Thinking Clearly: Recent Episodes
Bob Froehlich-Retired Chemist, Counselor, Psychology Professor and Julia Minton-Technology Consultant
In this age of fake news, alternative facts and information overload, this podcast offers cognitive self-defense strategies and topics that will help you understand and master critical thinking in forming your claims beliefs and opinions.
Patrick Hurley, Philosophy Professor Emeritus at University of San Diego and author of the widely acclaimed textbook: A Concise Introduction to Logic, joins us to discuss: the role of logic in acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs; the most important aspects of logic for critical thinkers to master; what can be done to encourage better practices in our thinking, communication and belief formation; using logic to navigate issues which relate to values; and a variety of other topics.
Early in his career our guest, Bill Adair, worked as a journalist, author, and later founded the fact-checking organization Politifact. And in 2013 he accepted a position at Duke University as the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, where he now teaches journalism in the Sanford School of Public Policy and directs the Duke Reporters’ Lab. We discuss the negative effects of lying in politics, different types of lies, why people fall for lies, how fact-checking works, the response of journalists to political lying, and his recent book: Beyond the Big Lie-The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.
Untrue information is called misinformation, and intentionally spread misinformation is known as disinformation. When one uses disinformation to further one’s own agenda, especially in the political realm, then the information has been weaponized. And the continued acceleration of weaponized information further erodes our trust in experts, media, and other institutional sources of accurate information, and severely damages the social trust required for a healthy democracy. The “code red” conditions now prevalent in America motivate us to revisit an episode of Thinking Clearly (from May of 2022), which explores the "Nature of Trust", and to include new, updated comments from the present.
This episode looks back to the previous episode: # 22- Worldview-The Elephant in the Room of Critical Thinking, and updates it from the perspective of 2025.
This episode takes a deep dive into the concept of “worldview”, based on the research and work done by Annick de Witt: researcher, writer, teacher, and founder of the organization Worldview Journeys. Topics discussed include: conceptualizing the idea of worldview; how our worldview might affect our beliefs and behaviors; examples of types of worldviews; methods of uncovering our own worldview and the worldviews of others we communicate with; how an awareness of worldviews can help us examine our own beliefs while also improving our dialogues with others.
Even though they affect all of our lives, most of us know almost nothing about how policies are made, especially policy made by our state and federal governments. So, Julia and Bob learned a lot from this conversation with guest: Robert MacCoun, Law Professor at Stanford University. With a Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degree in Psychology, professor MacCoun has long worked at the nexus between law and psychology and specialized in bringing evidence-based policy making into policy decisions, including controversial areas such as military policy debates about allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the US military and drug policy. His book, "Drug War Heresies" is considered a landmark scholarly analysis of the drug legalization debate.
This discussion with philosopher, former tenured professor at Iowa State University, and now independent critical thinking educator and consultant, Kevin deLaplante, revisits the importance and benefits of critical thinking in today’s post-truth world, reviews the basic skills involved with critical thinking and understanding of human cognitive vulnerabilities, while also introducing more recent ideas about human cognition like the Predictive Processing Model and Extended Mind Theory. The resources for learning and practicing critical thinking, found at Kevin’s Argument Ninja Dojo membership program, are also discussed.
Researcher, author and former Research Manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Renée DiResta, discusses how numerous internet-savvy individuals (influencers) are causing a profound shift in power and influence over our politics, beliefs and behavior, as outlined in her recent book: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. She also discusses: what can be done to mitigate the negative effects of this influence while harnessing the power of the internet to bring us together to thrive as we reestablish the trust and cooperation needed to meet our future global challenges.
Professor Jacqueline Gottlieb, Principal Investigator at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute and former head of the Research Cluster on Curiosity at Columbia University’s Center for Science and Society, brings her research experience and deep thinking about the human brain's higher cognitive functions—including decision making, memory, and attention—to discuss that wonderful and invaluable human capability that we call curiosity.
Second time Thinking Clearly guest, Tania Israel, Professor of Counseling Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, guides us through how to overcome the toxic effects of consuming politicized news and social media in this current, highly polarized American environment and discusses how to more effectively communicate with people holding opposing views to ours. Professor Israel is the author of the recently published book: Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation.
