Rationally Speaking Podcast
Rationally Speaking is the bi-weekly podcast of New York City Skeptics. Join host Julia Galef and guests as they explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense, likely from unlikely, and science from pseudoscience. Any topic is fair game as long as we can bring reason to bear upon it, with both a skeptical eye and a good dose of humor! We agree with the Marquis de Condorcet, who said that in an open society we ought to devote ourselves to "the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them."Rationally Speaking was co-created with Massimo Pigliucci, is produced by Benny Pollak, and is recorded in the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village.
Is cash the best way to help the poor? (Michael Faye)
Humanity on the precipice (Toby Ord)
Dangerous biological research - is it worth it? (Kevin Esvelt)
Why we're polarized (Ezra Klein)
The genetic lottery (Kathryn Paige Harden)
How to reason about COVID, and other hard things (Kelsey Piper)
"Price gouging" in emergencies
How to be a data detective (Tim Harford)
Are Uber and Lyft drivers being exploited?
Unfair laws / Why judges should be originalists (William Baude)
Intellectual honesty, cryptocurrency, & more (Vitalik Buterin)
Understanding moral disagreements (Jonathan Haidt)
The case for one billion Americans, & more (Matt Yglesias)
What’s wrong with tech companies banning people? (Julian Sanchez)
The case for racial colorblindness (Coleman Hughes)
Are Democrats being irrational? (David Shor)
The moral limits of markets / The problem with meritocracy (Michael Sandel)
Deaths of despair / Effective altruism (Angus Deaton)
Are Boomers to blame for Millennials' struggles?
Rationally Speaking #244 - Stephanie Lepp and Buster Benson on "Seeing other perspectives, with compassion"
Rationally Speaking #243 - Bryan Caplan on "The Case for Open Borders"
Rationally Speaking #242 - Keith Frankish on "Why consciousness is an illusion"
Rationally Speaking #241 - Thibault Le Texier on "Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment"
Rationally Speaking #240 - David Manheim on "Goodhart's Law and why metrics fail"
Rationally Speaking #239 - Saloni Dattani on "The debate over whether male and female brains are different"
Rationally Speaking #238 - Razib Khan on "Stuff I've Been Wrong About"
Rationally Speaking #237 - Andy Przybylski on "Is screen time bad for you?"
Rationally Speaking #236 - Alex Tabarrok on "Why are the Prices So D*mn High?"
Rationally Speaking #235 - Tage Rai on "Why people think their violence is morally justified"
Rationally Speaking #234 - Dylan Matthews on "Global poverty has fallen, but what should we conclude from that?"
Rationally Speaking #233 - Clive Thompson on "The culture of coding, and how it’s changing the world"
Rationally Speaking #232 - Tyler Cowen on "Defending big business against its critics"
Rationally Speaking #231 - Helen Toner on "Misconceptions about China and artificial intelligence"
Rationally Speaking #230 - Kelsey Piper on “Big picture journalism: covering the topics that matter in the long run”
Rationally Speaking #229 - John Nerst on "Erisology, the study of disagreement"
Rationally Speaking #228 - William Gunn and Alex Holcombe on "Is Elsevier helping or hurting scientific progress?"
Rationally Speaking #227 - Sarah Haider on "Dissent and free speech"
Rationally Speaking #226 - Rob Wiblin on "An updated view of the best ways to help humanity"
Rationally Speaking #225 - Neerav Kingsland on "The case for charter schools"
Rationally Speaking #224 - Rick Nevin on "The long-term effects of lead on crime"
Rationally Speaking #223 - Chris Fraser on "The Mohists, ancient China's philosopher warriors"
Rationally Speaking #222 - Spencer Greenberg and Seth Cottrell on "Ask a Mathematician, Ask a Physicist"
Rationally Speaking #221 - Rob Reich on "Is philanthropy bad for democracy?"
