Professor Andrew Shtulman is a cognitive developmental psychologist who studies conceptual development and conceptual change, particularly as they relate to science education. He is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Psychology at Occidental College, and chair of its Psychology department.
His research explores both the acquisition of domain-specific concepts and the development of domain-general inference strategies. His work has appeared in such journals as Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Child Development, Journal of Educational Psychology, Psychological Science, and Psychological Review, and he is the recipient of an Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation and an Understanding Human Cognition Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Dr. Shtulman is also the author of Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong (Basic Books, 2017).
Welcome to episode 370 with Dr. Michael Shermer, author of “Conspiracy”, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine.
“This book is a must read for understanding conspiracy theories, who believes them and why, and how to counter them. When author Michael Shermer saw the video of a middle-aged man named Kevin Seefried walking across the rotunda in the Capitol Building dome on January 6, 2021, proudly waving a large Confederate flag representing bigotry and hate, he could not help but wonder, “What went wrong with this man’s beliefs?”
With the legacy of January 6th and the conspiracy theory of a stolen election still plaguing the country (two-thirds of Republicans believe President Biden is illegitimate), the problem of today’s conspiracism is more pressing than at any time in our history. In Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, best-selling author Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, presents his own original theory to explain why people believe conspiracy theories, and in an engrossing analysis shows how we can determine which conspiracy theories are likely true or false, and how we can break their power.
Conspiracism has been part of the fabric of society for centuries; we evolved to detect external threats of dangerous coalitions. Many conspiracies are real. For instance, the most consequential conspiracy of the 20th century was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, resulting in a war costing tens of millions their lives. And conspiracies often grow up around a shared traumatizing event, like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the death of Princess Diana, or the events of 9/11. But the conspiracy theories that have gained popularity of late are markedly different from those in the past, in that they require little to no proof for their adherents. Mere assertion of a conspiracy claim suffices—“fake news” or “rigged” or “people are saying” is all the evidence many people need to be convinced of their veracity.
Historically, popular American conspiracy theories tended to reside on the fringes of society, but today conspiratorial thinking has gone mainstream. Shermer cites Skeptics Society polling research showing that, for example, a remarkable one in five Americans believe that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the United States are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation” (QAnon), and one in four believe that 9/11 was an “inside job” by the Bush administration.
While the impulse to see conspiracies might be a natural human trait, it is not necessarily healthy, especially not for a diverse society and a liberal democracy that depends on institutional trust. How might we combat the rise in belief in conspiracies? One answer is education. Shermer notes that 42% of people without a high school diploma score highly in having conspiratorial predispositions, compared with those holding postgraduate degrees, who come in at 22%. Another is transparency: the checks and balances in the institutions that make up a liberal democracy must be immune to conspiracies.
In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer provides an urgently needed model to explain who believes in conspiracy theories, why, and how to debunk them when they are false. As former president Barack Obama wrote in 2020, “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work. And by definition our democracy doesn’t work.””
Jacob Soll is professor of history and accounting at the University of Southern California. He received a B.A. from the University of Iowa, a D.E.A. from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and a Ph.D. from Magdalene College, Cambridge University. He has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes including two NEH Fellowships, the Jacques Barzun Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, in 2011, the MacArthur Fellowship.
Soll’s first book, Publishing “The Prince” (2005), examines how Machiavelli’s work was popularized and influenced modern political thought. It won the Jacques Barzun Prize from the American Philosophical Society. In his second book, The Information Master (2009), Soll investigates how Louis XIV’s famous finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert fused financial management and library sciences to create one of the first modern information states.
His most recent book, The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (2014), presents a sweeping history of accounting and politics, drawing on a wealth of examples from over a millennia of human history to reveal how accounting can used to both build kingdoms, empires and entire civilizations, but also to undermine them. It explains the origins of our own financial crisis as deeply rooted in a long disconnect between human beings and their attempts to manage financial numbers. The Reckoning, reviewed in major newspapers and publications around the world,has sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide, and has been translated into five languages.
