Cato Institute fellow and longtime surgeon, argues that government overreach in health care undermines patient autonomy, which should be the guiding principle in medical decision making. Drawing from historical examples and personal experience, he critiques licensing laws, the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug approval mon…
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Platon has made over 20 Time magazine covers with his portraits of people such as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George Clooney, Silvio Berlusconi, Mohammed Ali, Adele and Sinead O'Connor. But he has also photographed people who are the opposite of famous and powerful - and recently published a book called The Defenders: Heroes of the Gl…
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Food is one of the most universal and essential parts of human life. From gourmet steaks to the everyday, humble, packet of crisps, food consumption is everywhere. But what do we actually know about how our food is grown? How is it processed? And how does it ends up on our supermarket shelves or in our restaurants and takeaways? While we may look b…
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Today's guest is Harvard economist Jason Furman, who was one of former President Barack Obama's chief economic advisers and an architect of the Affordable Care Act. These days, he's in the news for his withering critique of former President Joe Biden's dismal economic record and two-fisted attacks on President Donald Trump's trade policy. We talk a…
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How can we live more sustainably? OMV's Alfred Stern takes us through the big innovations the Austrian energy and chemicals company has in progress, including a geothermal heating project that will help to decarbonise Vienna by 2040. But he also shares the bigger tactical pieces that must be in place for real change, from updating mundane practices…
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Lily Vittayarukskul was a college student at just 14 and on track for a career in aerospace engineering. However, an aunt’s cancer battle later upended those plans, wreaking havoc on her family and their finances. The experience inspired her to launch the AI-powered startup Waterlily, helping people better predict expenses for getting older, includ…
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Dr. Jean Twenge is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and the best-selling author of The Narcissism Epidemic and Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents – and What They Mean for America’s Future. (00:00:00) In this episode (00:00:12) Intro (00:05:36) Chapter 1: Today’s Mental He…
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Today's guest is Mark Clifford, former editor in chief of the South China Morning Post whose recent book, The Troublemaker, chronicles the life of Jimmy Lai, a man who escaped mainland Communist China to Hong Kong as a child and went on to become a self-made billionaire. But now at age 77, Lai is a political prisoner, currently on trial in China fo…
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Architect Michael Dean breaks down the hidden patterns behind the great essays of our time. In this video, we go over his 27-point framework that makes up every world class piece of writing and how he uses the same system to analyze the Guggenheim and Apple Store. We also talk about what skills will still matter as AI continues to improve and why l…
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Renowned Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker studies the big questions facing human nature: Why do we fight? What helps us get along? How do we understand the world around us? His research has uncovered an insight we might not expect – that humanity is doing better than we might think. Despite host of major challenges that still exist, fro…
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