Rationally Speaking #220 - Peter Eckersley on "Tough choices on privacy and artificial intelligence"
Rationally Speaking #219 - Jason Collins on "A skeptical take on behavioral economics"
Rationally Speaking #218 - Chris Auld on "Good and bad critiques of economics"
Rationally Speaking #217 - Aviv Ovadya on "The problem of false, biased, and artificial news"
Rationally Speaking #216 - Diana Fleischman on "Being a transhumanist evolutionary psychologist"
Rationally Speaking #215 - Anders Sandberg on "Thinking about the long-term future of humanity"
Rationally Speaking #214 - Anthony Aguirre on "Predicting the future of science and tech, with Metaculus"
Rationally Speaking #213 - Dean Simonton on "The causes of scientific and artistic genius"
Rationally Speaking #212 - Ed Boyden on "How to invent game-changing technologies"
Rationally Speaking #211 - Sabine Hossenfelder on "The case against beauty in physics"
Rationally Speaking #210 - Stuart Ritchie on "Conceptual objections to IQ testing"
Rationally Speaking #209 - Christopher Chabris on "Collective intelligence & the ethics of A/B tests"
Rationally Speaking #208 - Annie Duke on "Thinking in bets"
Rationally Speaking #207 - Alison Gopnik on "The wrong way to think about parenting, plus the downsides of modernity"
Rationally Speaking #206 - Kal Turnbull on "Change My View"
Rationally Speaking #205 - Michael Webb on "Are ideas getting harder to find?"
Rationally Speaking #204 - Simine Vazire on "Reforming psychology, and self-awareness"
Rationally Speaking #203 - Stephen Webb on "Where is Everybody? Solutions to the Fermi Paradox."
Rationally Speaking #202 - Bryan Caplan on "The Case Against Education"
Rationally Speaking #201 - Ben Buchanan on "The Cybersecurity Dilemma"
Rationally Speaking #200 - Timothy Lee on "How much should tech companies moderate speech?"
Rationally Speaking #199 - Jessica Flanigan on "Why people should have the right to self-medicate"
Rationally Speaking #198 - Timur Kuran on "Private Truths and Public Lies"
Rationally Speaking #197 - Doug Hubbard on "Why people think some things can’t be quantified (and why they’re wrong)"
Rationally Speaking #196 - Eric Schwitzgebel on "Weird ideas and opaque minds"
Rationally Speaking #195 - Zach Weinersmith on "Emerging technologies that'll improve and/or ruin everything"
Rationally Speaking #194 - Robert Wright on "Why Buddhism is True"
Rationally Speaking #193 - Eric Jonas on "Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor?"
Rationally Speaking #192 - Jesse Singal on “The problems with implicit bias tests”
Rationally Speaking #191 - Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on "What the internet can tell us about human nature" (Fixed)
Rationally Speaking #190 - Amanda Askell on "Pascal's Wager and other low risks with high stakes"
Rationally Speaking #189 - Stephan Guyenet on "What causes obesity?"
Rationally Speaking #188 - Robert Kurzban on "Being strategically wrong"
Rationally Speaking #187 - Jason Weeden on "Do people vote based on self-interest?"
Rationally Speaking #186 - Tania Lombrozo on "Why we evolved the urge to explain"
Rationally Speaking #185 - Hans Noel on "The role of ideology in politics"
Rationally Speaking #184 - Gregory Clark on "What caused the industrial revolution?"
Rationally Speaking #183 - L. A. Paul on "Transformative Experiences"
Rationally Speaking #182 - Spencer Greenberg on "How online research can be faster, better, and more useful"
Rationally Speaking #181 - William MacAskill on "Moral Uncertainty"
Rationally Speaking #180 - David Roodman on "The Worm Wars"
Rationally Speaking #179 - Dani Rodrik on "Is economics more art or science?"
Rationally Speaking #178 - Tim Urban on "Trying to live well, as semi-rational animals"
Rationally Speaking #177 - Dylan Matthews on "The science and ethics of kidney donation"
Rationally Speaking #176 - Jason Brennan on "Against democracy"
Rationally Speaking #175 - Chris Blattman on "Do sweatshops reduce poverty?"
Rationally Speaking #174 - John Ioannidis on "What happened to Evidence-based medicine?"
Rationally Speaking #173 - Brendan Nyhan on "What can we learn from the election?"