His new books include Free Market: The History of a Dream (Basic Books), an analysis of classical philosophy, natural law, history and contemporary economic culture; a history of libraries and Enlightenment (Yale University Press); and the first English edition of Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s economic writings (Anthem).
Soll has been a correspondent for the Boston Globe, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Politico, the New Republic, PBS, Salon.com and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Soll is currently meeting with political and financial leaders across the globe to promote accounting standards and financial transparency.
Bronwyn Williams is a futurist, economist, and business trends analyst.
“Bronwyn, from Johannesburg, South Africa has a background which includes experience in strategic management, trend research and foresight; consulting to clients in the public and private sector across the African continent. Her educational credentials include tertiary qualifications in Marketing Management (University of Johannesburg), Economics (University of London), Foresight (University of Manchester), and Future Studies (University of Stellenbosch). She is currently completing a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Bath.
Today, Bronwyn’s research focuses on how macro socio-economic trends and emerging technologies will impact businesses, industries, and nations in the near and long term future. Part economist, part strategist, Bronwyn’s particular areas of expertise include fintech trends, alternative economic models, and sustainable future design. She is obsessed with understanding how to make and nudge better choices by developing a better understanding of trade offs, incentives and long-run unintended consequences.
Bronwyn’s clients include Top 40 JSE listed companies, The South African Reserve Bank, African government departments, and global business leaders. She also guest lectures for leading business schools, such as Duke, GIBS, UCT, and the University of Johannesburg. Bronwyn is a prolific writer, she is the co-author of The Future Starts Now, published by Bloomsbury UK and writes columns for serval business, marketing, corporate and business school publications. She is also a well- known media commentator on future trends and economic trajectories for network channels including CNBC Africa and ENCA News.”
How does one use victimhood for resources, and what qualities does such a person possess? What can we get when scientists of differing viewpoints work together? Can one be motivated to look at free will in others differently based on a view of their moral nature? I discuss these topics and more with returning guest behavioral scientist Dr. Cory Clark on episode 367 of The Armen Show.
From her bio, “Cory Clark, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and Co-Founder (along with Professor Philip Tetlock) of The Adversarial Collaboration Research Center at University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Scholar in the Psychology Department.
She received her Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from University of California, Irvine in 2014. Between then and now, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar at University at Buffalo and Florida State University, an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom, and the Director of Academic Engagement for Heterodox Academy.
She co-hosts a podcast, Psyphilopod, which has been described as “Ruthlessly truthful and highly insightful conversations on psychology, philosophy, politics, and academic culture.”
She considers herself a Moral and Political Psychologist, but she is particularly interested in how people (scientists and non-scientists) interact with information in ways that allow them to maintain and justify their preferred worldviews. Scientists are but mere mortals, and consequently, they are vulnerable to similar biases, errors, motivations, and psychological needs as other people. Although she has great admiration for the scientific method, individual scientific findings warrant scrutiny and skepticism. She hopes her blog reflects that spirit.
You can find her CV, which links to most of her work on her website. All of her academic publications are available for free on ResearchGate. And you can follow her on Twitter for brief descriptions and discussions of recent social scientific findings that she finds interesting or perplexing.”
What can we learn about different species that exist on the planet, and the world that they live in? What kinds of senses do they make use of, and what do we share with our fellow species? I discuss some of what is covered on the Species podcast, along with the topics of female infidelity and more, on episode 366 of the show with Macken Murphy.
Macken Murphy is a writer and science educator. He hosts a weekly podcast about animals, Species, recommended by both Apple and BBC’s Wildlife magazine. He has currently studied anthropology at the University of Oxford.
How can we best navigate our social world to make a good impression and not err in showcasing our good qualities? What does it take to identify what the mistakes are in this category, and what kind of analysis should we do of the feedback that people give us? Professor Övül Sezer joins on episode 365 of the show to guide us in understanding impression mis-management and more.
