Shows
Podcast#107: How a really good travel writer approaches her experiences abroad—and at home (feat. Erika Fatland)The Person and the Situation is a book by social psychologists Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett, originally published in 1991. The argument made by Ross and Nisbett was that context matters. Human beings don’t behave in a vacuum, unaffected by the circumstances of society, history, and culture. The job of the social psychologist is to understand both the person and the situation. Without a proper appreciation of the larger context, it’s impossible to know what to make of any given observation about human behavior.But a limitation of the project set out by Ross and Nisbett is t...2023-04-251h 00
Podcast#106: Rituals matter more than you think (feat. Dimitris Xygalatas)Denis Dutton was a philosopher of art and media. He was born in the US but moved to New Zealand when he was 40, where he became interested in Oceanic Art. This interest led him to spend time in the village of Yentchenmangua on Papua New Guinea. Over the course of his ethnographic work, he began to get to know the locals.One day, Dutton noticed that his friends in the village seemed down. He asked why. They explained that the tourist numbers had dropped, and they were trying to figure out ways to get more people to...2023-04-1854 min
Podcast#105: What can psychology tell us about meaning? (feat. Paul Bloom)Recently, I’ve been workshopping an idea. Basically, I don’t believe there is such thing as an activity that is intrinsically meaningful.Sure, there are activities which people consistently endorse as meaningful pursuits: having kids, productive careers, learning a language, that sort of thing. And while there is an empirical fact about what sort of activities members of our culture consider meaningful, this is not because these activities are meaningful in some fundamental way. Rather, what this empirical fact captures is that there is a limited set of readily available cultural stories about where meaning comes from...2023-03-021h 26
Podcast#104: Palentine's Day (feat. Robin Dunbar)We pay a lot of attention to our romantic relationships. Whether it’s selecting a mate or maintaining one’s relationship with them. Apps make millions of dollars promising to streamline this process. Hundreds of books are published every year telling us how to do it better. And don’t get me wrong: long-term romantic partnerships are hard, no doubt. But that difficulty is not lost on us. Multiple industries are designed around giving us tools to help overcome it. It’s something we spend a lot of effort on trying to do better.But what about friendsh...2023-02-141h 19
Podcast#103: Tired, scared, and busy: why can't we all just get along? (feat. Mónica Guzmán)One of the central themes of this show is the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves. But in focusing on the egocentric stakes of storytelling, one of the things we overlook—I certainly do—is the importance of the stories we tell about others.We make sense of life in the terms of our own experience. We conceptualize the world in a way that corresponds to what we’ve seen and what we understand. This allows us to tell our own story in a pretty nuanced way. But it limits us in the kind of storie...2023-01-311h 21
Podcast#101: Finding meaning in the maybe (feat. John Kaag)For many of us, life is a process of minimizing uncertainty. We spend our days trying to eliminate uncertainty from our lives. Find the right career path, the right partner, buy a house, or at least find a sense of long-term settledness. Raise a family and put our kids on track to get into the right college, so they can start the process over again finding the right career, the right partner, and so on. The implicit idea in this is that there’s a point in life where we reach quiescence, where all the big problems are figured ou...2023-01-171h 18
Podcast#100: I interviewed 90+ scientists about their career. These are the 12 biggest lessons I learned.The month before I began my PhD, in October 2019, I sat down with an idea. The concept was to reach out to people I admired—mostly academics and authors—and ask them about the decisions they made when they were in my position. What did they do when they were grad students that set them up for success later on? Sure, I wanted to know about their success, in some sort of career-prestige sense. But I also wanted to understand how they thought about what it means to make a substantive contribution to their field, whatever that may have look...2023-01-101h 04
Podcast#99: There's a Reason You Can't Make Yourself Act like Everyone Else: You're Unique (feat. Chantel Prat)For many of us, there are moments of realization we’ve had where we can’t look at our lives, or what we do in them, the same way ever again. I’ve had many. As a cognitive scientist, one of those moments came from the realization that cognitive science—and psychology, and neuroscience—don’t tell us anything about individual human lives. They tell us about humans on average. The problem is that no one lives a life on average; they live a specific one.We often hear about studies making claims like this is how people misju...2023-01-031h 02
Podcast#98: A Cognitive Scientist Tries to Convince Me the Mind is Flat; I Don't Think He Succeeds (feat. Nick Chater)My guest today is Nick Chater, a Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. Nick is an influential cognitive scientist with a wide-range of interests, which these days often tend toward public policy. But in 2018, he published a book, trying to draw some culminating insights from the disparate pieces of his own work in cognitive science as well as the field more broadly. He came to the conclusion that we have dramatically misunderstood important aspects about what the overall picture of the mind looks like. He called the book The Mind Is Flat.And by ‘we’ Nick...2022-12-271h 11
Podcast#97: Is the Biggest Fish in the Pond Happy? (feat. W. David Marx)One of my favorite psychology papers of all time is called “Telling More than We Can Know” by Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson. The argument of the paper is that humans don’t actually know why they do what they do. But they’re more than happy to give you an explanation nonetheless.This the reason why we need a science of human behavior. If we could all just intuit the correct answers automatically, there’d be no need for researchers to figure them out. This provides a kind of template for how psychological research works: I got the hu...2022-12-201h 20
PodcastCan Productivity Be Turned On Like a Faucet?Two competing theories of inspiration: the 9am-ers and the lions. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com/subscribe2022-12-1616 min
Podcast#96: How Words Get Their Meaning (feat. Gary Lupyan)Language—who can use it, and how well—has been in the news recently. If you haven’t heard, a recent AI language model was released for public use. It’s a chatbot from the company OpenAI called ChatGPT. And its capabilities are, to use a technical term, astounding. It can draft essays at an advanced undergraduate level on just about any topic. It can write a scene for a movie script along any premise you specify. It can plan a set of meals for you this week, provide the recipes, compile a shopping list, and tell you how...2022-12-131h 23