Calling on his experience in evidence-based policy making, teaching a course at UC Berkeley called Sense and Sensibility and Science, and coauthoring the book Third Millennium Thinking-Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, social scientist and law Professor at Stanford University, Robert MacCoun, discusses: how to avoid failure modes when making decisions; using practices, and tools of science to make better decisions in our every-day-lives; the value of probabilistic thinking; how to weave facts and values together; and how to reboot trust and develop a new collaborative approach to our shared problems and opportunities.
Research and current theories about the nature of human consciousness are explored with guest Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. Topics include: how human consciousness can be thought of as controlled hallucination, the relationship of human consciousness to critical thinking, how thinking of the brain as a "prediction machine" affects how we form beliefs, and a number of other topics from Professor Seth’s international best selling book: Being You-a New Science of Consciousness. Dr. Seth has co-authored close to 200 journal publications, and is a regular contributor to the New Scientist, The Guardian, and BBC.
Thinking Clearly hosts Bob and Julia review their definition of critical thinking, discuss how doing a show about critical thinking has changed them, and do several demonstrations of best practices (using the LAP-EFI method) for having productive, civil dialogues with people who have different views than yours.
Dr. Seema Yasmin, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, discusses: information disorder and its treatment, common techniques used for pushing lies, the use of narrative in communicating, the history and current state of journalism in America, how to best consume the news and mitigate the negative effects of social media, and a wide variety of other topics. Dr. Yasmin has investigated disease outbreaks for the CDC, worked as a CNN medical analyst and authored many books including: What the Fact? - Finding Truth in all the Noise.
In this fourth in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 Presidential Election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you’ll hear a previous episode that we recorded with Colonel (retired) Steve Gerras, who teaches critical thinking at the Army War College, sharing his advocacy and passion for critical thinking, and his experiences of teaching it to future military leaders. Professor Gerras has a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and has authored and coauthored many publications including the widely circulated: “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.”
The development of artificial intelligence naturally leads us to deeply explore what intelligence, reasoning and knowledge are; the processes required to achieve them; and the implications that has for human thought, belief and decision making—all topics that have been deeply thought about by our guest, Leslie Valiant, Harvard University Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Professor Valiant is the winner of the 2010 A.M. Turing Award and author of three books, including his recent book: The Importance of Being Educable-a New Theory of Human Uniqueness.
In this third in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 presidential election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you’ll hear an episode that we recorded with Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common—a non-profit organization focused on understanding the forces driving us apart and working to bring us together to tackle our shared challenges.
As we head into the US 2024 Presidential Election with the knowledge that America is now as polarized as it has been since the civil war and that this amount of polarization drastically impairs our democratic process, we revisit the organization Braver Angels, which was founded "to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic." From his experience as head of marketing, digital, and communications strategy for Braver Angels, Ciaran O’Connor, discusses political depolarization, the work of Braver Angels and what people who use the variety of free services offered at: braverangels.org can experience and use to improve their conversations and help heal our democratic republic.
Second time guest, Professor Melanie Trecek-King, updates us on what’s new in teaching critical thinking and new on her website resources at: Thinking Is Power. She also discusses Inoculation Theory as a foundation for recent work being done to combat mis- and disinformation by the Mental Immunity Project
In the spirit of promoting citizenship in our democracy, during this time as the 2024 presidential election begins to ramp up, every once in a while Julia and I will replay one of our previous episodes—an episode that reminds us of how important critical thinking is to our democracy. So, here’s the first of those: Thinking Clearly episode #79: How critical thinking can make us better citizens and cure our ailing democracy-with guest Timothy Redmond.
Disinformation and its danger to our social fabric and democracy are the focus of this discussion with philosopher, educator and author, Lee McIntyre. Lee holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. His latest book: Disinformation-How to fight for Truth and Protect Democracy is hot off the press.
Jonathan Howard, MD joins hosts Bob and Julia to discuss the role of critical thinking in health and medicine and how critical thinking is especially important in crisis management such as the COVID pandemic. Dr. Howard is currently an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at New York University, Langone Health and the Chief of Neurology at Bellevue Hospital. And two of his books, Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes and We Want Them Infected: How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID, provide foundation for this conversation.
On this the 84th episode of Thinking Clearly, hosts Bob and Julia got the seven year itch to look back and pick one episode that they thought deserved replay in its entirety. Their pick encapsulates one of the main themes of Thinking Clearly and focuses on the importance of having a universal process, accessible by all, for reliably assessing reality and forming beliefs. Bob and Julia call that process “critical thinking” but their guest: journalist, deep thinker, and author, Jonathan Rauch, calls it The Constitution of Knowledge. This episode originally aired mid-pandemic on Oct. 7, 2021.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been impacting our lives in a variety of ways including our web searches, social medial experiences and even our telephone conversations with customer service representatives, and that impact will likely be accelerating at an exponential rate. This episode invites listeners to begin preparing for this changing environment as hosts Bob and Julia discuss the foundational knowledge for understanding current AI models, the relationship between AI and critical thinking, and the risks and benefits of this advancing technology. Also included is a demonstration of the large language model ChatGPT.
