For a Sobering View of the Mind
—especially about its hidden and yet highly impactful aspects
The Cognitive Bias Podcast gives clear and succinct explanations of a whole range of cognitive biases that we need to learn about. It occasionally has longer episodes about how to make intentional designs based on an understanding of cognitive biases. Here is just one example:
The Confirmation Bias Podcast builds on the recognition of a universal “tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms your preexisting beliefs while giving less consideration to alternative possibilities regardless of fact.” It aims to “breakdown these biases and get to the root of the issue, and address why your preconceived notions may need to be updated.” The hosts don’t just talk about confirmation bias in general, but dive into how it manifests itself in important debates. Here is an example:
Hidden Brain talks about the unseen patterns of our life. The subtitle of the book of that title, by the host Shankar Vedantam, well captures its themes: “How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives.” Here are a few episodes that are particularly worth noting:
Invisibilia talks about how unseen—and in many cases unseeable—forces control our behaviors and shape our beliefs about both ourselves and the world around us. Here is a sample episode definitely worth checking out and following through:
You Are Not So Smart follows ever evolving studies in psychology, particularly those “about reasoning, biases, judgments, and decision-making.” The following episodes show the breadth of its coverage:
General Wisdom
—to anchor your Critical Thinking skills
On Being has a lot of rigorous and inspiring conversations with thinkers from different spiritual, not necessarily religious, backgrounds. The episode sampled here, for instance, talks about “civic spirituality” (explored with even greater intensity here). It is a timely conversation with writer and journalist Anand Giridharadas, titled “When the Market Is Our Only Language.” It touches on many subjects that are also covered in this class, such as the need to debunk myths about poverty and American dream (upward mobility). As the On Being program puts it,
We Americans revere the creation of wealth. Anand Giridharadas wants us to examine this and how it shapes our life together. This is a challenging conversation but a generative one: about the implicit moral equations behind a notion like “win-win” — and the moral compromises in a cultural consensus we’ve reached, without reflecting on it, about what and who can save us.
To the Best of Our Knowledge covers a wide range of subjects in areas from art and science to culture, history, and politics. The episode on “the Einstein you don’t know,” for instance, will no doubt make you think differently about Einstein and think critically about all that we assume about this man thanks to the Halo Effect.
Brains On! is a science podcast both for kids and for curious adults. Because kids are among its intended audience, its episodes are accessible but still rigorous. Its 4-part series on facts is particularly relevant here. It opens with “A brief history of facts”:
And, for a deeper dig, this series may be paired with the following philosophical discussion about facts from Hi-Phi Nation:
Note to Self promises to be “your guide in an accelerating world.” It directly confronts, for instance, troubles with digital devices and social media. Its Bored and Brilliant project is especially worth checking out.
TED Radio Hour weaves together segments from various TED talks under a theme, with additional interviews with the speakers. The episode “Decisions Decisions Decisions” includes this segment that connects with our Critical Thinking course particularly well:
Deep Dives into Historical and Current Issues
—to make you a better informed and more sophisticated thinker
1A (standing for “First Amendment”—hence the show’s subtitle “speak freely”) has its finger on the pulse of our times. It airs daily on weekdays and covers current social and political issues. The host Joshua Jonhson is an emulatable model when it comes to moderating conversations on sensitive subjects.
Code Switch delivers its promise to help you out if you ever “find yourself in a conversation about race and identity where you just get…stuck.” Its conversations are deeply informed by history as well as by the hosts’ own lived experiences as non-whites. Here is one among many great episodes, on the racial categorization of Jewish people:
Here is a related episode on the return of race science :
The Daily–New York Times offers roughly 20 minutes of in-depth journalist take every weekday on an issue of great significance. Here are just a few particularly noteworthy examples: “The Business of Selling Your Location” (on how much more extensive the data collected through our apps are than most of us imagine — or are aware we have consented to); “What the West Got Wrong about China” part 1 & part 2; “‘I am not an internet troll'” (eye-opening interview with the man behind a website called USAReally, a Russian news organization with ties to the 2016 election interference operation, which feeds unsuspecting Americans with allegedly “uncensored” news about US from Russia).
Fresh Air with Terri Gross, who “has earned a considerable reputation for her probing questions and unusual insights” (Peabody Awards citation; Gross, a master interviewer, recently shared her “8 spicy tips for having better conversations“). The program covers pressing social and political issues as well as science, arts, and pop culture. Check out these two, for instance:
On the Media pushes you to think beyond sound bites. You should definitely sit through its 5-part series “Busted: America’s Poverty Myths” if you truly care about the poor in this country. (After all, if you only have misguided beliefs or myths about poverty, then you can hardly find an effective way to alleviate it.)
