Gašper Beguš on Why Language Doesn’t Make Humans Special episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 24, 2026 · 59 MIN

Gašper Beguš on Why Language Doesn’t Make Humans Special

from The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk and Gašper Beguš also talk about what whale communication and the recent progress on AI tell us about the human brain. Gašper  Beguš is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, where he focuses on interpretable AI and combines linguistics, cognitive science, machine learning, neuroscience, and marine biology. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Gašper Beguš discuss what makes human language exceptional compared to animal communication, whether whales and other animals have true language capabilities, and how properties like cultural transmission and recursion distinguish human speech. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Gašper Beguš on Why Language Doesn’t Make Humans Special

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This episode was published on January 24, 2026.

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Yascha Mounk and Gašper Beguš also talk about what whale communication and the recent progress on AI tell us about the human brain. Gašper  Beguš is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, where he focuses on interpretable AI and...

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