Rationally Speaking #172 - Brian Nosek on "Why science needs openness"
Rationally Speaking #171 - Scott Aaronson on "The ethics and strategy of vote trading"
Rationally Speaking #170 - Will Wilkinson on "Social justice and political philosophy"
Rationally Speaking #169 - Owen Cotton-Barratt on "Thinking About Humanity's Far Future"
Rationally Speaking #168 - Don Moore on "Overconfidence"
Rationally Speaking #167 - Samuel Arbesman on "Why technology is becoming too complex"
Rationally Speaking #166 - Eric Schwitzgebel on "Why you should expect the truth to be crazy"
Rationally Speaking #165 - Robert Frank on "Success and Luck"
Rationally Speaking #164 - James Evans on "Using meta-knowledge to learn how science works"
Rationally Speaking #163 - Gregg Caruso on "Free Will and Moral Responsibility"
Rationally Speaking #162 - Sean Carroll on "Poetic Naturalism"
Rationally Speaking #161 - Tom Griffiths and Brian Christian on "Algorithms to Live By"
Rationally Speaking #160 - Live at NECSS -- Jacob Appel on "Tackling bioethical dilemmas"
Rationally Speaking #159 - Colin Allen on "Do fish feel pain?"
Rationally Speaking #158 - Dr. George Ainslie on "Negotiating with your future selves"
Rationally Speaking #157 - Dr. Herculano-Houzel on "What made the human brain special?"
Rationally Speaking #156 - David McRaney on "Why it’s so hard to change someone’s mind"
Rationally Speaking #155 - Uri Simonsohn on "Detecting fraud in social science"
Rationally Speaking #154 - Tom Griffiths on "Why your brain might be rational after all"
Rationally Speaking #153 - Dr. Vinay Prasad on "Why so much of what we 'know' about medicine is wrong"
Rationally Speaking #152 - Dan Fincke on "The pros and cons of civil disagreement"
Rationally Speaking #151 - Maria Konnikova on "Why everyone falls for con artists"
Rationally Speaking #150 - Elizabeth Loftus on "The malleability of human memory"
Rationally Speaking #149 - Susan Gelman on "How essentialism shapes our thinking"
Rationally Speaking #148 - David Kyle Johnson on "The Myths that Stole Christmas"
Rationally Speaking #147 - Andrew Gelman on "Why do Americans vote the way they do?"
Rationally Speaking #146 - Jesse Richardson on "The pros and cons of making fallacies famous"
Rationally Speaking #145 - Phil Tetlock on "Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction"
Rationally Speaking #144 - Bryan Caplan on "Does parenting matter?"
Rationally Speaking #143 - Scott Aaronson on "The theorem that proves rationalists can't disagree"
Rationally Speaking #142 - Paul Bloom on "The case against empathy"
Rationally Speaking #141 - Dan Sperber on "The Argumentative Theory of reason"
Rationally Speaking #140 - Kenny Easwaran on "Newcomb's Paradox and the tragedy of rationality"
Rationally Speaking #139 - Eric Schwitzgebel on "Moral hypocrisy: why doesn't knowing about ethics make people more ethical?"
Rationally Speaking #138 - Ian Morris on, "Why the West rules -- for now"
Rationally Speaking #137 - Marc Lipsitch on, "Should scientists try to create dangerous viruses?"
Rationally Speaking #136 - David Roodman on Why Microfinance Won't Cure Global Poverty
Rationally Speaking #135 - Robin Hanson on: "Most human behavior is signaling"
Rationally Speaking #134 - Michael Shermer on: "Science drives moral progress"
Rationally Speaking #133 - Sean Carroll on "The Many Worlds Interpretatioln Is Probably Correct"
Rationally Speaking #132 - Live From NECSS 2015
Rationally Speaking #131 - James Randi on Being An Honest Liar
Rationally Speaking #130 - The Atheists Own 10 Commandments
Rationally Speaking #129 - Would the World Be a Better Place Without Religion?
