You Are Not So Smart
Episodes
YANSS 328 – The science behind a game (you can start playing today) that turns heated arguments into productive conversations
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Steven Franconeri explains the powerful insights and opportunities offered by a game he and his team at […]
YANSS 328 – The hidden geometry that shapes everything from pandemics to democracy
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Ellenberg, a world-class geometer, takes us on a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns […]
YANSS 327 – How save ourselves from ourselves by solving the trolley problem inside us all
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Philosopher, neuroscientist, and psychologist, Joshua Greene tells us how the brain generates morality and how his research may […]
YANSS 326 – The surprising, boney, bipedal, baby-driven origins of human language
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down with Dr. Madeleine Beekman, a professor emerita of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology at the […]
YANSS 325 – How cognitive dissonance can lead us to believe wrong is now right and right has always been wrong
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss the landmark 1959 study that popularized the term “cognitive dissonance,” and we dive […]
YANSS 324 – Why cults often grow stronger after their leaders turn out to be wrong
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of a doomsday cult that predicted the exact date and circumstances of the […]
YANSS 323 – The real (psychological) reason why you are unhappy at work and what you can (psychologically) do about it
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are you unhappy at your job? Are you starting to consider a change of career because of how […]
YANSS 322 – How the humbling science behind our general lack of intellectual humility can make us better humans
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can intellectual humility be measured? What influences it and affects it, limits it and enhances it? What even […]
YANSS 321 – How to glue life back together and craft a new self after setbacks, breakups, and fractures in your mental health leave you in pieces
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is about suicide prevention and awareness. Author Kelly Williams Brown tells us about her book, Easy […]
YANSS 320 – The difference between misinformation and disinformation and how to protect your brain from both
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is misinformation? How does it differ from disinformation or just plain ‘ole propaganda? How do we protect […]
YANSS 319 – What movies often get wrong about romantic love, relationships, and human mating in general
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two psychologists who study love, relationships, and human mating behavior pick apart the movie “The Notebook” and tell […]
YANSS 318 – How to cross the gap between what you intend to do and what you tend to do instead
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with therapist Britt Frank to discuss the intention action gap, the psychological […]
YANSS 317 – How to reimagine the marketplace of ideas by changing how, if, and when we talk about politics
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Stein Lubrano tells us about her new book, Don’t Talk About Politics, which urges us not to […]
YANSS 316 – How to avoid cultures of genius and create cultures of growth at work, at home, and everywhere else the “fixed mindset” holds us back
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we welcome psychologist Mary C. Murphy, author of Cultures of Growth, who tells us how […]
YANSS 315 – How to avoid the Ladder of Misinference and other ways to apply critical thinking in a world of increasingly sophisticated misinformation machines
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School, tells us how to avoid the Ladder of […]
YANSS 314 – How not to fall prey to proportionality bias (and other ways to form a healthy relationship with chaos)
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with Brian Klaas, author of Fluke, and get into the existential lessons […]
YANSS 313 – Why the number of people needed to make a protest movement successful is much lower than you might assume
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change […]
YANSS 312 – An introduction to complexity science, chaos theory, and how life, um, finds a way
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with professor Neil Theise, the author of Notes on Complexity,  to get […]
YANSS 311 – How to encourage widespread cascades of rapid change across large groups of people
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with Greg Satell, a communication expert whose book, Cascades, details how rapid, […]
YANSS 310 – How parts work can lead to better conversations, arguments, and debates with yourself and others (but most of all yourself)
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, therapist, teacher, speaker, and trauma specialist Britt Frank tells us all about her new book, […]
YANSS 309 – How research into irrational decisions and suboptimal judgments changed psychology (and everything else) forever
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, as the New Yorker once put it, “changed the […]
YANSS 308 – The science behind how our propensity for magical thinking can lead us to deceive each other by first deceiving ourselves
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of Clever Hans, the horse who changed psychology for the better. We also […]
YANSS 307 – Why resistance to true news that you would rather not believe can be stronger than susceptibility to fake news that you wish was true
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with three disinformation researchers whose new paper found something surprising about both […]
YANSS 306 – How to have more productive conversations in a highly partisan, polarized, and politicized world
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode’s guest is Mónica Guzmán, the author of I Never Thought of It That Way – a […]
YANSS 305 – How to become a supercommunicator (according to science)
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest in this episode is Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and writer for the New […]
YANSS 304 – How scammers and con artists exploit your psychological vulnerabilities and what you can to protect yourself
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an era in which we have more information available to us than ever before, when claims of […]
YANSS 303 – What we can learn about perception, priors, and truth itself from the party dress that sparked a global debate over the nature of reality
