PODCAST · science
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
by Spencer Greenberg
Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you'll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making. • We take on important, thorny questions like: • What's the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy
Episodes
-
The Race to Replace Us With AI (with Garrison Lovely)
Read the full transcript here. Could AI simultaneously be an extraordinarily powerful technology and an economic bubble, and why would those possibilities not contradict each other? What does the history of the internet bubble suggest about the comforting idea that a financial crash would make AI...
-
Why we procrastinate, and what actually helps (with Itamar Shatz)
Read the full transcript here. What exactly is procrastination, and how is it different from simply deciding to postpone something? Why is chronic procrastination so common, and why can it affect highly conscientious and productive people just as much as anyone else? Are there really different...
-
Neurodiversity, Autism, Awe, and Religious Experience (with Jonathan Machnee)
Read the full transcript here. What does “neurodivergent” actually mean, and has the term become too broad to be useful? Why might people grouped under the same neurodivergent umbrella have conflicting needs? Is autism really a single spectrum, or would it make more sense to speak of multiple...
-
Can We End Factory Farming Without Giving Up Meat? (with Bruce Friedrich)
Read the full transcript here. Why is producing meat so inefficient? How does animal agriculture contribute to hunger and malnutrition? How large are the environmental costs of meat production? How does industrial animal agriculture increase the risk of antibiotic resistance and future pandemics?...
-
Our relationship to chatbots (with Claire Boine)
Read the full transcript here. What makes an attachment to AI meaningfully different from an attachment to a human, animal, or fictional character? If chatbot relationships are built around validation and adaptation, can they ever provide the friction and otherness that make human relationships...
-
The good advice you least want (with Cate Hall)
Read the full transcript here. Why do people gravitate toward self-help that reinforces the strategies they already use well? How can we identify the default lens through which we interpret nearly every situation? What changes when we recognize that our internal equilibrium may be less dependent…
more -
Why housing costs so much and what can be done about it (with Alex Armlovich)
Read the full transcript here. How large is the housing crisis, and why does it impose trillions of dollars in economic costs? Why has housing become especially unaffordable across English speaking countries and an expanding number of American cities? What does the gap between the cost of…
more -
How To Pursue Goals without Striving (with Stephen Zerfas)
Read the full transcript here. Why can the same meditation technique produce emotional openness in one person and dissociation in another? How can meditators tell whether they are cultivating equanimity or merely numbing themselves? Why is meditation unusually difficult to teach compared with...
-
Bicameral Minds and Leaderless Tribes (with Tor Parsons)
Read the full transcript here. What happens to a community when no one has the formally recognized authority to punish, exclude, or forgive? Are written rules a constraint on freedom, or are they sometimes the very condition that lets unusual people survive socially? When a group says it has no...
-
How Small Actions Rewrite Identity (with Eric Zimmer)
Read the full transcript here. What changes when we stop imagining transformation as a single breakthrough and start seeing it as thousands of small, low-resistance actions? How do we know whether a small action is genuinely sustainable or merely another form of self-improvement theater? What…
more -
The Twelve Levers for a better life (with Jeremy Stevenson)
Read the full transcript here. Why is so much self-help useless, and why is some of it genuinely life-changing? What separates a powerful psychological technique from vague advice? Why is “love yourself” often less useful than a concrete sequence of actions? How can insight into the causes of...
-
The Hidden History of Evidence-Based Everything (with Helen Pearson)
Read the full transcript here. How do we know whether the things we do every day actually work? Why do so many practices in medicine, parenting, education, conservation, and public policy begin as intuition, authority, or anecdote rather than careful evidence? What can the tragic history of...
-
Is cash a better form of charitable aid? (with Nick Allardice)
Read the full transcript here. How much good is lost when charity optimizes only for what can be measured? When does a cost-effectiveness model clarify reality, and when does it create false confidence? Could the most important interventions be the ones that look too uncertain, too political, or...
-
When painful thoughts feel true but aren't (with Christine Padesky)
Read the full transcript here. Why do our minds sometimes need experiments more than insight? What changes when therapy becomes a way of practicing life outside the therapist’s office rather than explaining life inside it? If CBT is fundamentally about learning skills, how much of good therapy...
-
Could an international agreement protect us from dangerous AI? (with Malo Bourgon)
Read the full transcript here. What are the world’s leading AI companies actually trying to build when they talk about superintelligence? Is the goal merely better chatbots, or systems that could outperform all humans across every cognitive task? Why would such a system be so alluring if it could...
-
Is patriarchy gone or hiding in plain sight? (with Kate Manne)
Read the full transcript here. If progress is real but uneven, what metrics actually matter—outcomes, perceptions, or lived vulnerability? When we say “things are better,” who is included in that claim and who is quietly excluded? How do entrenched family structures continue to shape expectations...
-
Is string theory BS or the most promising theory in physics? (with Christian Ferko)
Read the full transcript here. How do we tell the difference between a theory that is incomplete and a theory that is simply wrong? What should count as success in fundamental physics when direct experiments are scarce? Can a theory be scientifically valuable long before it becomes directly...