More Perfect tells stories behind some of the Supreme Court’s biggest rulings and explains what they mean for “we the people.” One of its best episodes is “Sex Appeal,” which looks at how a key battle for gender equality, led by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (then-lawyer at the ACLU), was “won with frat boys and beer”:
On Point is, like 1A mentioned above, a “rare public space where you hear nuanced explorations of complex topics live and in real time. It’s urgency and timeliness matched with depth.” It has an excellent archive of podcasts on a wide range of current and historical matters. To sample a couple, check out “‘Frederick Douglass: Prophet Of Freedom’ Reveals Unknown Parts Of Abolitionist’s Life” , “Historian Yuval Harari’s 21 Issues Facing The 21st Century,” and “In ‘These Truths,’ Historian Jill Lepore Asks If America Has Lived Up To Its Ideals.”
Reveal, from The Center for Investigative Reporting, aims to “engage and empower the public through investigative journalism and groundbreaking storytelling that sparks action, improves lives and protects our democracy.” It’s on the heavy side. But you’ll be glad to know the truths that the journalists sometimes risked their lives to unearth.
Seeing White—Scene on Radio is a bingeable 14-part series on the very concept of “whiteness”—where did it come from? What does it mean (especially as a legal notion, stipulated in various court decisions)? What is it for? Anyone who genuinely cares about race problems in this country should hear out this series. It pairs perfectly with two other Podcast series. One is an even more in-depth and more comprehensive series on race, Speaking of Race. The other is White Lies, a captivating special investigative series about the murder of civil rights activist Rev. James Reeb in 1965. The final episode of this series is particularly important for us today:
Scene on Radio’s new series Men (on the history of male supremacy), which is modeled on Seeing White, is also worth checking out. The following episode shows what happens when male supremacy in U.S. gets combined with white supremacy–distorted depictions of Asian and African American men.
Slow Burn is a captivating investigative production that “excavates the strange subplots and forgotten characters of recent political history—and finds surprising parallels to the present.” Season 1 is on Watergate; Season 2 is on Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
Vox: The Ezra Klein Show offers thoughtful, in-depth, and often difficult conversations about important subjects, especially as pertaining to the current political environment. This episode on climate change is one that Klein himself “want[s] to put a hard sell on”:
And here is a critical examination of the role of media in responding or, for that matter, failing to respond, to Trump’s racism:
On Data Science, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
—to familiarize yourself with what increasingly affects your life
NPR—Big Data, a dedicated section that explores real-world uses of big data. Here are a couple of sample radio episodes (in addition to thought-provoking opinion pieces on such subjects as whether we can help to “rewire income disparity” by using data science):
Raw Data is a show about how information becomes power. Here is an episode on how politicians can use census data for political gains, an episode that is updated in light of the Trump administration’s fiasco about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Concerning AI focuses on norms and concerns in the AI world, a focus that’s captured well by its subtitle “Is there an existential risk to humanity from ai? If so, what do we do about it?” and by its recent episode “Will bias get us first?”, which discusses “the idea that we’re currently using narrow AIs to inform all kinds of decisions, and that we’re trusting those AIs way more than we would trust a human process in the same position, ignoring the type of thinking unique to humans, the slow kind. What could go wrong?”
Data Science Ethics Podcast touches upon a lot of statistical and cognitive biases that can affect data science in troubling and noteworthy ways. Most episodes are fairly short and informative.
Data Skeptic Podcast offers regular, up-to-date, insightful and very edifying discussions of all sorts of issues pertaining to data.
Data Stories is a podcast on data visualization. It encompasses a wide range of perspectives, connecting data visualization with the subject of cognitive bias, with feminist theories, with bullshit calling, with disinformation, with science communication, and with climate change, among other notable subjects, many of which overlap with the content of this Critical Thinking course.
Linear Digression breaks down complex real-world issues concerning ML and data science into accessible, relatively short episodes. They “go meta” in a lot of conversations, talking about, for instance, the troubling trends in ML scholarship and different types of data scientists and what they actually do. Such episodes are helpful to those of us who are not active players in the data industry.
Masters of Data interviews people on the frontline of the data industry. Many interviews speak to the subjects covered in this class. For instance, here is one with Alistair Croll about the relation between critical thinking, data analytics, and ethics:
Partially Derivative is touted as “car talk for the data community,” for its fun and accessible approach. Its social concern is reflected in its involvement in the Data For Democracy initiative.
Talking Machines features “human conversations about machine learning”—e.g. social and ethical implications of ML developments. Here is a sample episode that speaks to such concerns: