Rationally Speaking #153 - Dr. Vinay Prasad on "Why so much of what we 'know' about medicine is wrong"
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 used medical intervention -- like estrogen replacement therap...
3 Jan 202146min
Rationally Speaking #152 - Dan Fincke on "The pros and cons of civil disagreement"
Julia invites philosopher and blogger Dan Fincke onto the show, inspired by a productive disagreement they had on Facebook. Their topic in this episode: civility in public discourse. Do atheists and s...
3 Jan 202152min
Rationally Speaking #151 - Maria Konnikova on "Why everyone falls for con artists"
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 people who wire thousands of dollars to a "Nigerian prince" ...
3 Jan 202147min
Rationally Speaking #150 - Elizabeth Loftus on "The malleability of human memory"
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 sunny day... In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia in...
3 Jan 202146min
Rationally Speaking #149 - Susan Gelman on "How essentialism shapes our thinking"
In this episode, psychologist Susan Gelman describes her work on the psychological trait of essentialism: the innate human urge to categorize reality and to assume that those categories reflect meanin...
3 Jan 202147min
Rationally Speaking #148 - David Kyle Johnson on "The Myths that Stole Christmas"
We're all familiar with Santa Claus -- but how much do you *really* know about that jolly old elf? In this episode, Julia interviews philosophy professor David Kyle Johnson, the author of "The Myths t...
3 Jan 202145min
Rationally Speaking #147 - Andrew Gelman on "Why do Americans vote the way they do?"
There are two contradictory stories about politics and class: On the one hand, that the Republicans are the party of the fat cat businessmen and the Democrats are the party of the people. And on the o...
3 Jan 202150min
Rationally Speaking #146 - Jesse Richardson on "The pros and cons of making fallacies famous"
This episode of Rationally Speaking features Jesse Richardson, a creative director who has been using his advertising background "for good and not for evil," as he puts it -- by building skeptic sites...
3 Jan 202150min
