Send us a textIn this short episode, April explains what mindfulness is and its potential use as a tool for better critical thinking.Episode 9 Show NotesThe Niroga Institutes' definition of mindfulness:https://www.niroga.org/media/news/2019-what_is_mindfulness.php?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8rT8BRCbARIsALWiOvSf6DfTkjHq-ZMMjqbicowM3dtk3UC3huZgTbBZKCaOe-hLVlBxGwkaAjv8EALw_wcBThe Happier Skeptic's definition of mindfulness:https://happierskeptic.com/critical-thinking-and-mindfulness/Even more definitions of mindfulness you may find enlightening:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-matters-most/201711/3-definitions-mindfulness-might-surprise-youYou can access the Oxford Language Dictionary's definition simply by typing "mindfulness" into Google's search bar.Here's Dr. Michael Hogan's article in Psychology Today:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-one-lifespan/201601/does-mindfulness-enhance-critical-thinkingHere's another article co-authored by Hogan on the same topic:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02043/fullThe disturbing rise of QAnon within the wellness and yoga communities:https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/yoga-wellness-and-qanon-conspiracy-theoriesThe origin of one of my favorite quotes:https://spinstrangenesscharm.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/who-first-said-we-must-keep-an-open-mind-but-not-so-open-that-our-brains-fall-out/Easy and effective mindfulness exercises you can do:https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/mindfulness-exercises/art-20046356Some mindfulness apps for your consideration:https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-apps/An article about utilizing mindfulness in the workplace to enhance problem solving:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140625172839-26938934-critical-thinking-mindfulness-and-thinking-about-thinking/

Send us a textApril discusses media literacy in a wide-ranging conversation with Shanna Gilkeson, a doctoral candidate in media and communication at Bowling Green State University. They talk about what does and doesn't work when applying traditional media literacy skills to today's media landscape. Shanna gives some great tips about how she approaches fact-checking, talks about how she determines a source to be credible/reliable, and shares her favorite credible sources and fact-checking sites.  Episode 7 Show Notes: A good article discussing the basics of media literacy: https://mediastudies.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-importance-of-media-literacy/ Here's the CRAAP test pdf: https://library.csuchico.edu/sites/default/files/craap-test.pdf Danah Boyd's SxSW keynote speech "What Hath We Wrought" describes the epistemic crisis the US finds itself in, explains a little bit about how people get radicalized, and how the traditional way of teaching media literacy has failed us, that teaching people how to verify a source's credibility doesn't work when they're radicalized to mistrust any source they don't agree with: https://youtu.be/0I7FVyQCjNg Ad Fontes Media - a valuable resource in terms of determining how reliable or biased a source is. https://www.adfontesmedia.com/  In particular, their interactive media bias chart is helpful in terms of determining where a source lands on the trustworthiness spectrum: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart-2/  Also, they're super-transparent about their methodology, which they describe in great detail here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/how-ad-fontes-ranks-news-sources/ On the need for fact-checking instead of source checking: https://medium.com/@holden/how-media-literacy-gets-web-misinformation-wrong-45aa6323829d On the value of acquiring knowledge before trying to apply criticism: https://hapgood.us/2016/12/19/yes-digital-literacy-but-which-one/ How media literacy gets misinformation wrong: https://medium.com/@holden/how-media-literacy-gets-web-misinformation-wrong-45aa6323829d Yep, this happened: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/16/trump-tweets-out-fake-story-criticizing-biden-from-satirical-news-site/#3cf6e9c55c38 This NPR interview is from 2012, but it still stands: https://www.npr.org/2012/01/10/144974110/political-fact-checking-under-fire

Send us a textApril interviews journalism professor Jennifer (Jenny) Mitchell about today's media landscape. Topics include what qualifies as media, who owns giant media conglomerates, the difference between hard news and opinion pieces, professional journalists vs. citizen journalists and bloggers/vloggers, the ethical principles that professional journalists should follow, and the credible news sources that Jenny relies on. Episode 6 Show Notes:A list of top media conglomerates:https://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/021815/worlds-top-ten-media-companies-dis-cmcsa-fox.aspxA list of media billionaires:https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/#4c73723660adAn explanation of “infotainment:”https://www.medialit.org/reading-room/whatever-happened-newsThe difference between hard news and opinion:https://digitalresource.center/content/lesson-5-news-vs-opinionLeast biased sites for news:https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-world-news-websites-guaranteed-free-censorship/A decent article by a young media student who seems to have a handle on the issues with citizen journalists:https://medium.com/@zoesaunderson/the-legal-challenges-professional-vs-citizen-journalists-225a026cf83aAn academic paper on the topic of citizen vs professional journalists: https://homepage.univie.ac.at/homero.gil.de.zuniga/documents/Holton,%20Coddington%20&%20Gil%20de%20Zuniga%20(2013)%20Journalism%20Practice.pdfThe Society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics:https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.aspA great article about journalism as a calling:http://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/137-fall-2007/3230571-journalism-as-a-callingThe American Press Association’s (APA) list of principles that all journalists should abide by:https://americanpressassociation.com/principles-of-journalism/The link to OnlineNewspapers.com:http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/A link to CSN’s Coyote Student News, the student-run paper that Jennifer Mitchell oversees:https://coyotestudentnews.com/A really, really good (and disturbing) discussion about how disinformation travels through mass media and into social media:https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-yochai-benkler-mass-media-disinformation-campaignsAn explanation of “false balance:”https://www.theguard