Professor Övül Sezer is Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University. She received her BA in Applied Math and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. She teaches courses in managerial decision-making and negotiations. When it comes to her research, she applies the same observational tools that she also uses in doing stand-up routines at comedy clubs, which is identifying a “particular human behavior that strikes me as odd, interesting, or confusing, and either study it in-depth using experiments or describe it with humor.”
Most people think they know how to make a positive impression and can easily spot the mistakes others make, but when it comes to their own missteps, they tend to be oblivious. She identifies these mistakes and investigate how to better navigate our social world. She explores: How can we signal that we are both competent and likable? How can we brag wisely? How can we give valuable feedback in a way that strengthens our relationships rather than harming them? How can we network less awkwardly? Her research identifies useful strategies for making better impressions.
Dr. Sezer’s work has been published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. It also has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Forbes, Financial Times and Scientific American. She was honored as one the “Top 40 Business School Professors under 40” by Poets & Quants.
Can the history of a country be looked at differently through analysis of what was left behind and how things actually may have occurred? Are we able to see events more clearly with some space of time and a calmer moment in place. On episode 364, I speak with UC Irvine’s Professor Nicole Iturriaga on these topics in relation to the records of Spain during and after the Franco regime, as described in her book Exhuming Violent Histories: Forensics, Memory, and Rewriting Spain’s Past.
“Many years after the fall of Franco’s regime, Spanish human rights activists have turned to new methods to keep the memory of state terror alive. By excavating mass graves, exhuming remains, and employing forensic analysis and DNA testing, they seek to provide direct evidence of repression and break through the silence about the dictatorship’s atrocities that persisted well into Spain’s transition to democracy.
Nicole Iturriaga offers an ethnographic examination of how Spanish human rights activists use forensic methods to challenge dominant histories, reshape collective memory, and create new forms of transitional justice. She argues that by grounding their claims in science, activists can present themselves as credible and impartial, helping them intervene in fraught public disputes about the remembrance of the past. The perceived legitimacy and authenticity of scientific techniques allows their users to contest the state’s historical claims and offer new narratives of violence in pursuit of long-delayed justice.
Iturriaga draws on interviews with technicians and forensics experts and provides a detailed case study of Spain’s best-known forensic human rights organization, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory. She also considers how the tools and tactics used in Spain can be adopted by human rights and civil society groups pursuing transitional justice in other parts of the world. An ethnographically rich account, Exhuming Violent Histories sheds new light on how science and technology intersect with human rights and collective memory.”
Nicole Iturriaga is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute Center on Religious and Cultural Diversity.
What can we learn about free will? What layers are there to understand regarding the discussion between determinism and free will? I speak on these topics with Professor Alfred Mele of Philosophy at Florida State University on episode 363 of the show. He is the author of Free Will: An Opinionated Guide.
Alfred Remen Mele is an American philosopher and the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is also the past Director of the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Project and the Big Questions in Free Will Project.
Carrie James and Emily Weinstein are the authors of “Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing).
How are teens navigating a networked world? What are they doing on their smartphones, and what does their response say about the current moment? Is there something more than addiction to screens and connectivity going on? On episode 362, I discuss these topics with Dr. Emily Weinstein and Dr. Carrie James, co-authors of Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing).
Dr. Emily Weinstein is a senior researcher at Project Zero and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.Dr. Weinstein studies the intersections of networked technologies with the social, emotional, and civic lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Her research on digital technologies draws on a variety of methodological approaches, including digital post analyses, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and experiments.
Dr. Weinstein’s published work appears in interdisciplinary journals, including New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Adolescent Research, and International Journal of Communication. In Spring 2022, she is teaching the new course, Digital Dilemmas: Adolescents Behind Their Screens (T510A).
