Rebecca Baumgartner recently drew attention to the habit of many authors of popular nonfiction to write for an “audience of imagined idiots.” The folk wisdom these days is that regular folks just don’t like to think and that the only way to get them to do serious intellectual work is to lure them with charming anecdotes and digestible little nuggets. Think TED talks. Is this true? We’re not convinced. Tune in as we talk about the distinction between simplicity and oversimplification.
