Thinking Clearly

Disinformation and its danger to our social fabric and democracy are the focus of this discussion with philosopher, educator and author, Lee McIntyre. Lee holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. His latest book: Disinformation-How to fight for Truth and Protect Democracy is hot off the press.  

Jonathan Howard, MD joins hosts Bob and Julia to discuss the role of critical thinking in health and medicine and how critical thinking is especially important in crisis management such as the COVID pandemic. Dr. Howard is currently an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at New York University, Langone Health and the Chief of Neurology at Bellevue Hospital. And two of his books, Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes and We Want Them Infected: How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID, provide foundation for this conversation.

On this the 84th episode of Thinking Clearly, hosts Bob and Julia got the seven year itch to look back and pick one episode that they thought deserved replay in its entirety. Their pick encapsulates one of the main themes of Thinking Clearly and focuses on the importance of having a universal process, accessible by all, for reliably assessing reality and forming beliefs. Bob and Julia call that process “critical thinking” but their guest: journalist, deep thinker, and author, Jonathan Rauch, calls it The Constitution of Knowledge. This episode originally aired mid-pandemic on Oct. 7, 2021.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been impacting our lives in a variety of ways including our web searches, social medial experiences and even our telephone conversations with customer service representatives, and that impact will likely be accelerating at an exponential rate. This episode invites listeners to begin preparing for this changing environment as hosts Bob and Julia discuss the foundational knowledge for understanding current AI models, the relationship between AI and critical thinking, and the risks and benefits of this advancing technology. Also included is a demonstration of the large language model ChatGPT.

Psychology Professor Alan Bensley discusses teaching critical thinking and recognizing unsubstantiated claims. Topics include measuring effectiveness of instruction, identifying unsubstantiated claims, and debunking conspiracy theories.

Psychologist Emlen Metz discusses her research on Actively Open-minded Thinking and her current work at the Lawrence Hall of Science at U.C. Berkeley developing curricula on scientific-critical-thinking for high school and undergraduate classrooms and her work on a project called Public Editor, described as: “a massive effort to clean up the news.”

Journalist, author and public speaker Guy Harrison— a longtime advocate for skepticism, critical thinking and science appreciation—discusses the virtues, benefits and joy of critical thinking and how understanding core ideas in science can add value to all of our lives. Guy has authored eight books, including: Think Before You Like: Social Media's Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed and At Least Know This: Essential Science to Enhance Your Life.

Thinking Clearly guest, political scientist, author and educator Timothy Redmond, discusses the toxic effects of extreme political tribalism on our democratic institutions and offers hope and solutions—as detailed in his recent book: Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It.

Psychologist, author and entrepreneur, Gary Klein, joins us a second time to take a closer look at experts, skilled intuition and many of the other topics associated with Naturalistic Decision Making—a process of understanding how people make decisions and perform cognitively complex functions in demanding, real-world situations.

Mark Edward tells the story of his journey from the world of magicians and psychics to becoming a skeptical activist who promotes science and critical thinking. As a skilled practitioner of mentalism, Mark has authored a number of books on magic, mentalism, and séance production, including his revealing book: Psychic Blues. And, on this episode of Thinking Clearly, Mark will do a demonstration, with Julia, of how a mentalist-psychic reading is done.