The Cognitive Bias Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Dylan Thomas
The Cognitive Bias podcast explores the world of things we do that don't make any rational sense, one bias at a time.
In the bonus season finale, we speak to content designer Sarah Winters about clear language, the role of ego in government work, and why you should count the adjectives in news articles.
In this episode, we chat with digital strategist Jeff Eaton about the difficulty of picking the right metric, how we determine our values, and his new company, Autogram.
In this episode, we talk to Writing Is Designing authors Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfe about inclusive language, how salary negotiations are problematic, and founding of one of the most welcoming UX and content communities on the planet.
Just Enough Research author Erika Hall and I discuss the pitfalls of polling, the need for humility in research, James Baldwin, and why design needs to interrogate capitalism. And that's just for starters.
On this episode we talk once again to Ruined by Design author Mike Monteiro about the value of discomfort, the need for workers to organize, and why folks who look like him should absolutely not be deciding the future.
In this episode I talk to content strategist and speaker Eileen Webb about ethics, trauma-informed bias, and how hard it is to measure values.
In this episode I chat with Tiny MBA author Alex Hillman about the psychology of money, our false assumptions about business, and what we can learn from the 90's sitcom "Dinosaurs".
We chat with content strategist and comedy event organizer Malaika Carpenter about bias in comedy, the value of plain language, and how our language choices change how we design.
In this episode, I talk with content strategist, speaker, and author Margot Bloomstein about her upcoming book Trustworthy and how brands and even governments can build trust in a cynical time by leaning into their values and showing vulnerability at scale.
I sit down with Seer Interactive founder Wil Reynolds to discuss bias in algorithms, how tech can disproportionately single out Black people for injustice, and how to treat people ethically at a company.
In this episode, we talk to content strategist Margo Stern about fighting bias by slowing down users and setting sensible goals.
On this latest episode of the live podcast, we talk to Active Voice founder Sara Wachter-Boettcher about leadership, white supremacy, and the ways in which design perpetuates systems of oppression.
In this live recording we interview Kristina Halvorson, CEO of Brain Traffic and founder of Confab Events, about topics ranging from the role content strategy plays in mitigating bias, the value of plain language in politics, and the power of active listening.
Special announcement about an upcoming limited series run of The Cognitive Bias Podcast LIVE!
In our final episode, we talk to my son, Kiran Thomas, about the biases in schoolwork, The Amazing World of Gumball, and why General Grievous is so misunderstood. Thanks to everyone for listening!
After years of no solutions, we look at a few approaches for mitigating bias and applying some quality control to your decision-making.
For our 100th episode (yay!!), special guest Mbiyimoh Ghogomu walks us through some of the ways in which language influences our thinking without us even knowing it.
We talk to special guest Luca Passani about the biases that are playing out in Italian politics today.
We talk with Calm Clarity founder and CEO Due Quach about the neuroscience behind bias and concrete steps to overcome it.
We talk with Dan Singer, Senior Experience Designer at Think Company, about a survey of Philadelphia designers talking about their salaries and both the biases it uncovers and the biases he had to avoid when helping to create it.
We talk to Mike Monteiro, author of "Ruined by Design", about the biases plaguing tech today and what we can do about them.
We talk to developmentalist Mike O'Bryan about the nature of trauma and trauma-informed care and how it can influence how we think about school, community development, and policing. We also talk about how, on the 400th anniversary of slaves being brought to this country, the trauma of slavery is still affecting us today.
The day of the week might influence the decisions you make in everything from whether or not to miss a doctor's appointment to, yes, how you vote. We talk with Jet G. Sanders, Ph.D., assistant professor at the London School of Economics, about her research into how the day of the week impacts our tolerance for risk.
Live from the Philadelphia Podcast Festival we talk to Alex Hillman, co-founder of the legendary coworking space Indy Hall about building community, being an entrepreneur, and how to avoid bias along the way.
Our brains treat memory like totalitarian regimes treat history, with a LOT of fabrication.
For the fourth season premiere we have very special guest Meredith Broussard talking about her book, "Artificial Unintelligence", and the biases that infect the technologies we use.
My wife is the smartest person I know, so it's about time we had her on the show. In the season three finale, she walks us through why bronze medalists feel better than silver medalists and why it feels worse to miss a flight that was delayed than one that took off on time - and a whole lot more.
In which I take the Implicit Association Test and find out just how biased I really am.
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. Except for science and racism or sexism.
MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" confronts us with biases that we are still dealing with today.
Special guest Erica D. Frantz, Ph.D. joins the podcast to talk about priming, and how it impacts everything from police shootings to job interviews.
If it went well, that's on me. If it went poorly, that's on everything and everyone else.
We'll throw anyone under the bus to make sure we think the world is a good place to live. (Trigger warning: Discussion of sexual assault, mostly at the 10:30 - 11:30 mark)
Ingroup bias affects politics today, but it doesn't have to come from a strong affiliation. It can be generated by a coin toss.
People are not nearly as good at telling when we're scared or lying as we think they are.
Special guests Amanda Clark Renzulli and Briana Morgan talk about impostor syndrome and its connection to the Dunning-Kruger effect as well as how to deal with (or, more to the point, live with) impostor syndrome and how, at the end of the day, we need each other because on our own we have no idea what we're good or bad at.
Just because someone is attractive doesn't mean everything else about them is awesome, but try telling your brain that.
From officer involved shootings to drug policy, how we view others is riddled with life altering errors. Warning: This episode discusses the recent controversy revolving around the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
While I may think that it's an undisputed fact that Aliens is one of the best movies ever made, maybe that's an opinion?
We think we contribute more than we do. We think everyone thinks the same way we do. We're all basically Ego the Living Planet.
We're back for Season Three with a bias that helps us decide, usually unfairly, who deserves help.
This is a recording of my talk at UX Copenhagen about how we can design in a way that leverages or mitigates cognitive bias.
In this very special edition I share a talk I give about how we can do a better job of talking to one another both online and in real life, including some examples of how cognitive bias can get in the way of that, and some design solutions to help combat those biases.
Who gets to decide where good ideas come from? What biases govern innovation? In an interview with Nilofer Merchant about her amazing new book "The Power of Onlyness" we look at what happens when individuals overcome their biases to scale what they have to offer and make real change in the world.
That thing you think you see all the time now has been there all along. Also, we revisit an old bias that may cost you your holiday office party.
Special guest Kevin Smokler, author of "Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to 80's Teen Movies", joins Dave to talk about why we remember stuff (including movies) from the ages of 10-30 better than any other time.
It always takes longer to get things done than we think it will, even when we've done those exact same things before.
Does simply seeing something over and over make you like it more? Generally speaking, yes. Even if you have no idea what it is.
We react to low probability events as if they had a really high probability because our brains can't do math good.
We feel the pain of loss way more than the joy of gain, and that can impact how we buy and even how we teach.
A very personal bias but also a hopeful one. Why are we so bad at predicting how we'll feel in the future?
Why do we press the elevator button so many times? This is one bias that actually has an upside.
This bias explains everything from predatory lending to unhealthy eating. Oh, and binge watching, too.
This week, one of the biggest, baddest, scariest biases of them all. And one of the main reasons we're in the mess we're in.
Our memory skews in favor of making us look like we make awesome choices, even when we don't.
This week we look at the bias blind spot and how it relates to the debates we'll be having with each other over the next four years.
I've been looking up one cognitive bias a day to learn more about why we do the things that we do that don't make any sense. Here's what I've learned so far.