Send us a textApril discusses Jonathan Haidt's "Moral Foundations Theory," that has its roots in evolutionary psychology and attempts to explain how we view politics and social policy. We use the same basic moral foundations to create our beliefs and opinions, but we interpret and layer them differently. When we recognize which of these foundations people are using to build their moral framework we can see how they come to hold certain beliefs. Understanding is the key to opening dialogue and eventually resolving conflict.Episode 5 Show Notes:Here's a great article from the website DividedWeFall.com that goes into detail on Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory:https://dividedwefall.com/2018/07/15/the-righteous-mind-moral-foundations-theory/?gclid=CjwKCAjwn9v7BRBqEiwAbq1Ey5fhnO5F6VgWC7ducjJKd9NrqWR7nbrsBBG4gyVnHRxVB4Ydc_4NlxoCiUkQAvD_BwEThis is the link to the YourMorals.Org website:https://yourmorals.org/This article from The Greater Good Magazine discusses the importance of empathy in today's world:https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/in_a_divided_world_we_need_to_choose_empathyThe Civil Politics website has lots of article and links to great resources about this topic. Here's a good article:http://www.civilpolitics.org/content/two-evidence-based-recommendations-for-civil-disagreement/This article explains "Intergroup Contact Theory:"https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_makes_a_good_interaction_between_divided_groupsLook around and see if there's a topic on LivingRoomConversations.org that interests you on this website, then get involved in a discussion:https://www.livingroomconversations.org/This pdf has some provocative questions on divisive issues that can be used to open dialog:https://whatisessential.org/sites/default/files/resource/file/2020-06/Questions%20for%20Divisive%20Issues.pdfThis conversation guide on the topic of immigration is an example of how LivingRoomConversations guides its participants to help them truly understand each other:https://209859-635214-1-raikfcquaxqncofqfm.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NEW-Immigration.pdfHere's an eye-opening article on the Village Square's website that will make you think about why it's so difficult to get people from opposing sides to sit down and talk:https://tlh.villagesquare.us/blog/welcoming-conservatives/This Psychology Today article gives some great ideas about how to approach problematic discussions:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-risky-is-it-really/201007/why-changing-somebody-s-mind-or-yours-is-hard-doA great article from the Gottman Institute about maintaining relationships while disagreeing:

Send us a textIn this short but important episode, April explains what the principle of charity is, how it seems to have been forgotten in today's discourse, and ways we can incorporate it into our face to face and online discussions.Show Notes:Jeff Stolle explains how the principle of charity fits into civil discourse:https://www.registerguard.com/story/business/names-faces/2020/06/02/bluechip-stolle-two-rules-of-civil-discourse/42103329/The Ethics Centre's article says we should try to understand an opponent's arguments before criticizing them:https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-the-principle-of-charity/Jonathan Maloney's take on this important principle:https://www.intelligentspeculation.com/blog/the-principle-of-charityAn article from Patrick Gerard's online course, "Logic and Critical Thinking:"https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/logical-and-critical-thinking/0/steps/9148The Amazon link to Daniel Dennett's book referenced in this episode:https://www.amazon.com/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-Thinking/dp/1491518871John Corvino's explanation of the principle of charity on his YouTube Channel:https://youtu.be/LZZ7tQnI2-M