Podcast#95: The Value Landscape of Games—and How Companies Exploit It (feat. Adrian Hon)Right now, over the course of the next couple weeks, somewhere in the neighborhood of one billion people will tune in to the same event. This event is not a geopolitical one. Governmental regimes will not be decided based on its outcome. It is not an economic one. The winner will be financially compensated, but not in any way that will meaningfully affect the people of that country. National boundaries will not be redrawn as a result of this conflict. Ultimately, it comes down to twenty-two men, a ball, and who can put it put it in...2022-12-0657 min
PodcastIntroducing: Meaning LabIn a way, coming to the end of one’s PhD almost feels inappropriate. The pursuit of this degree gives a kind of structure to adult life—my life, anyway—as something on the horizon to aim for but never actually reach. I’ve always known that getting this degree is not the final goal, just one milestone of many. But nevertheless finishing it doesn’t feel like something I’m supposed to do. It is, for me, an unprecedented situation.But nonetheless here we are. Last month, I defended my dissertation. And so now I’m in the s...2022-12-0207 min
Podcast#91: How Technology Shapes Our Tastes — in Music and More (feat. Nick Seaver)Earlier this week, my colleague Adam Mastroianni published an essay on what he called "cultural oligopoly." An increasingly smaller number of artists create an increasingly larger percentage of what we watch, read, and listen to. Mastroianni presents data showing that through the year 2000 only about twenty-five percent of a single year's highest grossing movies were spinoffs, franchises, or sequels. Now it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 75%. He has similar data for hit TV shows, books, and music. Why is this happening?My guest today is Nick Seaver, who is a cultural anthropologist at Tufts University. And for...2022-10-181h 03
Podcast#94: Anxiety and the Hard Work of Being Human (feat. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary)Anxiety. It is the only emotion my body believes is truly necessary for me to experience at three o’clock in the morning. To be sure I’d rather be sleeping. Usually how I respond to this experience is by listening to audiobooks or podcasts until I fall back asleep. I may get through more audiobooks that way, but it’s hard for me to look at that and imagine anxiety as anything other than a burden. I’ve recently been rethinking that relationship with anxiety.And in particular, one book has helped me start to change some of...2022-08-021h 17
Podcast#93: Debate is a Battle of Beliefs — But Does It Have The Power To Change Them? (feat. Bo Seo)My episode last week featured a conversation with author David McCraney about what it takes to change someone’s mind on a big, important topic like religion, or abortion, or guns. And the overriding conclusion of McRaney’s research on the topic was that facts alone don’t change minds. From emotions and feelings to social dynamics, beliefs are embedded in a complex web of factors that rationality alone can do little to unwind. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try. My guest this week is a two time world champion of debate. He’s coached deba...2022-07-261h 11
Podcast#92: People Don't Often Change Their Minds on Big Topics. Why? (feat. David McRaney)I often say that the second best thing to happen to me was deciding to become a Christian. And the first best thing was deciding not to be a Christian. I didn’t exactly grow up Christian, but I became a believer around age 12. I went to Christian school. Overall I took my religious beliefs really seriously. And to me, they felt like my own. A core part of my identity as a Christian was that I was explicit about my beliefs. I didn’t inherit them from my parents, nor did they feel like I was requ...2022-07-191h 19
Podcast#90: Stephen Kosslyn on How We Conceptualize the WorldThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Stephen Kosslyn is a foundational figure in the field of cognitive science. It is only fitting that he is the final guest in my Cognitive Revolution interview series, before I transition into a new line of content which I’m calling “Against Habit.” I remember in my introduction to my introduction to cognitive science course—which helped set me o...2022-04-261h 06
Podcast#89: Tom Griffiths on Formalizing the MindThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Tom Griffiths is Professor Psychology and Computation Science at Princeton University, where he directs the Computational Cognitive Science Lab. Tom uses algorithms from AI to inform his work as a psychologist—testing the ways in which hims align with or deviate from the standards set by the AI models. He’s a central figure in this field, and...2022-04-251h 37
Podcast#88: Leyla Isik on Combining the Rigorous with the RealisticThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Leyla Isik is Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University. She did her PhD at MIT with Nancy Kanwisher and Tommy Poggio. Leyla’s research uses state-of-the-art techniques in neuroimaging and computational modeling to study how people interpret real scenes. For instance, her studies have scanned the people of participants as they wa...2022-04-2044 min
Podcast#87: Antonio Damasio on When Self Comes to MindThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Antonio Damasio is an eminent neuroscientist and author. Damasio is originally from Portugal. He is the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, as well as Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at USC. His books include Descartes’ Error and Self Comes to Mind. His latest book is Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. In this conversation, we...2022-04-1255 min
Podcast#86: Tom Pettigrew on How Experience Shapes BeliefThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Tom Pettigrew is professor emeritus in the psychology department at UC Santa Cruz. He is best known as the main proponent of one of social psychology’s most prominent ideas: intergroup contact theory. In this episode, we talk about how Tom was expelled from Jr High school for standing up to a racist teacher, the formative experiences th...2022-04-041h 08
Podcast#85: Alan Fiske on Why It's Hard to Understand HumansThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.This week’s guest is Alan Fiske. Alan is a professor of anthropology at UCLA, who is known for his unique brand of mixing approaches from psychology and anthropology. He is the brother of Susan Fiske, a famous social psychologist and one of my first guests on this show. In this episode, we talk about growing up in...2022-03-081h 05
Podcast#84: Elizabeth Loftus on the Societal Implications of PsychologyThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.My guest this week is Elizabeth Loftus. She is generally considered to be the most highly cited female psychologist of all time. She is also a controversial figure within the field. Her research has looked at the unreliability of eye witness metaphor and the nature of false memories. She’s used this compelling line of research to te...2022-03-011h 04
Podcast#83: George Lakoff on a Life Lived by MetaphorThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.This week’s guest is George Lakoff. George is one of the most highly cited cognitive scientists of all time, with his book Metaphors We Live By (co-authored with Mark Johnson) having been referenced in over 75,000 other scientific papers. George is best known for his work on how metaphor provides the structure of cognition, generally known as th...2022-02-221h 10