Rationally Speaking #128 - 5th Anniversary Live Show
Rationally Speaking #127 - Elise Crull on Philosophy of Physics
Rationally Speaking #126 - Preston Bost on Crazy Beliefs, Sane Believers
Rationally Speaking #125 - The Quantified Self
Rationally Speaking #124 - Stoicism
Rationally Speaking #123 - Daniel Lakens on P-Hacking and Other Problems in Psychology Research
Rationally Speaking #122 - The Science and Philosophy of Humor
Rationally Speaking #121 - Benjamin Todd on 80,000 Hours
Rationally Speaking #120 - Nihilism
Rationally Speaking #119 - Aaron James on Assholes (and Bitches)
Rationally Speaking #118 - Live From Baruch College With Dr. Steven Novella
Rationally Speaking #117 - Maria Konnikova on How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes
Rationally Speaking #116 - Jim Baggott and Massimo on Farewell to Reality
Rationally Speaking #115 - Maarten Boudry and Massimo On the Difference Between Science and Pseudoscience
Rationally Speaking #114 - Massimo and Julia Go Freestyle
Rationally Speaking #113 - The Turing Test
Rationally Speaking #112 - Race: Just a Social Construct?
Rationally Speaking #111 - Human Nature
Rationally Speaking #110 - Scientia, the Unity of Knowledge
Rationally Speaking #109 - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Plato at the Googleplex
Rationally Speaking #108 - Suicide
Rationally Speaking #107 - MOOCs
Rationally Speaking #106 - Live From NECSS With Lawrence Krauss
Rationally Speaking #105 - Greta Christina on Coming Out Atheist
Rationally Speaking #104 - Edward Frenkel on Love and Math
Rationally Speaking #103 - Neil deGrasse Tyson on Why He Doesn't Call Himself an Atheist
Rationally Speaking #102 - Zach Weinersmith on His "SMBC" Webcomic
Rationally Speaking #101 - Max Tegmark on the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis
Rationally Speaking #100 - Live Q&A: Massimo and Julia Answer Everything!
Rationally Speaking #99 - Judith Schlesinger Exposes the Myth of the Mad Genius
Rationally Speaking #98 - Jerome Wakefield on Psychiatric Diagnoses: Science or Pseudoscience?
Rationally Speaking #97 - Peter Singer on Being a Utilitarian in the Real World
Rationally Speaking #96 - Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld on the Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience
Rationally Speaking #95 - Gerard O'Brien On the Computational Theory of Mind
Rationally Speaking #94 - Maarten Boudry on Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem
Rationally Speaking #93 - Dr. Michael E. Mann On The Science Of Climate Change
Rationally Speaking #92 - Dr. Paul Offit On Believing in Magic
Rationally Speaking #91 - Kendrick Frazier On Skeptical Inquiry
Rationally Speaking #90 - On Wine, Water, and Audio
Rationally Speaking #89 - Online Dating
Rationally Speaking #88 - Mario Livio on Brilliant Blunders
Rationally Speaking #87 - Sean Carroll on Naturalism
Rationally Speaking #86 - Live From NECSS With Jim Holt On Why Does the World Exist?
Rationally Speaking #85 - Live From NECSS With Michael Shermer On the Role of Science in Morality
Rationally Speaking #84 - Stephen Asma On the Myth of Universal Love
Rationally Speaking #83 - Samuel Arbesman On The Half-Life of Facts
Rationally Speaking #82 - It's Not Easy Being Green
Rationally Speaking #81 - Live! Ben Goldacre on Bad Pharma
Rationally Speaking #80 - Dear Abby
Rationally Speaking #79 - Chris Mooney on The Republican War on Science
Rationally Speaking #78 - Intelligence and Personality Testing
Rationally Speaking #77 - Victoria Pitts-Taylor on Feminism and Science
Rationally Speaking #76 - Crowdsourcing and the Wisdom of Crowds
Rationally Speaking #75 - When Scientists Kill
Rationally Speaking #74 - Live! John Shook on Philosophy of Religion
Rationally Speaking #73 - Answers for Aristotle
Rationally Speaking #72 - Graham Priest on Paradoxes and Paraconsistent Logic
Rationally Speaking #71 - On Science Fiction and Philosophy
Rationally Speaking #70 - Graham Priest on Buddhism and Other Asian Philosophies
Rationally Speaking #69 - James Ladyman on Metaphysics
Rationally Speaking #68 - Applied Rationality
Rationally Speaking #67 - Freudianism as Pseudoscience, With Assorted Comments on Masturbation and Castration...
