Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMegan McArdle on the Oedipus Trap
Episode 885
When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he…
3 years, 5 months ago
Zach Weinersmith on Beowulf and Bea Wolf
Episode 884
Tolkien read it as a tale about mortality. The poet David Whyte said it was a metaphor for the psychological demons deep in our minds. And that, insi…
3 years, 5 months ago
Omer Moav on the Emergence of the State
Episode 883
Since at least Adam Smith, the common wisdom has been that the transition from hunter-gathering to farming allowed the creation of the State. Farming…
3 years, 5 months ago
Paul Bloom on Psych, Psychology, and the Human Mind
Episode 882
Do psychologists know anything? Psychologist Paul Bloom says yes--but not the things that you might think. Bloom discusses his book Psych with EconTa…
3 years, 6 months ago
Marco Ramos on Misunderstanding Mental Illness
Episode 881
When psychiatrist Marco Ramos of Yale University prescribes antidepressants to patients in distress and they ask him how they work, Ramos admits: We …
3 years, 6 months ago
Adam Mastroianni on Peer Review and the Academic Kitchen
Episode 880
Psychologist Adam Mastroianni says peer review has failed. Papers with major errors make it through the process. The ones without errors often fail t…
3 years, 6 months ago
Sam Harris on Meditation, Mindfulness, and Morality
Episode 879
According to neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris, rationality is the key to safeguarding everything we cherish, and its only true enemy is dogm…
3 years, 6 months ago
Vinay Prasad on Pharmaceuticals, the FDA, and the Death of Duty
Episode 878
Oncologist and epidemiologist Vinay Prasad argues that too many very expensive drugs get approved by the FDA that have very limited impact on the liv…
3 years, 7 months ago
Dwayne Betts on Beauty, Prison, and Redaction
Episode 877
Dwayne Betts was a 16-year-old in solitary confinement when a fellow inmate slid a book of poetry under his cell door. What happened next is an astou…
3 years, 7 months ago
Tiffany Jenkins on Plunder, Museums, and Marbles
Episode 876
Should the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon in Athens about 200 years ago? What should be the purpose of museums, ed…
3 years, 7 months ago