"I used to be closer to that person when I was 20 than I am now," he says. "It really is you learn from your mistakes in order to learn from their mistakes, you have to remember them." The author has written a book about the role age plays in our understanding of history and culture.
Neurologist and author Robert Burton talks about his book, On Being Certain, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Burton explores our need for certainty and the challenge of being skeptical about what our brain tells us must be true. Where does what Burton calls "the feeling of knowing" come from? Why can memory lead us astray? Burton claims that our reaction to events emerges from competition among different parts of the brain operating below our level of awareness. The conversation includes a discussion of the experience of transcendence and the different ways humans come to that experience.