Podcast#82: Annie Murphy Paul on Where the Mind Ends and the World BeginsThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.My guest today is Annie Murphy Paul. Annie is a science journalist, and she has a new book out. It’s getting a lot of press. She’s made the rounds on all the Big Idea podcasts. I listened to a bunch of them in prep for this episode. Three of my favorites were her talks with Adam...2022-02-151h 10
Podcast#81: Kevin Birmingham on Where Great Books Come FromThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.This is a conversation I’ve been wanting to have for a long time. I met Kevin several years ago, and it was a big moment for me. This was the first time I’d ever met a real author. Of course I said something foolish. Of course he has no recollection of such foolish statements. I’m a hu...2022-02-081h 03
Podcast#80: Sam Gershman on the Structure of Cognitive RevolutionsThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.My guest today is someone very special. I worked in his lab for two years, and he did a lot to form my relationship with cognitive science. It started back when I was an undergrad, and I went to the Cognitive Science Society conference in Berlin. There was this professor there, and I was totally arrested by...2022-02-011h 15
Podcast#79.5: Randy Gallistel on Upsetting Neuroscientists (The Story)This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.This is the second part of my conversation with Randy Gallistel. In the first part, we talk about his ideas around why the neuroscience of memory is completely inadequate to the task of understanding… memory. In this episode, we get into the backstory on those ideas, as well as Randy’s major influences. We talk about the infl...2022-01-2741 min
Podcast#79: Randy Gallistel on Upsetting Neuroscientists (The Theory)This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Randy Gallistel has made a career (at least partly) out of making the neuroscientific community angry. He’s made broad, sweeping claims that cut to the core of the neuroscience of learning and memory. The problem with his claims is not that they’re broad and sweeping. The problem is that they might be right. In particular, he’s...2022-01-2543 min
Podcast#78: Philip Johnson-Laird on How Cognitive Scientists ImproviseThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Philip Johnson-Laird is professor emeritus at Princeton University. He is one of the most influential cognitive scientists of all time, best known for developing the idea of “mental models.” Though if you really want to get a sense of how eminent he is, you have to look no further than his email address. You can find him at P...2022-01-181h 17
Podcast#77: Brian Christian on AI as a Human Problem, Part 2This is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.I am excited to introduce my first return guest on the show, Brian Christian. I knew from the very first time we talked that I wanted to do a part two with him. This wasn’t through any great feat of perspicacity. It was primarily because we didn’t even get the opportunity to talk about his late...2022-01-111h 04
Podcast#76: Charles King on Taking the Outsider PerspectiveThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.I first learned of Charles' work when I saw a notice for his most recent book—Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century. I saw this, and I was like: a general audience book about the history of anthropology—sign me up! I preordered it s...2021-12-211h 14
Podcast#75: Susanna L. Harris on Building Community through CommunicationI've been a fan of Susanna for a long time following her on her social media. She's one of my favorite personalities in science communication, and it's been impressive and inspiring to watch her grow her platform over the last few years. She just recently graduated with her PhD in microbiology from University of North Carolina. During her time in grad school, she founded PhD Balance, which seeks to raise awareness about the prevalence of mental health issues in graduate school by sharing stories and building communities. She is currently manager of engagement and communications at Xontogeny, which is a...2021-12-141h 03
Podcast#74: Nicole Barbaro on Judging a Book by its CoverI've been following Nicole's work for a long time, and I'm a big fan. She's developed a platform for her writing as well as a presence on social media. It's been cool to watch her do it. Nicole has a PhD from Oakland University in psychology with a specialization in evolution and human development. Most of her recent work focuses that expertise on the area of education. She's also a prolific reader. It's something she takes seriously as a part of her identity, and she wears it really well. I've been following her book reviews for a long time in...2021-11-3059 min
Podcast#73: Tara Thiagarajan on Brains—All 7 Billion of ThemThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Tara Thiagarajan is the Founder and Chief Scientist of Sapien Labs. Based in Washington, DC, Sapien Labs is a non-profit organization whose mission is to take brain diversity seriously. Most research in psychology and neuroscience treats the brain as a kind of monolithic entity, as if every brain were the same. But we know that's not true...2021-11-2333 min
Podcast#72: Andy Luttrell on Consistent QualityThis is Cognitive Revolution, my show about the personal side of the intellectual journey. Each week, I interview an eminent scientist, writer, or academic about the experiences that shaped their ideas. The show is available wherever you listen to podcasts.Andy Luttrell is the kingpin of a content empire. His work spans from podcasts (Opinion Science) to YouTube (catchy summaries of key psych topics) to online courses (which have been taken tens of thousands of times on platforms such as Udemy) to all sorts of other stuff. He is also—and I suppose this is technically his da...2021-11-161h 12
Podcast#71: David Edmonds on Turning Philosophy into a CareerDavid Edmonds did his degrees in philosophy. Then he did something unexpected. He made money. I don't know how much. But, as far as I can tell, enough to reasonably call what has had so far a "career." He was a long-time broadcaster doing features at the BBC World Service. He also hosts and produces a number of popular podcasts, including Philosophy Bites, Philosophy 24/7, and (my personal favorite) Social Science Bites. He's also written a number of books—most notably Wittgenstein's Poker, which builds on his expertise in philosophy. I admire Dave's work because he's been able to find ways to...2021-11-091h 02
Podcast#70: Salma Mousa on Investing in Big ProjectsSalma Mousa is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale. She recently took that position after a post-doc in Stanford's Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, and the Immigration Policy Lab. She is a rising star in the field of political science and has published some of the field's highest profile papers in recent years. Her work centers around questions of how people build social cohesion after conflict. What drew me to her work is that it addresses some of our most significant social questions—about how reduce prejudice and violence, about how to make a society th...2021-10-2657 min
