Steven Pinker – When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

Support The Glenn Show at Glenn Loury welcomes Steven Pinker to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . Pinker—author of The Language Instinct , The Blank Slate , The Better Angels of Our Nature , and Rationality —explains how “common knowledge” works in everyday life. Drawing on vivid examples—from a Soviet-era joke about dissent to the rise and fall of GameStop and crypto ads during Super Bowl LVI—Pinker shows how shared awareness shapes seduction, threats, markets, and politics. Loury and Pinker explore how strategic ambiguity, spirals of silence, hierarchy, and nuclear policy all hinge on a familiar question: not who knows what, but who dares to say aloud what everyone knows. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported , so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one . The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year , you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, commenting privileges, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/

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Steven Pinker – When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows is an episode from The Glenn Show by Glenn Loury.

This episode is 58:46 long.

This episode was published on Mar 20, 2026.

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