2 August 2021
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The “apologist” smear
Robert Wright and Josh Summers discuss the stigmatization of people who try to understand the behavior of adversaries.
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In this video:
- Josh’s aversion to the term “guru”
- Explaining the explain/excuse conflation
- The (possible) evolutionary origins of (biased) arguing
- Are humans mismatched to their modern environment?
- Building strengths vs. addressing deficiencies
- Defusing attribution error
- Making cognitive empathy cool
- Using meditation to strengthen cognitive empathy
- The mythical side of Bob
- Rationalists, effective altruists, and other possible fellow travelers
Dissecting Darwin
Robert Wright and anthropologist Agustín Fuentes, author of a controversial article on The Descent of Man, try to unpack Darwin’s attitudes on race and genocide.
Hitting the existential brick wall
Over a slideshow of his work, the artist David Poleski describes a devastating “negative mystical experience” he had in 1974.
Defying your tribe, mindfully
Robert Wright and Josh Summers ask whether mindfulness can help us overcome the fear of blowback from within our own tribe.
Do our intentions matter?
Robert Wright and psychologist Paul Bloom discuss why we punish people for unintentional transgressions.
Approaches to ultimate reality
Robert Wright and John Thatamanil, author of the new book Circling the Elephant, discuss how different religious traditions try to access divinity
The agnosticism of the novelist
John Horgan talks with novelist and neuroscientist Erik Hoel, author of the new novel The Revelations, about how to reconcile science and fiction.
How meditation can make us better global citizens
Robert Wright explains how mindfulness could help humanity overcome destructive cognitive biases.
Mind-Body Problems
Is “information” the key to quantum mechanics?
John Horgan and science writer Philip Ball discuss the roles of consciousness and calculation in quantum mechanics.
The Wright Show
It’s time for a psychological revolution!
In a conversation with Rob Wiblin, a leader of the effective altruism movement, Robert Wright argues that unchecked cognitive biases are pushing the world toward disaster.
Psychopolitica
Reframing the DMT experience