Podcast#69: Coltan Scrivner on First-Gen to FameColtan Scrivner: you may not know the name, but you will. Coltan is a first-gen college student, and one of the most impressive PhD students I've come across. His family is from Slaughterville, Oklahoma, and did his undergrad and masters in Oklahoma before beginning his PhD at the University of Chicago's Department of Comparative Human Development. He's carved out for himself a fascinating area of specialization: morbid curiosity. It's really cool to see him conceive of an academic niche and to position himself as the unequivocal world expert. He's under contract for Penguin Random House to write a trade book...2021-10-1957 min
Podcast#68: Alexandra Chesterfield on Being a Conservative in a Liberal EnvironmentAlexandra Chesterfield is co-author of the book Poles Apart: Why People Turn Against Each Other, and How to Bring Them Together. It's a look at political polarization in our society, how we've gotten to this point, and what we can do about it. Jonathan Haidt called it "A fascinating read, which will help anyone who wants to step out of the polarization cycle and become part of the solution." Alex has a masters degree in Cognitive and Decision Science, and she's been using that background to apply insights from behavioral science in real world settings. She was also an elected...2021-10-1252 min
Podcast#67: Rebecca Saxe on the Beauty of the MindI have been a big fan of Rebecca and her work for a long time. She is the John W. Jarve (1978) Professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She is a co-author on a handful of my all-time favorite papers in my own area of research interest, called "theory of mind" — the process by which we come to understand the minds of others. There's so much that I enjoyed about this conversation, but the overall theme that stands out to me has to do with the pure joy Rebecca takes (and, by extension, spreads) in her appreciation of the mi...2021-10-0556 min
Podcast#66: Gordon Allport, the 20th Century's PsychologistGordon Allport was one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century. He was the progenitor of the modern forms of both social and personality psychology. His 1954 book, The Nature of Prejudice, is one of the most cited works in the whole field. He also happens to be one of my favorite thinkers of all time.Allport's core drive as a psychologist was to leverage experimental rigor in service of broad humanistic understanding. He wanted reliable experiments that gave legitimate results. But he also wanted those results to tell us something profound about what it means to...2021-09-281h 08
Podcast#65: Elizabeth Ricker on Personalizing Your Creative ProcessI really enjoyed this conversation with Elizabeth Ricker; it was one of those conversations where I felt as though I'd found a kindred spirit, someone who goes about life in approximately the same way as myself. Elizabeth did her undergraduate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and her master's in Mind, Brain, and Education at Harvard. She is a creature of enthusiasm: she is driven by what strikes her as interesting, and she has no time for anything that doesn't. This made for a fun conversation. We covered a lot of ground: moving through her own story to uncover...2021-09-211h 21
Podcast#64: Azeem Azhar on the Exponential AgeAzeem Azhar is a technologist and investor with a background in technology journalism. His newsletter, Exponential View, is enjoyed by ~200,000 readers per week. The occasion for our discussion was Azeem's new book: The Exponential Age; or in the UK: Exponential. It is about the discrepancy between the rate of technology's change—which is exponential—and the rate of change in the rest of society, in our cultural practices, and in the way we think (which is slower). This is the exponential gap, and it is where many of our society's most pressing problems lay. In this episode, Azeem and I talk...2021-09-141h 05
Podcast#63: Jay Van Bavel on the Power of UsJay Van Bavel is the closest thing social psychology has to a rock star. His official title is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University, and both he and his work are much beloved by young psychologists everywhere. His lab studies intergroup neuroscience, and I've found much of his research incredibly inspiring throughout the years. He's popular on Twitter, where you can follow him @JayVanBavel. In an effort to bless the world with more stellar social psychological content, Jay has published a book. It is called THE POWER OF US, and it's officially available for the...2021-09-0755 min
Podcast#62: Edward Slingerland on How to Drink WellTed Slingerland is a professor at the University of British Columbia, where his interests and affiliations include East Asian studies, psychology, philosophy, and religious history. He is also unconscionably good looking. His latest book is "Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization." It's a fun take on the functional role alcohol and other intoxicants played in the development of human society. In this conversation we talk about Ted's experience dropping out of Princeton to move to California, discovering Chinese philosophy, choosing the humanities over the sciences, being a scholar of China who isn't especially fond of...2021-06-081h 06
Podcast#61: Scott Atran on the Risks We're Willing to TakeWow. Scott Atran. What a guy. What a career. I'd be willing to bet that Scott has had the highest density of near-death encounters during his research than anyone else in the history of the social sciences. He details a number of them over the course of this conversation. He holds various academic appointments in Paris, Michigan, and Oxford. Scott is also author of a book called "Talking to the Enemy" which gives insights in his field work getting people from different religious and political factions to resolve their conflicts peacefully rather than with violence. He's full of amazing stories...2021-06-011h 38
Podcast#60: Wade Davis on Becoming an Entrepreneur of KnowledgeWade Davis makes his living being interesting. He is a cultural anthropologist and ethnobotanist by trade, and holds a position as the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. In August 2020, he wrote an essay that became the most viral piece ever published on Rolling Stone's website (link below). He was first put on the map by his 1986 book on Haitian zombies, "The Serpent and the Rainbow." From there he's developed an incredible career as an author, TV host, and photographer. He's made an inspiring non-traditional path for himself, following what's of...2021-05-2558 min
Podcast#59: Christopher Bail on How Social Media Shapes Our IdentityChris Bail is a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke and directs the Polarization Lab. He's done a lot of great research in the last half decade or so on how social media affects political polarization in our society. He's written a great book summarizing this research, called Breaking the Social Media Prism. It's out now, and it's a crucial read for understanding one of the defining topics of our age. In this conversation, Chris and I talk about Chris's experience moving to the Congo as a kid, figuring out how best to make an impact, the role...2021-05-181h 04