Alan Bensley, Psychology Professor and author of two textbooks on critical thinking: “Critical Thinking in Psychology: a unified skills approach” and “Critical Thinking in Psychology and Everyday Life”—from Frostburg State University—joins Bob and Julia to discuss: the most effective ways to teach critical thinking and the biggest challenges students face in mastering those skills. Other topics include: measuring effectiveness of classroom critical thinking instruction; how to identify unsubstantiated claims; and a focus on unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and what we know about the people who are prone to believing and promoting them.
Psychologist Emlen Metz discusses her research on Actively Open-minded Thinking and her current work at the Lawrence Hall of Science at U.C. Berkeley developing curricula on scientific-critical-thinking for high school and undergraduate classrooms and her work on a project called Public Editor, described as: “a massive effort to clean up the news.”
Journalist, author and public speaker Guy Harrison— a longtime advocate for skepticism, critical thinking and science appreciation—discusses the virtues, benefits and joy of critical thinking and how understanding core ideas in science can add value to all of our lives. Guy has authored eight books, including: Think Before You Like: Social Media's Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed and At Least Know This: Essential Science to Enhance Your Life.
Thinking Clearly guest, political scientist, author and educator Timothy Redmond, discusses the toxic effects of extreme political tribalism on our democratic institutions and offers hope and solutions—as detailed in his recent book: Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It.
Psychologist, author and entrepreneur, Gary Klein, joins us a second time to take a closer look at experts, skilled intuition and many of the other topics associated with Naturalistic Decision Making—a process of understanding how people make decisions and perform cognitively complex functions in demanding, real-world situations.
Mark Edward tells the story of his journey from the world of magicians and psychics to becoming a skeptical activist who promotes science and critical thinking. As a skilled practitioner of mentalism, Mark has authored a number of books on magic, mentalism, and séance production, including his revealing book: Psychic Blues. And, on this episode of Thinking Clearly, Mark will do a demonstration, with Julia, of how a mentalist-psychic reading is done.
The conjunction fallacy, base rate neglect and the Monty Hall Problem are some of the topics discussed as guest John Allen Paulos from Temple University offers up a host of essential critical thinking tools relating to understanding probability and other statistical concepts. Professor Paulos authored the widely acclaimed book, Innumeracy-Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences and will give listeners a preview of his new book: Who's Counting?: Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories from Pop Culture, Puzzles, Politics, and More.
Under very unusual conditions, Jon Guy made a transition from one who never thought much about skepticism, the nature of science and critical thinking to learning and mastering those topics and writing the excellent and comprehensive book: Think Straight—An Owner’s Manual for the Mind—described on the Rowman & Littlefield web page as: “a tour de force through the science and philosophy of the human mind.” In this episode, a variety of important tools for improving our thinking are discussed as Jon emphasizes that improving the quality of our thinking, improves the accuracy of our representation of reality, which leads to better decisions and a higher quality of life.
Our guest, Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College, became dissatisfied with students mindlessly memorizing facts about biology, so she designed a general-education science course that puts less emphasis on facts and more on science and information literacy and critical thinking. Her commitment to these topics also prompted her to create the wonderful teaching and resource-filled website, which can be found on-line at: Thinking Is Power.
Dr. James Zimring, professor, medical researcher and author of the books What Science Is And How It Works and Partial Truths-How Fractions Distort Our Thinking, describes how the form of a simple fraction can be used as a conceptual framework to understand errors that we commonly make in our thinking. Many aspects of critical thinking are discussed, including: heuristics and biases, the advantages and disadvantages of our human tendency to perceive patterns, the primacy effect, the power of disconfirmation and what we can do to minimize errors in our thinking.
Dr. Paul Thagard is our guest on this final episode of a three-part series on The Nature of Trust. Paul is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, author and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy from the University of Waterloo. As described in his 3-book Treatise on Mind and Society, he discusses the relatively new approach in cognitive science, called the Semantic Pointer Theory of Cognition and explains how trust can be viewed through that lens. The discussion also includes some of his perspectives on misinformation that will be found in his forthcoming book: Misinformation: How information works, breaks, and mends.