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we return to The Dress and the psychological lessons offered by one of the most […]
YANSS 302 – How asking the right kinds of questions can lead to innovations, breakthroughs, and discoveries
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with Warren Berger, the author of A More Beautiful Question – and […]
YANSS 301 – How our drive to resolve cognitive dissonance can lead us to change our minds, accept our fates, and become very, very wrong
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss the landmark 1959 study that popularized the term “cognitive dissonance,” and we dive […]
YANSS 300 – Why cults often grow stronger after their beliefs, predictions, assumptions, and leaders all turn out to be wrong
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of a doomsday cult that predicted the exact date and circumstances of the […]
YANSS 299 – An interview with the scientists who created Debunkbot, an AI that reliably reduces belief in conspiracy theories via back-and-forth chat
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our guests in this episode are Thomas H. Costello at American University, Gordon Pennycook at Cornell University, and […]
YANSS 298 – How the tribal instincts that divide us could be harnessed to help bring us together
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with renowned cultural psychologist Michael Morris to discuss his new book, Tribal, […]
YANSS 297 – The psychology behind Project Alpha, the supernatural publicity stunt (and hoax) meant to improve scientific rigor
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down with Brian Brushwood to discuss how he put together this most recent season of The […]
YANSS 296 – Why you are in an unhappy relationship with your job, how to work it out if you can, and what you should do to avoid a messy breakup if you can’t
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are you unhappy at your job? Are you starting to consider a change of career because of how […]
YANSS 295 – How to survive the feeling that everything is coming to an end when it most certainly isn’t (but it sure feels like it is)
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with author Kelly Williams Brown, an old friend who (I recently learned) […]
YANSS 294 – Why it is difficult to live by the original meaning of just about any set of rules, regulations, or guidelines (especially very old ones)
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with A.J. Jacobs, a journalist who noticed some striking similarities between Biblical […]
YANSS 293 – Why the people who are the most likely to suggest that you “do your own research” are also the least likely to do their own research
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sedona Chinn, a researcher who studies how people make sense of competing scientific, environmental, and health-related claims, joins […]
YANSS 292 – How one organization is attempting to end analysis paralysis by creating a library of our collective arguing
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest in this episode is Jamie Joyce who is the president and executive director of The Society […]
YANSS 291 – How Terry Crews redefined his concept of masculinity (and himself)
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Terry Crews, the actor, the athlete, the artist, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, […]
YANSS 290 – How to build a bridge across the gap between what you intend to do and what you tend to do instead
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with therapist Britt Frank to discuss the intention action gap, the psychological […]
YANSS 289 – How to fix any bureaucracy by hacking its networks of human behavior from the inside
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Marina Nitze is a professional fixer of broken systems – a hacker, not of computers and technology, but […]
YANSS 288 – How a healthy relationship with chaos, randomness, and change can lead to a life well lived
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with Brian Klaas, author of Fluke,  to get into the existential lessons […]
YANSS 287 – The complex task of defining, categorizing, and classifying “genius”
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we are exploring the complexity of the concept of “genius” with two experts on the […]
YANSS 286 – An introduction to complexity science, chaos theory, and how life, um, finds a way
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with professor Neil Theise, the author of Notes on Complexity, to get […]
YANSS 285 – The science behind how and why we talk past each other (and what to do about it)
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is a hotdog a sandwich? Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive sci...
YANSS 284 – A radical scientific investigation and deeply personal inquiry into the elusive emotion we call awe
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with psychologist Dacher Keltner, one of the world’s leading experts on the […]
YANSS 283 – How to create cultures of growth (instead of creativity-crushing cultures of genius)
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we welcome psychologist Mary C. Murphy, author of Cultures of Growth, who tells us how […]
YANSS 282 – How the psychology of single questions changed everything about how we make sense of how we make sense of everything
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, as the New Yorker once put it, “changed the […]
YANSS 281 – How a pernicious cognitive bias limits our ability to use chatbots properly (and how to overcome it)
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Utley, Kian Gohar, and Henrik Werdelin sit down with David McRaney to discuss the surprising results of […]
YANSS 280 – The science behind building the skills required to become a supercommunicator
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest in this episode is Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and writer for the New […]
YANSS 279 – Why people don’t speak out against, and even defend, norms they secretly despise
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever been in a classroom or a business meeting or a conference  and had a question […]
YANSS 278 – Florence Hazrat on the history of punctuation and why the exclamation point was invented after the question mark!
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode we learn about the history of the exclamation point, the question mark, and the semicolon […]
YANSS 277 – Temple Grandin discusses the various styles of thinking used by human brains to make sense of the world outside of their skulls
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Temple Grandin was born at a time when words like neurodivergent and neurotypical had yet to enter the […]