123 - Active Information Avoidance (rebroadcast)

123 - Active Information Avoidance (rebroadcast)

Little did the champions of the Enlightenment know that once we had access to all the facts…well, reason and rationality wouldn’t just immediately wash across the land in a giant wave of enlightenment thinking. While that may be happening in some ways, the new media ecosystem has also unshackled some of our deepest psychological tendencies, things that enlightenment thinkers didn’t know about, weren’t worried about, or couldn’t have predicted. Many of which we’ve discussed in previous episodes like confirmation bias, selective skepticism, filter bubbles and so on. These things have always been with us, but modern technology has provided them with the perfect environment to flourish.

In this episode, we explore another such invasive psychological species called active information avoidance, the act of keeping our senses away from information that might be useful, that we know is out there, that would cost us nothing to obtain, but that we’d still rather not learn. From choosing not to open open bills, visit the doctor, check your bank account, or read the nutrition information on the back of that box of Girl Scout Cookies, we each choose to remain ignorant when we’d rather not feel the anguish of illumination, but that same tendency can also cause great harm both to individuals and whole cultures when it spreads through politics, science, markets, and medicine. In this show, you’ll learn how.

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Episoder(331)

222 - The Power of Surprise - Michael Rousell

222 - The Power of Surprise - Michael Rousell

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221 - Conversations and Conversions at the Portable Planetarium

221 - Conversations and Conversions at the Portable Planetarium

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12 Des 202143min

220 - A Very Short History of Life on Earth - Henry Gee

220 - A Very Short History of Life on Earth - Henry Gee

In this episode, we sit down with Henry Ernest Gee, the paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and senior editor of the scientific journal Nature. I was honored to get the opportunity chat with one of...

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219 - Irrational Labs - Evelyn Gosnell

219 - Irrational Labs - Evelyn Gosnell

In this episode we sit down with expert in behavioral economics Evelyn Gosnell, who is also the managing director of Irrational Labs, an organization that uses social science to help other organizatio...

14 Nov 202144min

218 - Unwinding Anxiety - Jud Brewer

218 - Unwinding Anxiety - Jud Brewer

In this episode, Dr. Jud Brewer, a neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist, discusses the biological origins of anxiety and how to unwind our feedback loops using techniques derived from his lab’s r...

31 Okt 202157min

217 - Livewired - David Eagleman (rebroadcast)

217 - Livewired - David Eagleman (rebroadcast)

In this episode we sit down with neuroscientist David Eagleman to learn how brains turn noise into signal, chaos into order, electrical spikes into meaning, and how new technology can expand subjectiv...

17 Okt 20211h 13min

216 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg

216 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg

In this episode, we sit down with Jordan Ellenberg, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His writing has appeared in Slate, the Wall Street Journal, t...

3 Okt 20211h 10min

215 - Jerks at Work - Tessa West

215 - Jerks at Work - Tessa West

In this live taping of the podcast at Caveat in NYC, Dr. Tessa West, the author of Jerks at Work, conducts quizzes to see what kind of jerk you are and what kind of jerk most-easily persuades you in t...

19 Sep 20211h 20min

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