Podcast#58: Jeff Hawkins on Tackling the Big ProblemsJeff Hawkins is one of my favorite neuroscientists ever. He does the kind of big, ambitious projects I love to see people going after. The driving question of his research is no less than "How does the neocortex work?" He wants to solve intelligence, and he wants to do it the way the brain does. Jeff is an innovative in mobile computing and is widely known as the founder of Palm and the creator of the Palm Pilot. He saw the big picture in that space before anyone else did, and the smart money says that the same goes for...2021-05-111h 25
Podcast#57: Nancy Kanwisher on Finding Your NicheNancy Kanwisher is a much beloved cognitive neuroscientist at MIT. She has published some of the most influential papers in her field (for example, the discovery of the Fusiform Face Area). And it often seems that most other influential findings in cognitive neuroscience which were not made directly by Nancy herself were made by one of her students. In this episode, we talk about Nancy's experiences growing up with a love of science, struggling to get traction in graduate school, deciding between science and journalism, the early days of fMRI, and her approaches to mentorship. She is a brilliant scientist...2021-05-041h 08
Podcast#56: Louis Menand on How to Write about EverythingLouis Menand is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. He has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1995. He is also my favorite non-fiction writer. His latest book, The Free World, is perfect. His book, The Metaphysical Club, won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for history. They are two of the greatest things I've ever read. In 2016, he won the National Humanities Medal. What else is there to say? Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or...2021-04-271h 16
Podcast#55: Brian Christian on AI as a Human Problem, Part 1Brian Christian probably has a better handle of the human aspects of artificial intelligence than any other writer today. He recently published The Alignment Problem, his third book on this theme. His first was The Most Human Human, an exploration of what AI can tell us about what makes us human, and his second was Algorithms to Live By (co-authored with cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths), an exploration of what AI can tell us about how to be better humans. Brian's latest installment explores how humans can make better AI. That is, better not in the algorithmic sense, but in the...2021-04-201h 21
Podcast#54: Pedro Domingos on Making the Textbook SmallerI first became familiar with Pedro's work through his 2015 book, The Master Algorithm. But as it turns out, his existence extends prior to my familiarity with him—which is what the bulk of what we explore in this conversation. Pedro is a professor at the University of Washington and a venerable AI researcher. He has a great quote about how as fields grow, their textbooks become larger. Then, as they mature, the textbooks become smaller again. I don't know if that's true. But it's a nice line, coming from a guy who wrote a book about getting AI down to a...2021-04-1354 min
Podcast#53: Liz Neeley on the Foundations of Good StoriesLiz is a world-renown science communicator. She is founder and CEO of Liminal, a very exciting project which we get into in this conversation. We also talk about Liz's experience leaving graduate school to pursue a non-academic path, choosing uncertainty over the linear path, what it means to tell good stories about science, creating new webs of meanings throughout life, and the business model of storytelling. Enjoy! Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.co...2021-04-0655 min
Podcast#52: Benjamin Moser on the Performance of Everyday LifeBen Moser is the pulitzer prize winning author of the recent biography of Susan Sontag, innovatively entitled "Sontag." This is one of the most fun and wide ranging conversation I'd had on the show. I stewed over whether or not to release the whole two hour conversation. But I loved how so many of the themes that we began early in the conversation—which sounded inconsequential in the moment—came full circle later on. If you want to skip straight to Ben's story, the meat of that begins the around the 30 minute mark. If, instead, you're interested in the full scop...2021-03-302h 12Cognitive Revolution#52: Benjamin Moser on the Performance of Everyday LifeBen Moser is the pulitzer prize winning author of the recent biography of Susan Sontag, innovatively entitled "Sontag." This is one of the most fun and wide ranging conversation I'd had on the show. I stewed over whether or not to release the whole two hour conversation. But I loved how so many of the themes that we began early in the conversation—which sounded inconsequential in the moment—came full circle later on. If you want to skip straight to Ben's story, the meat of that begins the around the 30 minute mark. If, instead, you're interested in the full scop...2021-03-302h 12
Podcast#51: Damon Centola on How Anomalies Drive Scientific ProgressDamon Centola is a professor in the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. His latest book is Change: How to Make Big Things Happen. In this episode we talk about Damon's childhood growing up in an intentional community, the influence of his undergraduate curriculum in classics, how Heidegger changed his life, transitioning from philosophy and sociology, getting into network science at the...2021-03-2354 min
Podcast#49: Joseph Henrich on What History Can Tell Us About PsychologyJoseph Henrich is Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the co-author of one of the most influential social science papers of the previous decade. That paper described "WEIRD" people—those who are from a Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic culture—and how overgeneralization based on WEIRD samples has skewed social science research. He recently published a book expanding on this idea and shedding further light on why WEIRD psychology is so peculiar, called "The WEIRDest People in the World." In this conversation, we talk about where these ideas came from, who real...2021-03-091h 00Cognitive Revolution#49: Joseph Henrich on What History Can Tell Us About PsychologyJoseph Henrich is Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the co-author of one of the most influential social science papers of the previous decade. That paper described "WEIRD" people—those who are from a Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic culture—and how overgeneralization based on WEIRD samples has skewed social science research. He recently published a book expanding on this idea and shedding further light on why WEIRD psychology is so peculiar, called "The WEIRDest People in the World." In this conversation, we talk about where these ideas came from, who real...2021-03-091h 00
Podcast#44: Anil Seth on Interdisciplinarity in PracticeAnil Seth is a Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where he is also Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. His TED talk has over 10 million views, and he's been featured on many big-name podcasts such as Making Sense with Sam Harris and BBC's Life Scientific. Anil comes to the study of consciousness with the perspective of physics and the natural sciences. In this episode, we talk about his personal experiences, the influence of one-of-a-kind thinkers like Oliver Sacks and Gerald Edelman, and how to bring together perspectives from many disciplines to solve...2021-02-021h 00Cognitive Revolution#44: Anil Seth on Interdisciplinarity in PracticeAnil Seth is a Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where he is also Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. His TED talk has over 10 million views, and he's been featured on many big-name podcasts such as Making Sense with Sam Harris and BBC's Life Scientific. Anil comes to the study of consciousness with the perspective of physics and the natural sciences. In this episode, we talk about his personal experiences, the influence of one-of-a-kind thinkers like Oliver Sacks and Gerald Edelman, and how to bring together perspectives from many disciplines to solve...2021-02-021h 00