-
What's true and what's myth about trauma? (with George Bonnano)
Read the full transcript here. What should count as trauma, and what gets lost when the word expands to cover ordinary distress? Why do some frightening events leave lasting psychological injury while others fade into ordinary memory? Is trauma best understood as the event itself, or as the...
-
Are we in an honesty crisis? (with Christian B. Miller)
Read the full transcript here. Is dishonesty best understood as a permanent feature of human nature or as a condition that worsens when incentives and tools change? When new technologies make cheating easier and detection harder, do they merely reveal existing character or actively reshape it?…
more -
What impact will AI have on jobs and the economy? (with Anton Korinek)
Read the full transcript here. Could AI trigger an economic break as large as the Industrial Revolution, or even larger? What changes when labor stops being the main bottleneck in production? If intelligence becomes reproducible like software, what happens to the structure of an economy? How…
more -
The seductiveness of secular gurus (with Christopher Kavanagh)
Read the full transcript here. What makes broad, all-encompassing worldviews so attractive in periods of institutional distrust? Why do charismatic figures become especially persuasive when they present themselves as suppressed truth tellers? How much of a guru’s appeal comes from insight, and…
more -
What beats intuition when it comes to doing good? (with Marcus Davis)
Read the full transcript here. If you enjoy our podcast, we have some exciting news – we’ve just launched a new membership called Clearer Thinking Plus. Members get this podcast completely ad-free, as well as two professional coaching sessions every month, access to our advanced cognitive...
-
Can averages explain a human life? (with Steven C. Hayes)
Read the full transcript here. If you enjoy our podcast, we have some exciting news – we’ve just launched a new membership called Clearer Thinking Plus. Members get this podcast completely ad-free, as well as two professional coaching sessions every month, access to our advanced cognitive...
-
Should science stop worshiping statistical significance? (with Andrew Gelman)
Read the full transcript here. If you enjoy our podcast, we have some exciting news – we’ve just launched a new membership called Clearer Thinking Plus. Members get this podcast completely ad-free, as well as two professional coaching sessions every month, access to our advanced cognitive...
-
What happens when your co-workers are AIs? (with Evan Ratliff)
Read the full transcript here. If you enjoy our podcast, we have some exciting news – we’ve just launched a new membership called Clearer Thinking Plus. Members get this podcast completely ad-free, as well as two professional coaching sessions every month, access to our advanced cognitive...
-
Long COVID: what are the scientific facts? (with Carmen Scheibenbogen)
Read the full transcript here. If you enjoy our podcast, we have some exciting news – we’ve just launched a new membership called Clearer Thinking Plus. Members get this podcast completely ad-free, as well as two professional coaching sessions every month, access to our advanced cognitive...
-
Our 300th episode! - How to have better intellectual conversations (with Uri Bram)
Read the full transcript here. The Clearer Thinking Podcast listener survey is here! If you've ever listened to the Clearer Thinking podcast before, we'd love it if you'd take our listener survey so we can learn about your experience and improve the podcast based on your feedback. Give feedback…
more -
How to use your career to help the world (with Devon Fritz)
Read the full transcript here. The Clearer Thinking Podcast listener survey is here! If you've ever listened to the Clearer Thinking podcast before, we'd love it if you'd take our listener survey so we can learn about your experience and improve the podcast based on your feedback. Give feedback…
more -
Are personality types a statistical mirage? (with Colin DeYoung)
Read the full transcript here. The Clearer Thinking Podcast listener survey is here! If you've ever listened to the Clearer Thinking podcast before, we'd love it if you'd take our listener survey so we can learn about your experience and improve the podcast based on your feedback. Give feedback…
more -
Ambitious goals for reducing animal suffering (with Jeff Sebo)
Read the full transcript here. The Clearer Thinking Podcast listener survey is here! If you've ever listened to the Clearer Thinking podcast before, we'd love it if you'd take our listener survey so we can learn about your experience and improve the podcast based on your feedback. Give feedback…
more -
Live at EA Global - The future of U.S. foreign aid (with Dean Karlan)
Read the full transcript here. What is the core public interest case for foreign aid beyond soft power? How should we define safety and prosperity? Why do many voters believe aid is a quarter of the budget when it is a tiny fraction and how does that shape support? How did a political decision to...
-
Improving your skill of emotional regulation (with Shireen Rizvi)
Read the full transcript here. How can we distinguish “real CBT” from supportive talk - does it include homework, clear goals, or a manualized plan? When therapy “doesn’t work,” is it the modality, the match, or weak training? Are common factors enough once symptoms disrupt daily life? Why does...
-
When voting fails (with Nicholas Gruen)
Read the full transcript here. Which decisions should be made by election and which by random sampling? Where is competition healthy for choosing leaders, and where must rule-setting be unitary and impartial? What would credible umpires look like - judges, statisticians, pay reviewers - and how…
more -
Why aren't we relying on nuclear power? (with Isabelle Boemeke)
Read the full transcript here. What explains fearing nuclear more than the harms we tolerate from fossil fuels? Can we judge energy risk by evidence rather than headlines? What mix of firm power and renewables actually keeps costs low and lights on? How much should we pay up front for safety, and...
