You Are Not So Smart

Our guest in this episode is the behavioral scientist Jon Levy who wrote a book titled You’re Invited, the Art and Science of Cultivating influence. The book details how Jon was able to convince groups of Nobel Laureates, Olympians, celebrities, Fortune 500 executives, and even a princess to not only give him advice, but cook him dinner, wash his dishes, sweep his floors, and then thank him for the experience.  How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Contest: https://sites.prh.com/hmc-giveaway  Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com  Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com Jon Levy's Website: https://www.jonlevytlb.com  Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

In this episode we sit down with Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker, and professional poker player whose new book, Chess Queens, is the true story of the greatest female players of all time interwoven with her own experiences as a chess champion. How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Contest: https://sites.prh.com/hmc-giveaway  Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com  Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com Jennifer Shahade’s Website: https://jennifershahade.com  Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

New research suggests people on opposite sides of wedge issues want to listen to each other. We are each eager to hear differing opinions and understand opposing views, and when we do it can change our minds (at least a little), but only when we aren't triggered by the psychological phenomenon of reactance - one of several ideas we explore in this episode. How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Newsletter: https://davidmcraney.substack.com/subscribe Show Notes: www.youarenotsosmart.com  Michèle Belot on Twitter: http://twitter.com/belotmichele Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

In this episode I read an excerpt from my new book How Minds Change, a portion concerning how to change minds about abortion rights, and Chris Clearfield interviews me about that very same book - which is out now and available everywhere. Link to learn more about How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome  Link to learn more about Deep Canvassing: www.newconvo.org  Link to my new newsletter: davidmcraney.substack.com/subscribe Link to Chris Clearfield’s handout: www.chrisclearfield.com/change    Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

Terry Crews, actor, athlete, artist, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, host of America’s Got Talent - that Terry Crews joins us to discuss his new book, Tough. In the book, Terry shares the raw story of his quest to find the true meaning of toughness and in so doing fundamentally change his concept of himself by uprooting a deeply ingrained toxic masculinity and finally confronting his insecurities, painful memories, and limiting beliefs.Previous EpisodesTerry Crews WebsiteTerry Crews TwitterToughAlfie Kohn’s Punished by RewardsKitted ShopThe Story of KittedHow Minds ChangeDavid McRaney’s TwitterYANSS TwitterShow NotesNewsletterPatreon 

Link to preorder How Minds Change and get your preorder bonuses: https://www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Deliberation. Debate. Conversation. Though it can feel like that’s what we are doing online as we trade arguments back and forth, most of the places where we currently gather make it much easier to produce arguments in isolation rather than evaluate them together in groups. The latest research suggests we will need much more of the latter if we hope to create a new, modern, functioning marketplace of ideas. In this episode, psychologist Tom Stafford takes us through his research into how to do just that.Show notes at: http://www.youarenotsosmart.comPatreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

Link to preorder How Minds Change: www.davidmcraney.com/howmindschangehome Our guest in this episode is A.J. Jacobs, the the four-time New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically, Thanks A Thousand, It’s All Relative, and The Know It All. His new book, The Puzzler, is a fun, weird, refreshingly scientific book all about the human brain's fascination with puzzles. Seriously, there’s all sorts of explorations in the book about neural pathways, behavioral routines, how we learn, what gets us into loops, and - this is true - a few attempts to solve the puzzle of our very existence.Show Notes at: www.youarenotsosmart.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/youarenotsosmart Twitter: www.twitter.com/notsmartblog Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

How to manage procrastination according to Margaret Atwood, how to work around your first-instinct fallacy, the upsides of imposter syndrome, the best way to avoid falling prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect, how to avoid thinking like a preacher, prosecutor, or politician so you can think like a scientist instead – and that’s just the beginning of the conversation in this episode with psychologist, podcast host, and author Adam Grant.In the show, we discuss both his new book – Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know – and his TED Original Podcast, WorkLife, in which he interviewed Margaret Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, to learn how she deals with the constant allure of social media and streaming videos in a future where giving in to procrastination is easier than it has ever been. In the show, you’ll hear portions of that interview followed by a lengthy interview with Grant about his new book in this all-over-the-place, extensive exploration of how to rethink your own thinking.Link to get a free ticket to the online event we call The Conversation Lab: https://www.mishaglouberman.com/convolab-may3Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

In this episode, we sit down with neurologist Robert Burton, author of On Being Certain, a book that fundamentally changed the way I think about what a belief actually is. That’s because the book posits conclusions are not conscious choices, and certainty is not even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of “knowing,” as he puts it, are "sensations that feel like thoughts, but arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that function independently of reason."Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart

Feeling stuck? Can't build momentum to escape all the loops keeping you from moving forward? Our guest in this episode is professor, author, therapist, and speaker Britt Frank, a trauma specialist who treats people with a unique and powerful set of techniques and approaches which, taken together, helps clients to get out of the feeling of being STUCK. In the show, we nerd out with Britt about how hard it is to be a person, and though this interview is supposed to be about her new book - "The Science of Stuck, Breaking Through Inertia to Find your Path Forward - at least of half of this interview turned out to be was wide-ranging conversation chasing down many nested tangents about everything from procrastination to somatic markers to trauma to the multitudes of the self and more. Patreon: http://patreon.com/youarenotsosmart