BJKS Podcast4. Cody Kommers: Podcasting as a PhD student, intuitive anthropology, and finding a good problemCody Kommers is a PhD student in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, focussing on social cognition. He also writes popular science and hosts two podcasts: Cognitive Revolution and Notes From The Field.In this conversation, we talk about a variety of topics, including how to start a podcast, how to run a podcast while doing a PhD, Cody's new travel-podcast, his preprint on intuitive anthropology, and the problem of finding a good problem.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations...2020-11-132h 27
Cognitive RevolutionIntroduction: "Dear Haily"Welcome to Season 1 of Notes from the Field with Cody Kommers.Full transcript at: https://www.codykommers.com/notes-from-the-field This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com2020-08-2706 min
Cognitive Revolution#24: Michael Inzlicht on the Optimal Number of Beers per PsychologistMickey Inzlicht wanted to be a dentist when he grew up. But unfortunately he only made it as far as Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, with a joint appointment in the Rotman School of Management. He represents one psychologist and two beers worth of the Two Psychologists Four Beers podcast. He's someone who I look up to a whole lot, and there's a lot about what he's been able to do in his career that I'd like to be able to do in my own: successful podcast, professor in social neuroscience (similar topic to...2020-05-051h 14Podcast#24: Michael Inzlicht on the Optimal Number of Beers per PsychologistMickey Inzlicht wanted to be a dentist when he grew up. But unfortunately he only made it as far as Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, with a joint appointment in the Rotman School of Management. He represents one psychologist and two beers worth of the Two Psychologists Four Beers podcast. He's someone who I look up to a whole lot, and there's a lot about what he's been able to do in his career that I'd like to be able to do in my own: successful podcast, professor in social neuroscience (similar topic to...2020-05-051h 14
Cognitive Revolution#22: Rob Henderson on the Search for StabilityRob is a Gates scholar at Cambridge, doing his PhD in Psychology. He's written for such venerable outlets as the New York Times and Quillette. As you'll hear, he served in the Air Force and grew up in the foster system. He brings a different perspective than the usual one to the academic realm. Rob are exactly what we need in the academic world: people who have a different set of life experiences than the median one who are intelligent and thoughtful and trying to reconcile the empirical findings of psychological science with their own experiential portion of the world...2020-04-2147 minPodcast#22: Rob Henderson on the Search for StabilityRob is a Gates scholar at Cambridge, doing his PhD in Psychology. He's written for such venerable outlets as the New York Times and Quillette. As you'll hear, he served in the Air Force and grew up in the foster system. He brings a different perspective than the usual one to the academic realm. Rob are exactly what we need in the academic world: people who have a different set of life experiences than the median one who are intelligent and thoughtful and trying to reconcile the empirical findings of psychological science with their own experiential portion of the world...2020-04-2147 min
Podcast#21: Olga Khazan on the Power of OutsidersOlga's family moved to America when she was four years old. They were a Jewish family from Russia. Growing up in small town Texas, let's just say that she was the only one of her classmates named Olga. She is intimately familiar with what it's like to be an outsider. In her new book, Weird, Olga studies how the ways in which we fail to fit in are often what gives us our unique advantage. She is a staff writer for the Atlantic, and this book draws on her experience as a journalist. She's spent the last five years tracking...2020-04-0751 minCognitive Revolution#21: Olga Khazan on the Power of OutsidersOlga's family moved to America when she was four years old. They were a Jewish family from Russia. Growing up in small town Texas, let's just say that she was the only one of her classmates named Olga. She is intimately familiar with what it's like to be an outsider. In her new book, Weird, Olga studies how the ways in which we fail to fit in are often what gives us our unique advantage. She is a staff writer for the Atlantic, and this book draws on her experience as a journalist. She's spent the last five years tracking...2020-04-0751 min
Cognitive Revolution#13: David Pizarro on How to Find CollaboratorsDavid Pizarro is an associate professor in the department of psychology at Cornell. He is also chief science officer at BEworks and cohost of the venerable psychology/philosophy podcast Very Bad Wizards. In this episode, Cody and David talk about learning to work with your natural strengths and weaknesses, finding collaborators who make you better, how to structure your work around laziness, learning to say no, using anger as an academic motivator, getting in early on the podcast scene, and what Cody's advisor thinks about him doing this podcast. More info available on codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at...2020-01-281h 12Podcast#13: David Pizarro on How to Find CollaboratorsDavid Pizarro is an associate professor in the department of psychology at Cornell. He is also chief science officer at BEworks and cohost of the venerable psychology/philosophy podcast Very Bad Wizards. In this episode, Cody and David talk about learning to work with your natural strengths and weaknesses, finding collaborators who make you better, how to structure your work around laziness, learning to say no, using anger as an academic motivator, getting in early on the podcast scene, and what Cody's advisor thinks about him doing this podcast. More info available on codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at...2020-01-281h 12
Cognitive Revolution#12: Dorsa Amir on Ultimate versus Proximate GoalsDorsa Amir is a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College. She took her PhD in anthropology from Yale, and has a popular Ted Talk on how the industrial revolution changed childhood. In this episode, Cody talks with Dorsa about strategic planning as a daily routine, mastering self-regulation, aiming big even when you're risk averse, ultimate goals versus proximal goals, and the most important things psychologists can learn from anthropologists. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...2020-01-211h 07Podcast#12: Dorsa Amir on Ultimate versus Proximate GoalsDorsa Amir is a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College. She took her PhD in anthropology from Yale, and has a popular Ted Talk on how the industrial revolution changed childhood. In this episode, Cody talks with Dorsa about strategic planning as a daily routine, mastering self-regulation, aiming big even when you're risk averse, ultimate goals versus proximal goals, and the most important things psychologists can learn from anthropologists. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or ge...2020-01-211h 07
Cognitive Revolution#11: Nicholas Epley on Designing a Good LifeNick Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavior Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the author of the book "Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want." In this episode, Cody talks to Nick about the value of true liberal arts education, the advantages of getting married young, learning the craft of psychology, Nick's crazy proposal to his wife (which didn't go as planned), having kids during grad school, the biggest differences between working in psych departments versus business schools, and what it means to design a good life...2020-01-141h 06Podcast#11: Nicholas Epley on Designing a Good LifeNick Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavior Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the author of the book "Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want." In this episode, Cody talks to Nick about the value of true liberal arts education, the advantages of getting married young, learning the craft of psychology, Nick's crazy proposal to his wife (which didn't go as planned), having kids during grad school, the biggest differences between working in psych departments versus business schools, and what it means to design a good life...2020-01-141h 06
Cognitive Revolution#10: David DeSteno on Being Optimally InterdisciplinaryDavid DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where he directs the Social Emotions Group. He has published many books, including "Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride." In this episode, Cody talks to David about the difference between academic and popular writing, balancing your true interests with pragmatic considerations, how to be optimally interdisciplinary, and debating core beliefs versus trying to learn from one another. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other...2020-01-0757 minPodcast#10: David DeSteno on Being Optimally InterdisciplinaryDavid DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where he directs the Social Emotions Group. He has published many books, including "Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride." In this episode, Cody talks to David about the difference between academic and popular writing, balancing your true interests with pragmatic considerations, how to be optimally interdisciplinary, and debating core beliefs versus trying to learn from one another. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other su...2020-01-0757 min
Cognitive Revolution#9: Linda B. Smith on Making the Best Local DecisionsLinda B. Smith is a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Indiana University. She is a prolific cognitive scientist, specializing in child development, who has won many of the most prestigious awards in the field -- including the Rumelhart prize and the Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award. In this episode, she talks to Cody about transfering from engineering to psychology, what it means to be truly rigorous as a psychologist, going against the grain of Chomsky, getting through personal doubts and crises, being influenced by unexpected sources, and making the best local decisions in your career. More info available...2019-12-3154 minPodcast#9: Linda B. Smith on Making the Best Local DecisionsLinda B. Smith is a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Indiana University. She is a prolific cognitive scientist, specializing in child development, who has won many of the most prestigious awards in the field -- including the Rumelhart prize and the Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award. In this episode, she talks to Cody about transfering from engineering to psychology, what it means to be truly rigorous as a psychologist, going against the grain of Chomsky, getting through personal doubts and crises, being influenced by unexpected sources, and making the best local decisions in your career. More info available...2019-12-3154 min
Cognitive Revolution#8: Cory Clark on Getting TractionCory Clark is a professor of quantitative social psychology at Durham University. She is the co-host of the Psyphilopod podcast, as well as the proud owner of the prestigious Twitter handle @ImHardCory. In this episode, Cody and Cory talk about the gateway drugs to psychology, getting traction in research, on being a modern psychologist (with a podcast), and what we still don't know about successful de-biasing. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access...2019-12-171h 11Podcast#8: Cory Clark on Getting TractionCory Clark is a professor of quantitative social psychology at Durham University. She is the co-host of the Psyphilopod podcast, as well as the proud owner of the prestigious Twitter handle @ImHardCory. In this episode, Cody and Cory talk about the gateway drugs to psychology, getting traction in research, on being a modern psychologist (with a podcast), and what we still don't know about successful de-biasing. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to...2019-12-171h 11
Cognitive Revolution#7: Bradley Voytek on Being a F**k up with PotentialBradley Voytek is a professor of cognitive science, neuroscience, and data science at UC San Diego. He is the author of Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? and was the first data scientist at Uber. In this episode, Cody talks to Brad about the neuroscience of zombies, community building, being an insanely good mentor, overcoming low grades or initial setbacks, the influence of Oliver Sacks, and Brad's CV of failures. You can follow him on Twitter @BradleyVoytek. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you...2019-12-101h 18Podcast#7: Bradley Voytek on Being a F**k up with PotentialBradley Voytek is a professor of cognitive science, neuroscience, and data science at UC San Diego. He is the author of Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? and was the first data scientist at Uber. In this episode, Cody talks to Brad about the neuroscience of zombies, community building, being an insanely good mentor, overcoming low grades or initial setbacks, the influence of Oliver Sacks, and Brad's CV of failures. You can follow him on Twitter @BradleyVoytek. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d...2019-12-101h 18
Cognitive Revolution#6: Axel Cleeremans on Getting in on the Ground FloorAxel Cleeremans is a professor of cognitive science in the Department of Psychology of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He is also a Research Director for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. In this episode, Cody talks with Axel about his decision to move to the US for his PhD and work with pioneers in artificial intelligence like Jay McClelland and Herb Simon. They also discuss significant life changes, being at the forefront of neural network research in AI, how students mold their advisor's interests, and being in on the ground floor of scientific interest in consciousness. M...2019-12-0336 minPodcast#6: Axel Cleeremans on Getting in on the Ground FloorAxel Cleeremans is a professor of cognitive science in the Department of Psychology of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He is also a Research Director for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. In this episode, Cody talks with Axel about his decision to move to the US for his PhD and work with pioneers in artificial intelligence like Jay McClelland and Herb Simon. They also discuss significant life changes, being at the forefront of neural network research in AI, how students mold their advisor's interests, and being in on the ground floor of scientific interest in consciousness. M...2019-12-0336 min
