Singal-Minded Conversations artwork

Singal-Minded Conversations

11 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★ - 22 ratings

Conversations with interesting people from academia, journalism, and elsewhere, with a focus on clashes between scientific research and social-justice activism. This podcast was birthed by my newsletter, Singal-Minded, and if you like one you'll probably like the other.

Social Sciences Science News social science interviews social justice psychology sociology
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Episodes

Episode 11: A Quick Announcement: Introducing "Blocked And Reported"

April 13, 2020 10:00 - 21 minutes - 22.2 MB

A brief announcement noting that Singal-Minded Conversations is, as you may have gathered six months ago, on hiatus, and to introduce Jesse Singal's new podcast with Katie Herzog, "Blocked and Reported," which can be listened to via the below links. Homepage: http://barpodcast.fireside.fm/ (http://barpodcast.fireside.fm/) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4vgbwrNPxor56PDfRMPzhE (https://open.spotify.com/show/4vgbwrNPxor56PDfRMPzhE) Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blocked-and...

Episode 10: Opioids, Weed, And The Revolutionary Temptation (Keith Humphreys)

August 22, 2019 16:00 - 1 hour - 33.9 MB

In today's episode, I spoke with Keith Humphreys (https://profiles.stanford.edu/keith-humphreys), a professor and addiction expert at Stanford University. We discussed the opioid crisis, what sane marijuana policy would look like, and why we are both skeptical about gung-ho revolutionary types. Keith also told me about the time he went to Iraq to help rebuild that country's psychiatric infrastructure, which is ten trillion times cooler and more impressive than anything I have ever done or eve...

Episode 9: Basketball, Happiness, And The Risk Of Misreading The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon (Ethan Strauss)

July 16, 2019 10:30 - 1 hour - 39.6 MB

In today's episode, I spoke with Ethan Strauss (https://theathletic.com/author/ethan-strauss/), a reporter at The Athletic and formerly ESPN. Ethan is working on a book about the Golden State Warriors which touches on the question of whether and to what extent professional success, even at the highest levels, brings lasting fulfillment. We discussed politics as well, and Ethan told me the story of the time he and the Aussie NBA center Andrew Bogut went to see Jordan Peterson in Los Angeles. W...

Episode 8: Is Power-Posing Getting A Bad Rap? (Spencer Greenberg)

June 20, 2019 12:00 - 50 minutes - 38.2 MB

In today's episode, I spoke with Spencer Greenberg (https://www.spencergreenberg.com/) about the personality differences between men and women, the different intrinsic values liberals and conservatives find most meaningful, power-posing, and social-science reform efforts. Spencer is a mathematician and entrepreneur, as well as s the founder of Spark Wave, a "startup foundry" which creates software designed to help solve problems in the world using social science, and to accelerate and improve...

Episode 7: How Optimistic Should We Be About Human Nature? (Nicholas Christakis)

June 10, 2019 13:00 - 55 minutes - 31.1 MB

Nicholas Christakis (https://eeb.yale.edu/people/faculty-affiliated/nicholas-christakis) is a physician and sociologist at Yale University who directs Yale's Human Nature Lab and codirects its Institute for Network Science. He is the author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Evolutionary-Origins-Good-Society/dp/0316230030/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). If you enjoy my work, please check out my newsletter, Singal-Minded (...

Episode 6: What It's Like In "The Bad Part Of Town" (Chris Arnade)

May 28, 2019 14:00 - 52 minutes - 41.8 MB

Chris Arnade (https://www.flickr.com/photos/arnade/) is a photographer and writer with a PhD in physics who, after two decades on Wall Street, decided to document the parts of America people with money stay away from, and warn others to stay away from. This yearslong, self-funded project culminated in a new book, Dignity: Seeking Respect Iin Back Row America (https://www.amazon.com/Dignity-Seeking-Respect-Back-America/dp/0525534733), which is out next week and which you can, and should, preor...

Episode 5: Those Who Speak Out Against Cancel Culture Must Be Cancelled Immediately (Robyn Kanner)

May 23, 2019 12:00 - 54 minutes - 42.3 MB

Robyn Kanner (https://robynkanner.com/) is a writer and designer in Brooklyn who has written for The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/opinion/esquire-american-boy-cancel-culture.html), The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/i-detransitioned-but-not-because-i-wasnt-trans/563396/), Wired (https://www.wired.com/story/why-we-love-tech-twitter-phone-humanity/), Broadly (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wj339z/alcoholism-sobriety-running-this-is-fine), ...

Episode 4: The Threat Industrial Complex Is Coming To Kill Everyone You Love With Its Fearmongering (Michael A. Cohen)

May 15, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour - 50.4 MB

Boston Globe columnist Michael A. Cohen, the coauthor of the new book "Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans," explains why we're worried about the wrong stuff, why Harry Truman was arguably the GOAT of scaring the hell out of Americans unnecessarily, and why it's silly for the Democrats to let concerns about "firing up" Donald Trump's base influence their 2020 primary process. (Music, in order: Why? - “The Vowels, Pt. 2” (https://www.yout...

Episode 3: Singal-Minded Conversations: Is Implicit Bias Overhyped?

May 06, 2019 16:13 - 1 hour - 54 MB

For today’s Singal-Minded Conversations, I interviewed Patrick Forscher. Patrick is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas, where he runs the Group Disparities Lab. I’m very happy to be able to share this interv… Read More Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Episode 2: Singal-Minded Conversations: Dr. Katie Gordon On Suicide Research, The Campus Culture Wars, And Florida's Endearing Weirdness

April 29, 2019 12:00 - 54 minutes - 41.4 MB

For the second episode of what I have decided to call Singal-Minded Conversations, I interviewed Dr. Katie Gordon, a former professor of psychology at North Dakota State University who is now in private practice, and whose primary research… Read More Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Episode 1: Singal-Minded, The Interview: Katie Herzog

April 19, 2019 12:00 - 38 minutes - 22.3 MB

This is the first time I have ever recorded an audio interview and uploaded it to the internet! So this is very much an experiment and a work-in-progress — I am quite happy with the interview itself but naturally the production is rough ar… Read More Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.