This second edition in a three-part series on The Nature of Trust features guest Dr. Kevin Vallier, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University and author of the books: Must Politics Be War? and Trust in a Polarized Age. Topics discussed include the importance of social and political trust in our liberal democracy, the relationship between trust and political polarization, possible causes of falling trust levels, how our declining trust levels might be strengthened, the role of cultural change in trust and polarization, whether there are fatal flaws in our democratic system, and the relationship of trust to critical thinking.
In this episode of Thinking Clearly, Bob and Julia introduce the issue of trust. They examine what it is, give a sampling of some of the extensive research on trust, present results from survey information on trust and discuss how trust relates to critical thinking. In this episode, you’ll also hear a clip from recent recordings Bob made, with a sampling of people talking about what they trust and what they don’t trust.
Thinking Clearly guest, Dr. Tania Israel, Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara—author of the book: Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide—discusses the importance of (and how to learn) crucial communication and relationship building skills, including reflective listening and well-crafted questions, to more effectively connect with those whose beliefs are different from ours.
Guest Stephen Hawkins is the director of research at More in Common—a non-profit organization focused on understanding the forces driving us apart and working to bring us together to tackle our shared challenges. The discussion focuses on research findings revealing a number of hidden political “tribes” in America, the lack of accuracy with which opposing partisan groups perceive each other, and ideas for what needs to happen to bring Americans together to tackle our shared challenges.
Street Epistemology is a conversational tool that helps people reflect on the quality of their reasons and the reliability of the methods they have used to form their deeply-held beliefs and to clarify the degree of confidence they have in those beliefs. Anthony Magnabosco, co founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit organization Street Epistemology International, join Bob and Julia to discuss the benefits that come with learning and practicing the technique.
With the view that America is now as polarized as it has been since the civil war, and that this amount of polarization drastically impairs our democratic process, the organization Braver Angels was founded "to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic." From his experience as head of marketing, digital, and communications strategy for Braver Angels, Ciaran O’Connor discusses political depolarization, the work of Braver Angels, and what people who use the variety of programs offered by Braver Angels can experience and learn.
When making a judgment about what to do or believe—when there are risks involved—it becomes important to look at the consequences of our choices, and this involves accurately assessing both the risks and benefits of those choices. With the help of guest David Ropeik, who coined the term "perception gap" and has authored two books on the subject, Bob and Julia examine risk-benefit as a critical thinking tool.
Starting with a discussion of taking an evolutionary perspective and then briefly describing: Human Evolutionary History, Predictive Processing, The Dual Processing Model, Cultural Co-evolution, Group Polarization, Identity Protective Cognition, and the impact of Cultural Change on Polarization, the hosts conclude with thoughts about the COVID pandemic as a challenge to our ability to find common ground and work cooperatively toward common goals.
As many of us search for ways to escape from this post-truth world and set foot on solid ground where we can trust each other to make legitimate arguments about our differing beliefs and strive together to find shared truths, Jonathan Rauch, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, offers a possible path forward. Jonathan is an experienced journalist, deep thinker and author of eight books and numerous articles on a wide variety of topics. His most recent book is: The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.
As part of background research for his new book How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason, philosopher, educator, and author Lee McIntyre attended the 2018 Flat Earth International Conference in Denver Co. In this episode, Professor McIntyre discusses that experience, describes the nature of science denialism, and suggests what to do when we encounter it.
Colonel (retired) Steve Gerras teaches critical thinking at the Army War College. On this edition of Thinking Clearly, he shares his advocacy and passion for the subject, and his experiences of teaching it to future military leaders. Professor Gerras has a Masters Degree and PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and has authored and coauthored many publications including the widely circulated: “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.”
The term “attention economy” has become a buzzword in our current zeitgeist. But 30 to 40 years ago Michael Goldhaber, who has a PhD in physics coupled with a passionate 1960’s brewed concern about social and political justice, began thinking and writing about human attention as a scarce resource and made predictions about how the newly emerging internet would interact with our attention and eventually transition us to an attention economy. His early predictions were then rediscovered and described in a New York Times article published in Feb., 2021. Topics discussed in this episode include: the attention economy, how it contributes to misinformation and what we can all do can do to reduce the pollution in our information environments.
Hosts, Bob Froehlich and Julia Minton, review the Thinking Clearly definition (and longer description) of critical thinking and discuss the importance that genuine curiosity has to the critical thinking process. They then discuss a number of "deep questions" that have grown out of their background research from doing Thinking Clearly for almost five years.
With their guest Andy Norman, Bob and Julia discuss the idea of applying biomedical concepts such as infection, immunity, and inoculation to what happens when humans are exposed to invasive false, misleading and harmful ideas and beliefs. Andy Norman is the author of the recent book: Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think and the founder of CIRCE, The Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative.
Dr. Bill Doherty, professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, joins hosts Bob and Julia to discuss how to best manage those difficult political discussions with family and friends who have viewpoints sharply different from ours. Also discussed is the work of Braver Angels, an organization co-founded by Bill Doherty with a mission to: “bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.”
How do the groups that we belong to affect our feelings, beliefs and behavior? Can we really think critically about issues without being strongly influenced by the norms established by those groups? These and others questions are discussed with Professor Amber Gaffney from Humboldt State University.
Jevin West, Associate Professor at the University of Washington and coauthor of the recent book: Calling Bullshit – the Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, joins Bob and Julia to discuss the nature of BS, how it has changed with the emergence of the internet and social media, and when and how to challenge it. Other topics include: how to reestablish trust in information and the danger of “predatory publishing.”
Flying solo on this episode, Bob discusses three perspectives on how our brains work and then, with the help of prerecorded audio clips, surveys the current state of our information pollution, considers some possible scenarios about our information future, including a possible "infocalypse" created by so-called "deep fakes", and gives ideas and resources for what can be done to clean up the information pollution and restore trust in our abilities to seek the truth of the matter.
There is no end in sight to the amount of misinformation and disinformation that we are currently being exposed to. With a contentious US presidential election and the seasonal spike in COVID-19 pandemic cases, that pollution is on the rise, and information that used to be politically neutral is now being politicized and weaponized. These and other topics, including the Pro-Truth Pledge movement, are discussed with guest, Tim Ward, co- author of the book: Pro Truth: a Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back into Politics.
In this episode, Bob and Julia demonstrate a unique information vetting process using as an example, a prevalent internet meme about the Black Lives Matter movement. The vetting process begins with introspection in regard to one's motivation, biases, and goals, as relating to the information being vetted, and then proceeds by analyzing the authenticity, source, claims and logical arguments put forth in the information.
A process of civil dialogue and intellectual empathy is used by hosts Bob Froehlich and Julia Minton and their guest, Pastor Dave Seaford, to share each of their perspectives on the "Nature of Truth." Dr. Dave Seaford is the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Redway, California and is also Professor of Apologetics, Reason and Theology at Veritas Bible Institute.
In this episode Bob and Julia discuss the polluted state of our information environment in this complex, technical, culturally shifting world we're living in. They then outline a step by step method for vetting our information, in order to help us tentatively decide its truth value and to help decide what to do with the information. This is the first of a three-part series on Thinking Clearly called: "Seeking the Truth of the Matter."
As the US Presidential Election approaches, a swarm of issues are being politicized—exposing us to communication from downright propaganda pieces and disinformation to reasoned balanced arguments—making this a great time to start practicing critical thinking. The timing also makes long-time critical thinking educator, Jonathan Haber, author of Critical Voter and Critical Thinking, the perfect guest for this episode of Thinking Clearly.
Bob and Julia talk strategies for recognizing and combating misinformation with psychologist and cartoonist Dr. John Cook from George Mason University. Dr Cook, a specialist in countering science denial, discusses various methods of inoculation against misinformation and the uses of cartoons, humor, and educational games to counter misinformation and build public resilience against it.
Hosts Bob and Julia discuss a variety of topics with Anthony Weston, including: the most important aspects of teaching critical thinking and those most difficult for students to master; why it's important, at this time in our culture, to learn and practice critical thinking skills; the prevalence of values-based aspects in issues we encounter in our information environment; and what led to Weston's passion for and vision to develop the agrarian, intentional community, Hart’s Mill Ecovillage.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has made critical thinking and reducing the misinformation and disinformation in our information environment more important than ever. In addition to hosts Bob and Julia discussing the issue, this episode features a prerecorded interview that Bob did with Professor Amanda Hughes from Brigham Young University, an expert on the functioning of social media during disasters and crises.
This episode features a discussion with guest, Baba Brinkman. Baba is a Canadian rapper and playwright, now based in New York, especially known for recordings and performances that combine hip hop music with literature, theatre, and science. Topics discussed include: rap and hip hop as effective means for promoting science and critical thinking, science-based evidence and critical thinking in times of crisis and some of the issues around critical thinking and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
This discussion, with Dr. Spencer Greenberg, focuses on a variety of free tools and mini-courses, on-line at: clearerthinking.org. These fun, interactive tools and mini-courses, developed by Dr. Greenberg and associates, have been meticulously designed to improve your critical thinking skills, help you understand yourself more deeply, form new positive habits, and make better decisions. Dr. Greenberg has a PhD in mathematics with a specialty in Machine Learning. Find out more about his work at: spencergreenberg.com.
This episode focuses on how we humans "construct" our perceptions of reality using our “Bayesian Brain” to integrate incoming sensory information with our preconceived notions of the world around us. Citing work done by Dr. Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex in England, Bob and Julia discuss this and related topics appearing in the special edition of "Scientific American", titled: "Truth Lies & Uncertainty."
The connectivity of the internet allows us to retrieve accurate information, which can be used to support true beliefs, but also exposes us to misinformation and disinformation created to perpetuate false beliefs. In this episode, U.C. Irvine Professor Cailin O'Connor, coauthor of the book "The Misinformation Age", discusses her research using computer modeling to explore how false beliefs form, spread and persist.
How our beliefs affect us and belief change are topics of focus in this episode of Thinking Clearly with guest: Professor Michael Wolfe from Grand Valley State University. Professor Wolfe's research interests on how our preexisting beliefs affect our evaluation of arguments, the degree to which we change our beliefs when exposed to information that is either consistent or inconsistent with those beliefs and the implications of his findings for our ability to be critical thinkers are also explored.
As discussed in his recent book: "The Know-It-All Society", Michael P. Lynch, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, helps us take another look at the current state of dialogue in contemporary American culture as we discuss how polarization, conviction and intellectual arrogance has led us to believe that we have nothing to learn from those whose convictions are different from ours and rewards us for displaying emotional outrage, rather than more deliberative, rational thinking.
This episode focuses on the power of understanding statistics and probability, including how avoiding base rate neglect can help you make better decisions. Also discussed are: superforecasting (what it takes to make more accurate predictions of future events) and the power of understanding the statistical principle of regression toward the mean.
In this episode, guest philosopher, educator and author Lee McIntyre discusses his latest book, "The Scientific Attitude", and explains that the concept he calls "the scientific attitude" offers the best way to both describe what is special about science while it also solves the demarcation problem of separating science from non-science and pseudoscience. A host of other topics, including science denialism and the myth of the scientific method, are also discussed.
In this episode Bob and Julia discuss a variety of critical thinking mini-topics, including the skill of being able to identify and distinguish different kinds of claims (descriptive vs. normative and claims that are conclusions of arguments) and emphasize the power of using this skill in this age of information pollution. They also explore the difference between opinions and beliefs, the relation of skepticism to critical thinking and what is meant by the "Skeptic's Sniff Test".
Bob and Julia discuss the nature of skepticism and its relationship to critical thinking and the nuts and bolts of using and editing Wikipedia with guest Susan Gerbic, science advocate and activist skeptic. Susan is a co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics, founder and leader of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia Project and a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer.
Have you ever wondered why some people have such different opinions than you on certain hot button issues; for example: climate change or gun control? Why don’t we all just objectively look at the evidence and weigh the risks against the benefits? To help answer these types of questions, Bob and Julia along with guest, Professor John Gastil from Penn. State University, explore the concepts and research in an intriguing area of human studies called Cultural Cognition.
With simple explanations and a dash of humor, John Allen Paulos, Mathematics Professor from Temple University, unpacks some topics from statistics that are essential for critical thinkers in navigating the complex terrain of our modern world. Professor Paulos has authored nine books including "Innumeracy", the classic book on statistics and critical thinking.
This episode with guest Benjamin Shaffer, Professor of Philosophy from Humboldt State University, features a discussion of how critical thinkers can best identify, understand, and reason through values-based/moral/ethical arguments.
Richard Parker, Professor Emeritus of philosophy at California State University, Chico and co-author of the textbook:
"Critical Thinking", joins hosts Bob and Julia to discuss the challenges of teaching critical thinking, difficulties learners have
mastering the subject, and why critical thinking skills matter. Resources for learning critical thinking are also discussed.