Cognitive Revolution#5: Susan Fiske on the Role of Psychology in SocietySusan Fiske is a professor of psychology at Princeton University. She is a pioneer in the field of social cognition, and co-author of the famous text Social Cognition. In this episode, Cody digs into her decades of experience as a social psychologist. They discuss the biggest single thing that psychologists can contribute to society, why conservatives tend not to become social psychologists, how Professor Fiske made her mark in a male dominated field, and the trip around the world that jump-started her research career. More info at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This...2019-11-2656 minPodcast#5: Susan Fiske on the Role of Psychology in SocietySusan Fiske is a professor of psychology at Princeton University. She is a pioneer in the field of social cognition, and co-author of the famous text Social Cognition. In this episode, Cody digs into her decades of experience as a social psychologist. They discuss the biggest single thing that psychologists can contribute to society, why conservatives tend not to become social psychologists, how Professor Fiske made her mark in a male dominated field, and the trip around the world that jump-started her research career. More info at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This...2019-11-2656 min
Cognitive Revolution#4: Scott Barry Kaufman on Planning with Precision and PurposeScott Barry Kaufman is a professor of psychology at Columbia. He is the author of several books, including Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. He is the host of the The Psychology Podcast. Most importantly, he is a caring and compassionate human being. You can find him on Twitter @sbkaufman. In this episode, Cody talks to Scott about having a tactical plan to achieve goals in the course of plotting a unique life path. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with...2019-11-1935 minPodcast#4: Scott Barry Kaufman on Planning with Precision and PurposeScott Barry Kaufman is a professor of psychology at Columbia. He is the author of several books, including Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. He is the host of the The Psychology Podcast. Most importantly, he is a caring and compassionate human being. You can find him on Twitter @sbkaufman. In this episode, Cody talks to Scott about having a tactical plan to achieve goals in the course of plotting a unique life path. More info available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with ot...2019-11-1935 min
Cognitive Revolution#3: Chantel Prat on Unexpected AdvantagesChantel Prat is a cognitive neuroscientist, author, and general-purpose badass. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, where she leads the Cognition & Cortical Dynamics Lab. In this episode, Cody talks with Chantel about the magical moments of randomness that life throws at you and how a curve ball can be just what you need to hit a home run. Keep an eye out for her forthcoming book, slated for release in early 2021! More info at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would...2019-11-1254 minPodcast#3: Chantel Prat on Unexpected AdvantagesChantel Prat is a cognitive neuroscientist, author, and general-purpose badass. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, where she leads the Cognition & Cortical Dynamics Lab. In this episode, Cody talks with Chantel about the magical moments of randomness that life throws at you and how a curve ball can be just what you need to hit a home run. Keep an eye out for her forthcoming book, slated for release in early 2021! More info at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d li...2019-11-1254 min
Podcast#2: Paul Bloom on Picking the Perfect TitlePaul Bloom is a prolific author and has written books such as "Against Empathy," as well as articles in venues like the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic. He is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale. In this episode, Paul talks to Cody about his unique schedule for productivity, what it takes to write for a broader audience, and how to pick the perfect title. More information is available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d li...2019-11-051h 01Cognitive Revolution#2: Paul Bloom on Picking the Perfect TitlePaul Bloom is a prolific author and has written books such as "Against Empathy," as well as articles in venues like the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic. He is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale. In this episode, Paul talks to Cody about his unique schedule for productivity, what it takes to write for a broader audience, and how to pick the perfect title. More information is available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would...2019-11-051h 01
Podcast#1: Art Markman on Getting Your Work Out ThereArt Markman is an accomplished author, podcaster, and psychology professor at UT Austin, as well as Founding Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. In this episode, Art gives Cody his perspective on how to take risks, be in the right place at the right time, and get your work out there for a broader audience. More information is available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.co...2019-10-2958 minCognitive Revolution#1: Art Markman on Getting Your Work Out ThereArt Markman is an accomplished author, podcaster, and psychology professor at UT Austin, as well as Founding Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. In this episode, Art gives Cody his perspective on how to take risks, be in the right place at the right time, and get your work out there for a broader audience. More information is available at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack...2019-10-2958 min
PodcastIntroduction: Bertrand Russell's Cognitive RevolutionWelcome to Cognitive Revolution. If you're new to the podcast this is a good place to start. It is an introduction to what you'll be hearing later on, in which Cody tells the story of Bertrand Russell's famous work "Principia" and the personal woes that Russell had to go through to finish it. Find out more about the show at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com/subscribe2019-10-2205 minCognitive RevolutionIntroduction: Bertrand Russell's Cognitive RevolutionWelcome to Cognitive Revolution. If you're new to the podcast this is a good place to start. It is an introduction to what you'll be hearing later on, in which Cody tells the story of Bertrand Russell's famous work "Principia" and the personal woes that Russell had to go through to finish it. Find out more about the show at codykommers.com/podcast. Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com2019-10-2205 min