Outside of her academic research, Emily regularly works with schools and families to reimagine supports for digital life. She is also a longtime collaborator of Common Sense Education, where she has worked on the development of free programs and resources related to digital citizenship. She holds a Master’s degree (Ed.M.) in Prevention Science and Practice and a Doctorate (Ed.D.) in Human Development and Education, both from Harvard University, and a B.S. from Cornell University.
Carrie James is a Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Project Zero. A sociologist by training, her research explores young people’s digital, moral, and civic lives. Over the past decade plus, Carrie has led research and educational initiatives focused on ethical issues in digital life, civic engagement and participatory politics in a connected age, and cross-cultural online learning experiences.
For many years, Carrie worked closely with Howard Gardner and colleagues, conducting research on digital ethics. Past projects include: The Good Play Project, a MacArthur Foundation-Funded initiative focused on digital ethics and the Good Participation Project, a MacArthur Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network study of youth civic participation and civic education in a networked age.
Carrie’s publications also include Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap (The MIT Press, 2014), and numerous articles in peer-reviewed education and media journals. She holds a M.A. (1996) and a Ph.D. (2003) in Sociology from New York University.
How are hierarchies formed, maintained and challenged? My guest on the topic of hierarchies, as well as the categories of dominance and prestige, is Dr. Kaylene McClanahan, postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She joins on episode 361 of The Armen Show.
Kaylene McClanahan is a social scientist who researches social hierarchies. She received her PhD from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Kaylene is a proponent of reproducible science and an avid R user. She also posts about R, hierarchy research, and academic life on Twitter. Kaylene has taught Negotiations to MBA and executive audiences.
Jennifer Jacquet is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Director of XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement at NYU. She is also deputy director of NYU’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection.
Her research focuses on animals and the environment, Agnotology, and attribution and responsibility in the Anthropocene. She is author of The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World, a work of ‘epistolary non-fiction’ that makes the business case for scientific denial. She also wrote Is Shame Necessary about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval in a globalized, digitized world. She is the recipient of a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship and a 2016 Pew fellowship in marine conservation.
Steve Magness is a world-renowned expert on performance. He is the author of the new book Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness. He is the coauthor of Peak Performance, The Passion Paradox, and the author of The Science of Running. Collectively his books have sold more than a quarter-million copies in print, ebook, and audio formats.
Magness has served as an executive coach to individuals in a variety of sectors. His work serves on applying the principles of which he writes. In addition he’s served as consultant on mental skills development for professional sports teams, including some of the top teams in the NBA.
His writing has appeared in Outside, Runner’s World, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and a variety of other outlets. In addition, Steve’s expertise on elite sport and performance has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, Business Insider, and ESPN The Magazine.
Steve received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from George Mason University. He currently lives in Houston, Tx with his wife Hillary. Once upon a time, he ran a mile in 4:01 in high school, at the time the 6th fastest high school mile in US history.
What kind of bigger-picture understanding can come with traveling to parts of the world and immersing yourself in the culture or activities, and connecting in-depth with locals? How can one’s internal confidence affect connection and physical linkage with others along the way? We cover these topics and more with attorney and world traveler Karin Lang on episode 358 of The Armen Show.
Whether it is going to a region of Europe, or a region of Southeast Asia, Karin tells us of some of the stories and takeaways of switching things up and heading to a place that calls you. When you have a calling that has a sense of urgency or immediacy to it, where another person does not have that same feel, it is up to you to reach for it. Karin has already done this in the travel category a few times, as we discuss on the show, and is on the way to more exploring of this type.
A later topic of discussion in our talk is related to confidence and self-esteem, which then links with our covering of sexual relations and what it takes to make the connection better or stronger for both participants. Though it can take place without such understanding, one person may be left out of the full experience that comes with physical connection, which isn’t a great way to leave things.