-
A conversation with a person with OCD (with David Adam)
Read the full transcript here. Where is the line between ordinary intrusive thoughts and an OCD pattern that hijacks the day? How do obsessions and compulsions condition each other so that brief relief entrenches the loop? What clinical markers - ego-dystonic content and intact reality testing -...
-
What, if anything, will save the environment? (with Dan Stein)
Read the full transcript here. Are we going to solve climate change with technology rather than personal sacrifice? If most offsets fail on additionality, should we stop pretending they meaningfully cut emissions? Can policy push dollars into the hard stuff - steel, cement, shipping, aviation -...
-
Are markets rational or is sentiment contagious? (with Alex Imas)
Read the full transcript here. Are stock prices set by cash flows or crowd vibes? Why do bubbles last if “smart money” can short them? What should retail traders learn from GameStop and zero-commission options? When does momentum make sense - and when does it burn you? Why don’t obvious…
more -
Can you do 100x more good? (with Sjir Hoeijmakers)
Read the full transcript here. What does “100x more good” mean relative to your current giving? How can your giving more closely align with your pre-existing values? If cost-effectiveness is the denominator we forget, what changes when dollars per outcome sit front and center? Can independent...
-
What is psychosomatic illness? (with Suzanne O'Sullivan)
Read the full transcript here. Note: Please note that in this episode, Spencer and Dr. O'Sullivan discuss a controversial and complex medical topic where the science is still in development and there is a lot of ongoing debate. We don't know whether or not the perspective that Dr. O'Sullivan...
-
What causes mass shootings? (with Ragy Girgis)
Read the full transcript here. What do we miss when we treat public shootings as the whole story of mass murder? If public events are a small slice, how should prevention and attention shift? Does saturation coverage turn tragedy into aspiration for the fame-seeking few? Do school…
more -
Contempt-free public discourse (with Robert Rosenkranz)
Read the full transcript here. What makes a forum truly open-minded rather than performative? When does listening change minds instead of just hardening identities? Are we teaching citizens to separate facts from frames? Do the best debates surface values as well as evidence? How can we reward…
more -
Beyond the assumption that humans are rational (with Barry Schwartz)
Read the full transcript here. What does rationality mean when life won’t fit a spreadsheet? If models demand one common scale, what happens to values that can’t be compared? Are we optimizing choices, or narrowing them to what’s easy to count? When do toy problems stop teaching us about real…
more -
Will AI superintelligence kill us all? (with Nate Soares)
Read the full transcript here. Are the existential risks posed by superhuman AI fundamentally different from prior technological threats such as nuclear weapons or pandemics? How do the inherent “alien drives” that emerge from AI training processes complicate our ability to control or align these...
-
Do facts have an expiration date? (with Samuel Arbesman)
Read the full transcript here. What does it mean to treat facts as drafts rather than monuments? If truth is something we approach, how do we act while it’s still provisional? When definitions shift, what really changes? How do better instruments quietly rewrite the world we think we know? Are we...
-
From prisoner to escaping inner prisons (with Shaka Senghor)
Read the full transcript here. What changes when we treat violence as a human problem rather than a demographic story? Are fear, anger, and shame the real levers behind sudden harm? How much agency can we ask of people shaped by chaos without ignoring that chaos? Where is the line between...
-
A new paradigm for psychology research (with Slime Mold Time Mold)
Read the full transcript here. What changes when psychology stops naming traits and starts naming parts - can “entities and rules” turn fuzzy labels into testable mechanisms? If the mind is a web of governors with set points, what exactly is being controlled - and how do error signals become...
-
Beyond saving lives: happiness and doing good (with Michael Plant)
Read the full transcript here. Are we trying to maximize moment-to-moment happiness or life satisfaction? Can self-reports really guide policy and giving? What happens to quality of life metrics when we judge impact by wellbeing instead of health or income? How should we compare treating…
more -
Darwinian Demons: Climate Change and the AI Arms Race (with Kristian Rönn)
Read the full transcript here. Are existential risks from AI fundamentally different from those posed by previous technologies such as nuclear weapons? How can global cooperation overcome the challenges posed by national interests? What mechanisms might enable effective governance of technologies...
-
Seeing through cognitive traps (with Alex Edmans)
Read the full transcript here. How do we distinguish correlation from causation in organizational success? How common is it to mistake luck or data mining for genuine effects in research findings? What are the challenges in interpreting ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria? Why is...
-
The most important century (with Holden Karnofsky)
Read the full transcript here. Has society reached ‘peak progress’? Can we sustain the level of economic growth that technology has enabled over the last century? Have researchers plucked the last of science's "low-hanging fruit?" Why did early science innovators have outsized impact per capita?…
more
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you'll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making. • We take on important, thorny questions like: • What's the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy
HOSTED BY
Spencer Greenberg
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg have?
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg currently has 326 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg about?
Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you'll love this podcast! Each week we...
How often does Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg release new episodes?
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg publishes regularly with 326 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg?
You can listen to Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg?
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg is created and hosted by Spencer Greenberg.
URL copied to clipboard!