This New Year edition of "Thinking Clearly" taps into the humor, good nature, and deep thinking of musician, song writer, podcaster, skeptic and advocate for science and critical thinking, George Hrab.
In this episode, Bob and Julia review issues related to current increases in Tribalism and Polarization in American culture & politics, introduce the related concept of Cultural Cognition, and conclude with a discussion of some of the topics and guests that will be coming up in future shows.
The vulnerabilities in our quick, intuitive judgments, including the many biases that may mislead us, have been extensively discussed on Thinking Clearly, but this episode celebrates the positive side of intuition with one of its primary researchers, Dr. Gary Klein
This show focuses on how being open to new learning relates to critical thinking, as hosts Bob and Julia discuss insights they've had as a result of hosting the show and how some of what they've learned has affected them.
In his new book “Think Again-How to Reason and Argue”, Duke University Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong says: “The level of discourse and communication in politics and also in personal life has reached new lows.” In this edition of Thinking Clearly, Bob, Julia, and their guest explore the importance of understanding and promoting good arguments and other solutions to raising the present level of discourse.
Critical thinkers are often faced with trying to evaluate arguments regarding political policies or various technologies. Whereas experts have developed rigorous, quantitative methods of risk-benefit assessment, most of us simply use our intuitive and emotional processing to create a feeling about the issue at hand as being either good or bad. Hosts Bob and Julia examine risk-benefit assessment as a tool for critical thinking in a discussion with Professor Daniel Cole from Indiana University.
Bob and Julia go deeper into the topic of tribalism and polarization, using audio clips from several different sources to prompt their lively back and forth discussion.
The words "tribalism" and "polarization" have become commonplace when describing recent sociopolitical trends in America. Host Bob Froehlich and guest, Philosopher, Podcaster and Master Teacher Kevin deLaplante, discuss the psychology of tribalism and the effect of increased polarization on critical thinking.
Critical thinking encompasses a wide variety of concepts and related topics. This episode reviews the high points of what past shows have covered and re-anchors some of the most important aspects of the critical thinking process to master for becoming a better critical thinker.
In this episode, Bob and Julia unpack the construct of worldview, discuss its relevance to critical thinking and demonstrate how to uncover one's own worldview and the worldviews of others.
Show hosts, Bob and Julia, demonstrate a civil dialogue as they discuss a topic about which they disagree. Even though the topic, "Humanity is Worth Saving", generates a lively discussion, the focus is on the process of civil dialogue rather than the content of the topic. An-studio facilitator helps guide the discussion of process.
This show is part 2 of a series on "Having Civil Dialogues." Julia and Bob discuss the issue, guided by audio clips from radio host and author, Celeste Headley, social psychologist, Professor Rob Willer, and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster Krista Tippett. The question of how to integrate the principles of Civil Dialogue into the process of critical thinking is explored.
With incivility on the rise in the U.S., this episode focuses on the importance of and methods for having civil dialogues. Bob and Julia discuss the topic with Arizona State University Professors Jennifer Linde and Clark Olson, co-founders of the Institute for Civil Dialogue and co-authors of the book "Hot Topics, Cool Heads: A Handbook for Civil Dialogue."
Bob and Julia discuss the "is"/"ought" distinction and the process of recognizing and analyzing arguments that contain moral considerations, using passage of California SB 277 as an example.
Bob discusses motivated reasoning, the use of critical thinking to answer moral questions, and related topics with guest Peter Ditto, Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior at U.C. Irvine.
Bob and Julia summarize, and discuss in broad terms, how current paradigms in cognitive science relate to the importance of using critical thinking in our present informationally polluted environment. This freewheeling discussion and calls from listeners change the direction of the show, which was originally planned to focus on heuristics, biases and debiasing strategies.
This episode goes in depth about critical thinking with guest Dr. Kevin deLaplante, creator of the Critical Thinker Academy and Argument Ninja Academy and focuses on new developments in critical thinking, the importance of thinking critically and resources for further skill development.
When we’re compelled to explain how something works, including political issues and policies, we are forced to confront our lack of knowledge. That idea, its implications, and related studies from cognitive science frames this discussion with guest, Professor Steven Sloman, one of the authors of the recent book, “The Knowledge Illusion – why we never think alone.” This show aired live on Aug. 3, 2017.