One clear link we speak of in this episode is that of our hard-hitting nature, which can rub some folks the wrong way, but does allow us to have an existence free of many niceties that are actually limiting constructs. Though few will be interested in having a life with a lot of directness and rougher moments, those who can handle those are set for some special times.
How do we think about minds that are not human? How do we look at recent efforts in technology that have come out with platforms able to compete with humans on certain tasks? Science writer Philip C. Ball joins us on episode 357 of The Armen Show to discuss these topics from his book The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens.
“Philip Ball is a freelance science writer. He worked previously at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences (for which his brief extended from biochemistry to quantum physics and materials science) and then as a Consultant Editor. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology.
Philip is the author of many popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, colour in art, the science of social and political philosophy, the cognition of music, and physics in Nazi Germany. He has written widely on the interactions between art and science, and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London’s National Theatre and the London School of Economics.
Philip continues to write regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine (for which he writes a science blog), and also a columnist for Chemistry World, Nature Materials, and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of “Science Stories” on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdiscipinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum.
Philip has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol.”
“Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about ‘minds’ that are not human? In recent decades, the mind – both human and otherwise – has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience.
Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found – including in plants, aliens, and God – The Book of Minds pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together. In so doing, it offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured.”
You may have thought of the bond market as a relatively calm and uncompetitive location where the idea of getting big profits is not as common, but Bill Gross did not see it that way. In The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All, author Mary Childs takes us through his story of growth and scenarios along the way. She takes us through the story, and we also cover her Planet Money podcast, here on episode 356 of the show.
“From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.
The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.
To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.”
Mary Childs is an American financial journalist, and non-fiction writer. She is co-host for Planet Money. She graduated from Washington and Lee University. She reported for Barron’s, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg News.
Welcome back guest Rebecca Faith Lawson to the show on episode 355, as we have a discussion live with the backdrop of the beach sands in place. We spoke here on Playa Del Rey Beach about the topics of authenticity, following your beliefs, not getting thrown off by others, perfectionist views, and more.
The topic of not taking in outside noise was interesting, as we have to be cautious of the input that we take in from the world. We only have one time around here to make our decisions, and don’t want to be thrown off by the external.
Rebecca models with Modern Muse Models in Florida, and also enjoys working with kids. It’s great for us to connect where we are built for, and to reach out from a base of what we are into.
Welcome to episode 354 of the show, live in person at Los Angeles Swim Week, which was having its first run-through in the LA area. Not only did we get to speak with art director and creative consultant Robby Devine on the show, but we had surprise guests Sydney Marcus and Amanda Clair join us late into the episode.
There is something great about the live episodes, and this one was no exception. We went into mindset, the value of giving people a full opportunity without having suspicions attached to it, and the idea of how things can grow when allowed to come from a mind of abundance.
Having attended various events that Robby has had important parts in, along with seeing his connective and warm ability in person, a talk like this is a delight for me, and we would be glad to have Robby (and our surprise guests) back on the show in the future.
Attorney Jamie Susskind joins on episode 353 of the show, where we discuss his latest book The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century.
Jamie Susskind is also author of the award-winning bestseller Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech (Oxford University Press, 2018), an Evening Standard and Prospect Book of the Year. Future Politics was awarded the 2019 Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize.
Jamie is an author and barrister. He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, and at the Berggruen Institute. Jamie writes and speaks about technology, politics, and law.
His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Times, Wired, the Daily Telegraph, Fast Company, and the New Statesman.
Joining us on episode 352 of the show is Dr. Mike Liu, founder of FreeFuse.
Dr. Liu has a Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has done research on Additive Manufacturing of CoCrMo using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) to print compositional gradients and metal single structures. He also taught two polymer materials courses using Dream Forge 3D printer and AutoDesk Fusion 3D CAD modeling software.
“FreeFuse radically transforms the on-line video experience from passive consumption to user-directed exploration. FreeFuse videos are presented as a series of linked optional segments that can be viewed, re-viewed and re-organized in any sequence, at any time.”
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