Send us a textIn this episode, April discusses why fallacies are so powerful and persuasive, and gives examples of some common ones to show how prevalent they are in our lives. She talks to Stephanie Willes, who teaches COM and rhetoric at UNLV and is researching how online anti-vaccine communities use fallacies in their arguments to recruit and keep followers. Follow COMteacherapril on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/COMteacheraprilEpisode 3 Show Notes:Why fallacies are effective: http://jmbeach.blogspot.com/2012/03/power-and-danger-of-fallacies-double-ad.html Explanation of validity and soundness in deductive arguments: https://iep.utm.edu/ded-ind/A long, long, long list of fallacies: https://iep.utm.edu/fallacy/ An explanation of the appeal to authority (false authority): http://www.nizkor.com/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html An explanation of the post hoc fallacy that mistakes correlation for causation: https://www.thoughtco.com/post-hoc-fallacy-1691650 Don’t let all the stupid pop-up ads on this page dissuade you from reading this very good article about how fallacies make us wrong and why we stick with them: https://www.cracked.com/article_19468_5-logical-fallacies-that-make-you-wrong-more-than-you-think.html Here’s the latest incarnation of the Media Bias chart: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/intro-to-the-media-bias-chart/ Here is the list of Twitter accounts that Stephanie follows: @APFactCheck@factcheckdotorg@ddale8 @jenmercieca (she is a rhetoric professor)@thereal_truther 

Send us a textApril explains one of the reasons why arguments can go "off the rails"--because the people involved are either unintentionally or deliberately arguing past each other. This happens when people think they are arguing about the same thing, but they are actually arguing different issues related to the topic.  April's Show Notes for Episode 2: Here's a basic explanation of formal argument and how it differs from informal argument: https://dlc.dcccd.edu/english2-2/formal-arguments This article from Harvard Business Review explains some of the reasons why we fail to see that we aren't "on the same page" with others, and gives some good tips to make sure everyone is listening and correctly interpreting what the issues are: https://hbr.org/2012/12/why-youre-talking-past-each-other-and This is the story of the mother and daughter who were arguing based on different definitions of the term "socialism:" https://thevoice.us/instead-of-talking-past-each-other-find-common-ground/ A good article about how those involved in national discourse often talk past each other: https://novellearning.blog/2017/10/12/how-we-argue-talking-past-each-other/ This is a great article that explains why paraphrasing is so effective when you're in the middle of an argument: https://www.whatcomdrc.org/news/2018/3/30/the-power-of-paraphrasing"Pivoting" is a common way politicians avoid answering questions they don't like, and often the audience doesn't realize they're being played. Here's how they exploit our "cognitive limitations:" https://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162103368/how-politicians-get-away-with-dodging-the-question 

Send us a textIn the premiere episode, April begins by NOT talking about critical thinking at all! Instead, she discusses some of the reasons why clear thinking is so difficult. Topics include:Feelings as a prelude to thoughtsHow our brains utilize heuristics, and how they sometimes don't work in our favorCognitive biases that lead us to incorrect conclusions about the worldUsing deliberative thinking to monitor our heuristics and biasesApril's Show Notes for Episode 1Here are the links to articles, websites, and other resources listed in the order in which they are referred to in the episode. Whenever possible I try to find good, solid information from credible sources that can be easily accessed by the public.In this blog post by Dr. Mark Solmes, he explains the difference between thinking and feeling: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/thinking-and-feeling-whats-the-differenceThis article from the psychology website verywellmind.com explains the link between heuristics and cognitive biases: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-heuristic-2795235Intellligent Speculation is a website devoted to teaching about critical thinking. One article discusses “motivated reasoning” and how it is related to confirmation bias; the other is a look at some common cognitive biases: https://www.intelligentspeculation.com/blog/confirmation-bias-amp-motivated-reasoninghttps://www.intelligentspeculation.com/blog/top-10-cognitive-biases-to-look-out-for?utm_source=Intelligent+Speculation&utm_campaign=5d85990ec1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_29_04_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c6ebd538ff-5d85990ec1-403863798This YouTube video is a Ted Talk by Hans and Ola Rosling, “How Not to be Ignorant About the World,” that lets us know how little we actually know about the world, and how intuition and the negativity bias often works against us. It also gives us some hope for the future, as well as some tips about how to be “smarter than chimps.” https://youtu.be/Sm5xF-UYgdgI don’t have a link to the paper by Dunning and Kruger, but here’s the citation: @article{Kruger1999UnskilledAU, title={Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.},author={Justin Kruger and David Dunning}, journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},year={1999}, volume={77 6}, pages={1121-34}}Here's the You Are Not So Smart website. David McRaney also wrote a book and hosts a podcast with the same name. I highly recommend those as well: https://youarenotsosmart.com/Here are the two Forbes articles about reducing cognitive bias: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/04/17/cognitive-bias-human-brains-are-only-human/#23a21d0777behttps://www.forbes.com/sites/hecparis/2019/10/08/new-evidence-reveals-training-can-reduce-cognitive-bias--and-improve-de

Send us a textTrailer for "Think It Through: the Clearer Thinking Podcast."