Paul Bloom is the author of The Sweet Spot, The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meeting. His last book was chosen by our curators as one of the best works of nonfiction published in 2021. We had such a wide-ranging chat that a lot of great material did not make the cut. If you want to hear their complete two-hour interview, which contains extended riffs on artificial intelligence, free will, and the introvert, extrovert continuum among many other topics, please download the next big idea app now.
In his expansive new book, "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind," Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, lays out, in his words, "basically everything I know about the mind." And when he says everything, he means it. Where does consciousness come from? Does IQ matter? What makes us happy? Was Sigmund Freud a madman? The answers to these questions (and more) are all in Paul's book — and in this episode.
• To listen to an extended version of Rufus and Paul's conversation, download The Next Big Idea app.
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