Bob and Julia discuss beliefs and why we cling to false beliefs. Several examples of commonly held beliefs which turned out to be “false” (not supported) are discussed including: high rates of suicide during the Christmas season, vortices in sink and toilet drains spinning in opposite directions in northern and southern hemispheres, the PizzaGate Conspiracy Theory and the effectiveness of proanthocyanidins from cranberries to cure urinary tract infections. This show aired live on July 6, 2017.
The concepts of frames and narratives, which can be used to manipulate beliefs and opinions, are described with the help of audio clips from George Lakoff, President Trump’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress, Science Communicator Aaron Huertas, and Science Writer Lee Gutkind. This show aired live on June 1, 2017.
Topics, with guest Dr. Steven Novella, range from the importance of critical thinking in general, to a discussion of the importance of developing practices in healthcare and other professions as well as policies in the political arena, that are guided by good evidence and scientific research. Dr. Novella is executive editor of the blog "Science-Based Medicine", host of the podcast "Skeptics Guide to the Universe", and Master Teacher of "Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills".
Bob and guest, Professor Jevin West, Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, discuss the scientific method, real world practice of scientific research, and the importance of increasing our basic literacy of concepts in science and technology. Dr. West is co-director of the Data Lab at U of W and also co-teaches a new and novel course called “Calling BS in the Age of Big Data.” This show aired live on KMUD radio on April 6, 2017.
Bob and Julia compare and contrast the intuitive approach with the more deliberate analytic method of making decisions and forming beliefs looking at the research of Daniel Kahneman, Emeritus Professor from Princeton University, and research psychologist, Gary Klein. Audio clips from each of these two researchers aid the discussion. This show aired live on KMUD radio on March 2, 2017.
Part of our definition of critical thinking is: “….doing a thorough examination and evaluation of a robust cross-section of evidence relevant to the issue at hand when forming claims, conclusions, opinions and beliefs.” Guest Tim Miller, Digital Media & Learning Librarian from Humboldt State University, discusses with Bob and Julia how to best use the internet to obtain and evaluate evidence relevant to issues we care about. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Feb. 2, 2017.
Guest Professor of Journalism and Department Chair of Journalism and Mass Communication at Humboldt State University Marcy Burstiner, discusses current issues in journalism and journalism education, including the immediacy of news in the on-line news cycle. Burstiner also discusses the issue of fake news, and what news consumers can do to increase their quality of information. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Jan. 5, 2017.
The California Common Core Curricula, also called the Common Core State Standards, emphasizes collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking but is not well understood by non-educators. Guests, Lori Breyer and Colby Smart, from Humboldt County Education Department, explain the details of this approach to education. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Dec. 1, 2016.
The episode begins with a clip from Michael Shermer, author and editor of the Skeptic Magazine, discussing pareidolia and patternicity and then introduces definitions of critical thinking, rhetoric and propaganda, using audio clips to illustrate each as the in-depth conversation about the topic, with Community College English Professors Donna and Josh Potratz, develops. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Nov. 3, 2016
This discussion of ways we deceive ourselves features clips from Dr. Steven Novella, host of Skeptics guide to the Universe, and Kevin deLaplante, Lead Instructor of the Critical Thinking Academy, to illustrate the importance of being aware of our cognitive vulnerabilities and their relationship to critical thinking. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Oct. 6, 2016.
Guest, Humboldt State University Philosophy Professor, Benjamin Shaeffer, discusses sources of knowledge, evaluating premises and arguments, the difference between inductive and deductive arguments, what distinguishes justified belief from opinion and why critical thinking is important. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Sept. 1, 2016.
Bob answers a listener's email questions, including how to find the path to have a meaningful discussion from both sides when discussing differences of opinion. He also reviews arguments, premises and conclusions, and - guided by a clip from Dr. Kevin DeLaplante, Lead Instructor of the Critical Thinker Academy -discusses the relationship between critical thinking and living in a democracy. This show aired live on KMUD radio on Aug. 4, 2016.
In this first episode, hosts Bob Froehlich and Julia Minton give an overview of critical thinking and why it's important, especially in this age of alternative facts and fake news. Various definitions and perspectives on critical thinking are discussed, including those of Edward Glaser, Peter Boghossian, and Steven Novella. Deductive and inductive reasoning and other terms and concepts relative to critical thinking are introduced. The goal of building a Critical Thinking Community is also discussed. Resources for learning more about critical thinking are given and a list of topics for future shows is featured. Toward the end of the show, phone lines are opened for listener call-ins. This show aired live on KMUD radio on July 7, 2016.