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Sped up Rationally Speaking
What can we do now to affect whether humanity is still around in 1000 years (and what life will be like then)? In this episode, Julia talks...
This episode features a chat with Don Moore, professor of management of organizations at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School...
As the technology we rely on every day becomes increasingly sophisticated, it's getting to the point where it's too complicated to understan...
Some theories violate common sense so wildly that you want to just reject them out of hand. For example, "The United States is conscious," o...
If someone asks you, "What caused your success (in finance, your career, etc.)?" what probably comes to mind for you is a story about how yo...
Has science gotten slower over the years? Does the proliferation of jargon make it harder for scientists to collaborate? What unstated assum...
If people don't have free will, then can we be held morally responsible for our actions? And what would happen to society if we were to coll...
Naturalism is the stance that everything that exists in the universe arises from "natural" causes, of the sort observable by science -- not...
Julia chats with the authors of Algorithms to Live By, about how to apply key algorithms from computer science to our real life problems. Fo...
It's the annual live Rationally Speaking episode, taped at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in NYC! This year features ret...
In this episode Julia talks with philosopher of cognitive science Colin Allen about whether fish can feel pain. In the process they explore...
Ever make a plan to diet, or exercise, or study, and then -- when the scheduled hour rolls around -- decide, "Nah, I'll just put it off anot...
For centuries, scientists have wondered what makes humans so much smarter than other species. Some proposed it was the size of our brain (th...
You're probably already aware that it's hard to change someone's mind with logical arguments and evidence, especially about emotionally char...
He's been called a "Data vigilante." In this episode, Prof. Uri Simonsohn describes how he detects fraudulent work in psychology and economi...
You've probably heard about cognitive biases -- the systematic errors human brains make when we try to reason or make decisions. But what if...
We like to think of doctors as experts, whose recommendations are backed up by solid evidence. So why does it keep happening that a widely u...
Julia invites philosopher and blogger Dan Fincke onto the show, inspired by a productive disagreement they had on Facebook. Their topic in t...
You've probably heard about victims of con artists -- like the people who hand over their life savings to sketchy gurus or psychics, or the...
Do you remember when you were a kid, and you had that great day at Disneyland where you got to meet Bugs Bunny? No? Think harder. It was a s...
In this episode, psychologist Susan Gelman describes her work on the psychological trait of essentialism: the innate human urge to categoriz...
We're all familiar with Santa Claus -- but how much do you *really* know about that jolly old elf? In this episode, Julia interviews philoso...
There are two contradictory stories about politics and class: On the one hand, that the Republicans are the party of the fat cat businessmen...
This episode of Rationally Speaking features Jesse Richardson, a creative director who has been using his advertising background "for good a...
Most people are terrible at predicting the future. But a small subset of people are significantly less terrible: the Superforecasters. On th...
Parents in the United States are spending more time and energy than ever to ensure that their children turn out happy, healthy, and successf...
Can rational people disagree? This episode of Rationally Speaking features guest Scott Aaronson. Scott is a professor of computer science at...
"I'm writing a book on empathy," psychologist Paul Bloom tells people. They respond warmly, until he follows up with, "I'm against it." On t...
The traditional story about reason is that it evolved to help humans see the world more clearly and (thereby) make better decisions. But on...
This episode of Rationally Speaking features philosopher Kenny Easwaran, who delves into the notorious "Newcomb's Paradox" -- the puzzle abo...
You might expect that professional ethicists -- people whose job it is to determine which behaviors are ethical and why -- would behave more...
For several centuries, historians have tried to answer the question: "Why is Western Europe (and later, North America) the dominant world po...
Can we pull the world's poor out of poverty by giving them access to financial services? This episode features a conversation with economist...
In this episode, economist Robin Hanson explains the signaling theory of human behavior: That our motivations for our choices, about school,...
Common wisdom holds that the world is getting more violent, but is that really true? Leading skeptic Michael Shermer, professor and author o...
This episode marks the fifth anniversary of the Rationally Speaking podcast! To commemorate the occasion, Massimo and Julia hold a live-stre...
Feynman famously said that a philosopher of science is as much use to scientists as an ornithologist is to birds. This episode of Rationally...
Can it be rational to believe conspiracy theories? On this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia and Massimo welcome Prof. Preston Bost, a p...
People have been keeping track of their moods, sleeping, dietary habits and more for hundreds of years -- Benjamin Franklin famously recorde...
As part of our special mini-interviews series, Massimo talks to Jim Baggott, author of “Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed...
In this episode, Julia and Massimo talk about the problems with "race" as a genetically-based concept. Starting with the controversial recen...
Ever heard someone sigh, "That's just human nature"? Have you wondered what that meant? In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia and Ma...
A controversial field of research is "gain-of-function," in which scientists take a virus (like a strain of flu) and attempt to make it more...
In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll describes an "embarrassing" state of affairs in modern physics: that...
This live episode of Rationally Speaking, taped at the 2015 Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, is a special one: it's Massimo's...
The Amazing Randi, famous magician and a pioneer of Skepticism, joins this episode of Rationally Speaking for a conversation about the past...
Do atheists need their own 10 commandments? What would such a thing look like? In this episode, Julia and Massimo discuss a recent attempt t...
Atheists often take it as a given that the world would be better off without religion. But what does the evidence so far really say? In this...
Did you miss International Stoic Week this year? Well, it's not too late to catch Massimo and Julia's analysis of the ancient philosophy of...
What's wrong with the social sciences? In this episode, Massimo and Julia are joined by Professor Daniel Lakens from the Eindhoven Universit...