Rationally Speaking #183 - L. A. Paul on "Transformative Experiences"
What if you had the opportunity to become a vampire, irreversibly -- and everyone you knew who had become one said "It's utterly indescribable." Would you take the leap, not knowing what it would feel...
30 Apr 201752min
Rationally Speaking #182 - Spencer Greenberg on "How online research can be faster, better, and more useful"
This episode features mathematician and social entrepreneur Spencer Greenberg, talking about how he's taking advantage of the Internet to improve the research process. Spencer and Julia explore topics...
16 Apr 201752min
Rationally Speaking #181 - William MacAskill on "Moral Uncertainty"
This episode introduces "moral uncertainty," the idea that you shouldn't be overly confident in your moral judgments -- like whether it's okay to eat meat, for example, or whether it's okay to abort a...
2 Apr 201754min
Rationally Speaking #180 - David Roodman on "The Worm Wars"
In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia talks with economics and public policy expert David Roodman about the "Worm Wars" in social science -- the debate over whether deworming pills are an effe...
20 Mar 201748min
Rationally Speaking #179 - Dani Rodrik on "Is economics more art or science?"
This episode features Harvard economist Dani Rodrik, talking about the epistemology of economics: Are there any general "laws" of economics that we can be really confident in? Do economists discard mo...
6 Mar 201748min
Rationally Speaking #178 - Tim Urban on "Trying to live well, as semi-rational animals"
This episode features Tim Urban, author of popular longform illustrated blog Wait But Why. Julia and Tim explore one of their common interests: the tension between the rational and irrational aspects ...
20 Feb 201750min
Rationally Speaking #177 - Dylan Matthews on "The science and ethics of kidney donation"
If you're a healthy adult, should you donate one of your kidneys to a stranger? This episode features journalist Dylan Matthews, who donated his kidney last year. He and Julia discuss the clever desig...
5 Feb 201744min
Rationally Speaking #176 - Jason Brennan on "Against democracy"
Churchill famously called democracy "the worst system of government, except for all the others that have been tried." Could we do better? On this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia chats with profe...
22 Jan 201751min
