Cognitive Confidence Wired For This

Today, we’ll hear from Dr. Dan Willingham, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He’s taught there since 1992, and until about 2000, studied the neural basis of learning and memory. But today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K-16 education. He’s the author of several books, including the best-selling Why Don't Students Like School? , and most recently, Outsmart Your Brain. His writing on education has appeared in twenty-three languages. In 2017 he was appointed by President Obama to serve as a Member of the National Board for Education Sciences. Transcript Links/Sources mentioned : Dr. Willingham’s books: Why Don’t Students Like School? Outsmart Your Brain Some relevant op-eds written by Dr. Willingham: Why Aren’t We Curious About the Things We Want to Be Curious About? – New York Times (October 18, 2019) You Still Need Your Brain - New York Times (May 19, 2017) Dr. Willingham’s graduation speech for the University of Virginia’s Class of 2024 Dr. Willingham’s TikTok , where he posts short videos about cognitive science and education A collection of Dr. Willingham’s academic articles Wired for This is produced and edited by Nwabata Nnani and hosted by Celia Ford. American Scientist has been in publication since 1913 and is published by the nonprofit Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. The magazine focuses on producing narrative-driven features by scientists about their own peer-reviewed work. The publication also produces shorter-form staff-written news articles, as well as blogs, multimedia, and social media. See more at

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Cognitive Confidence Wired For This is an episode from American Scientist Podcast by American Scientist Podcast.

This episode is 00:31:18 long.

This episode was published on Nov 5, 2025.

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