In this episode I talk about whether there really is a bible code, anti-vaccination beliefs and whether jellybeans cause acne. It’s all part of how we humans love to find patterns in the world and the amount of wiggle room we’re willing to give ourselves to find them. Too often we make the Look Elsewhere error. And not just of … Read More
Ep 301: Hatred and Violence in America: It’s Not About Mental Illness
There are too many knee-jerk, brief (and incorrect) explanations for why the US is experiencing such a rise in hatred and violence. Claiming that violent perpetrators are “mentally ill” is wrong. We have research and we understand the dangerous path that some young men get involved in and which ultimately leads them to violence. The right answers are more subtle, … Read More
Ep 327: The Team Behind Q – World’s First Genderless Digital Voice
In the last episode I talked about the potential downside to having most of our digital assistants speak to us using a female voice. “Q” – will give us an option. Here’s my interview with Emil Rasmussen, who will give you some of the background behind Q and his hopes for the future of Q. Resources Genderless Voice Twitter feedThe … Read More
Ep 325: Love Your Work? Someone Will Take Advantage of That
It’s ingrained in western society that people should find work they really enjoy – work that fulfills a passion. If you’re lucky enough to have found work you’re passionate about you ought to know that there is a dark side. People who know that you’re doing the work because you love it might just take advantage of that. In this … Read More
Ep 323: Computer Programmers: Obsessed With Efficiency
Do you have your own little “tricks”? That is, ways of doing things that are faster than how you used to do them? Well, congratulations, you’re something of an efficiency expert. And if you can picture an assembly line of people putting products together, then you’ve seen one way of increasing productivity. But some of us are really, really obsessed … Read More
Ep 321: OCD – What is it Really Like?
Would you like to get into the mind of someone who not only has OCD, but who also wrote a novel in which the main character deals with it as well? That’s the premise behind the book, Waiting For Fitz. In this episode I interview the author, Spencer Hyde. He talks about the novel, its characters (one of whom suffers … Read More
Ep 315: The Psychology of A Quiet Place and Mission Impossible
Did you see the movie A Quiet Place? How about Mission Impossible? It’s always fun to analyze movies from a psychological perspective and that’s what I do in this episode. A Quiet Place has a lot of family dynamics issues going on but Mission Impossible? You’d be surprised. We’ll look at such things as family therapy, the identified patient, sexism … Read More
Ep 311: The Ape That Understood the Universe
How are men and women different – really? There’s plenty of debate over this, but how this: examine the differences between males and females across a wide variety of species. What are the reliable differences we see again and again? That’s exactly what author Steve Stewart-Williams has done in his latest book, The Ape That Understood the Universe. If you’re … Read More
Ep 309: College Teaching Needs To Change
College teaching needs to change. This doesn’t mean using a new fad technique. It doesn’t mean dumbing anything down to get “today’s students”. It does mean that professors need to adopt more of the approaches to teaching that Ken Bain identified in his must-read book, “What The Best College Teachers Do“. In this episode I describe one of the key … Read More
Ep 304: Guess What? Testosterone Doesn’t Neccessarily Cause Men to be Aggressive
Most of us assume that one of the reasons men tend to act aggressively is that men have higher levels of testosterone. Let’s take a look at this “testosterone myth” because this isn’t always the case. In fact, in some cases, the higher levels of testosterone actually cause men to be MORE NICE than usual. Don’t believe it? Let’s take … Read More