Rationally Speaking #66 - Matthew Hutson on The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking
Rationally Speaking #65 - Philosophical Shock Tactics
Rationally Speaking #64 - Jesse Prinz on Looking Beyond Human Nature
Rationally Speaking #63 - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Rationally Speaking #62 - Patricia Churchland on What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality
Rationally Speaking #61 - Willpower
Rationally Speaking #60 - Q&A With Massimo and Julia
Rationally Speaking #59 - Live at NECSS: David Kyle Johnson on the Simulation Argument
Rationally Speaking #58 - Intuition
Rationally Speaking #57 - Peer Review
Rationally Speaking #56 - Howard Schneider on Science News Literacy
Rationally Speaking #55 - Spirituality
Rationally Speaking #54 - The 'isms' Episode
Rationally Speaking #53 - Parapsychology
Rationally Speaking #52 - Donald Prothero on the Holocaust-Deniers' Playbook
Rationally Speaking #51 - Joseph Heath on Economics Without Illusions
Rationally Speaking #50 - Neurobabble
Rationally Speaking #49 - Eugenie C. Scott on Denialism of Climate Change and Evolution
Rationally Speaking #48 - Philosophical Counseling
Rationally Speaking #47 - SETI
Rationally Speaking #46 - The Varieties of Skepticism
Rationally Speaking #45 - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Spinoza, Göedl, and Theories of Everything
Rationally Speaking #44 - Fluff that Works
Rationally Speaking #43 - Women in Skepticism
Rationally Speaking #42 - On the Limits of Reason
Rationally Speaking #41 - Robert Zaretsky on Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding
Rationally Speaking #40 - Q&A With Massimo and Julia
Rationally Speaking #39 - The Science and Philosophy of Free Will
Rationally Speaking #38 - Holden Karnofsky on Evidence-based Philanthropy
Rationally Speaking #37 - The Science and Philosophy of Happiness
Rationally Speaking #36 - Why Should We Care About Teaching the Humanities?
Rationally Speaking #35 - What is Philosophy of Science Good for?
Rationally Speaking #34 - Celebrities and the Damage They Can Do
Rationally Speaking #33 - Live at NECSS: New Dilemmas in Bioethics
Rationally Speaking #32 - Value-free Science?
Rationally Speaking #31 - Vegetarianism
Rationally Speaking #30 - Cordelia Fine on Delusions of Gender
Rationally Speaking #29 - Q&A Live!
Rationally Speaking #28 - Live! How To Tell Science From Bunk
Rationally Speaking #27 - The Perihelinox Episode, With Historian Timothy Alborn on Anniversaries
Rationally Speaking #26 - Is Anthropology Still a Science?
Rationally Speaking #25 - Q&A With Massimo and Julia
Rationally Speaking #24 - Memetics!
Rationally Speaking #23 - Carol Tavris on Everybody Making Mistakes, Except Us...
Rationally Speaking #22 - Steven Novella on Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
Rationally Speaking #21 - Joshua Knobe on Experimental Philosophy
Rationally Speaking #20 - Q&A With Massimo and Julia
Rationally Speaking #19 - Brendan Nyhan on False Beliefs that Refuse to Die
Rationally Speaking #18 - Evolutionary Psychology
Rationally Speaking #17 - Transhumanism
Rationally Speaking #16 - Deferring to Experts
Rationally Speaking #15 - Q&A With Massimo and Julia
Rationally Speaking #14 - Jennifer Michael Hecht on Science, Religion, Happiness, and Other Myths
Rationally Speaking #13 - Superstition, Is It Good For You?
Rationally Speaking #12 - What About Thought Experiments?
Rationally Speaking #11 - Guest Eugenie Scott on the Status of the Creationism and ID Wars
Rationally Speaking #10 - Nonsense on Stilts
Rationally Speaking #9 - When Smart People Endorse Pseudoscience
Rationally Speaking #8 - The Anthropic Principle
Rationally Speaking #7 - Peter Woit discusses whether string theory is “not even wrong”
Rationally Speaking #6 - Fluffy Thinking
Rationally Speaking #5 - Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Need for a Space Program
Rationally Speaking #4 - The Great Atheist Debate Over the Limits of Science
Rationally Speaking #3 - Can History Be a Science?
Rationally Speaking #2 - Love, a Skeptical Inquiry