About

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, or are looking for non-BS self-improvement, then we think you'll love this podcast! Each week we invite a brilliant guest to bring four important ideas to discuss for an in-depth conversation. Topics include psychology, society, behavior change, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, math, economics, self-help, mental health, and technology. We focus on ideas that can be applied right now to make your life better or to help you better understand yourself and the world, aiming to teach you the best mental tools to enhance your learning, self-improvement efforts, and decision-making.

We take on important, thorny questions like:

What's the best way to help a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? How can we make our worldviews more accurate? How can we hone the accuracy of our thinking? What are the advantages of using our "gut" to make decisions? And when should we expect careful, analytical reflection to be more effective? Why do societies sometimes collapse? And what can we do to reduce the chance that ours collapses? Why is the world today so much worse than it could be? And what can we do to make it better? What are the good and bad parts of tradition? And are there more meaningful and ethical ways of carrying out important rituals, such as honoring the dead? How can we move beyond zero-sum, adversarial negotiations and create more positive-sum interactions?

Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, or wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, then we think you'll love this podcast!

Episodes

No results.

236:

A conversation with a sociopath (with M.E. Thomas)

235:

Highs and lows on the road out of the replication crisis (with Brian Nosek)

234:

Suffering and the self (with Jay Garfield)

233:

Choosing your strategy (with Seth Godin)

232:

How to be productive without burning out (with Anne-Laure Le Cunff)

231:

Does simply giving people money truly enable them to escape poverty? (with Miriam Laker)

230:

Who really controls US elections? (with Bradley Tusk)

229:

Communities of belief vs. communities of chemistry (with Tyler Alterman)

228:

Everyone — including you! — should host more events (with Nick Gray)

227:

What do we know for sure about human psychology? (with Simine Vazire)

226:

Pattern-breaking ideas, and startups that change the world (with Mike Maples)

225:

Decision-making and play-testing (with Dan Epstein)

224:

The path to utopia (with Nick Bostrom)

223:

Physical limits and the long-term future (with Anders Sandberg)

222:

Becoming a goat to avoid existential dread (with Thomas Thwaites)

221:

AI apocalypticism vs. AI optimism (with Adam Russell)

220:

Should we trust papers published in top social science journals? (with Daniel Lakens)

219:

Is psychology the same across cultures? (with Joseph Henrich)

218:

Spencer on The 80,000 Hours Podcast discussing money & happiness and hype vs. value (with Rob Wiblin)

217:

Concrete actions anyone can take to help improve AI safety (with Kat Woods)

216:

What do socialism and effective altruism have in common? (with Garrison Lovely)

215:

Raising our happiness baseline (with Sasha Chapin)

214:

Worldviews, altruism, and embracing variance (with Emmett Shear)

213:

Two things shape the course of your life: luck and your decisions (with Annie Duke)

212:

What we know and don't know about nutrition (with Gil Carvalho)

211:

Measuring everything that matters (with Doug Hubbard)

210:

What happens when you follow 100 self-help books to the letter? (with Kristen Meinzer)

209:

Aligning society with our deepest values and sources of meaning (with Joe Edelman)

208:

Separating quantum computing hype from reality (with Scott Aaronson)

207:

Should we pause AI development until we're sure we can do it safely? (with Joep Meindertsma)

206:

What should the Effective Altruism movement learn from the SBF / FTX scandal? (with Will MacAskill)

205:

Why are so many people experiencing homelessness in big cities in the U.S., and what can be done to help? (with Kevin Adler)

204:

Common body language mistakes and how to avoid making them (with Blake Eastman)

203:

True things, useful things, and the differences between them (with Derek Sivers)

202:

Should we widen our moral circles to include animals, insects, and AIs? (with Jeff Sebo)

201:

How to have a positive impact with your career (with Benjamin Hilton)

200:

Spencer's takeaways after 200 episodes (with Spencer Greenberg)

199:

Psychological change in a single session (with Jessica Schleider)

198:

Academic group think, free speech norms, and the psychology of time (with Anne Wilson)

197:

How can Stoicism improve your life? (with Bill Irvine)

196:

Is there a grand unified theory of everyone? (with Michael Muthukrishna)

195:

The alternate histories and possible futures of nuclear weapons (with Carl Robichaud)

194:

How can AIs know what we want if *we* don't even know? (with Geoffrey Irving)

193:

Schemas, goals, values, and the pursuit of happiness (with Jeff Perron)

192:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and beyond (with David Burns)

191:

There are shrinks, and then there are SUPER-shrinks (with Daryl Chow)

190:

Bringing conspiracy theorists back from the brink (with Jesse Richardson)

189:

Simulacra levels, moral mazes, and low-hanging fruit (with Zvi Mowshowitz)

188:

Effectively encouraging people to give more (with Josh Greene)

187:

We can't mitigate AI risks we've never imagined (with Darren McKee)

186:

What tools do students really need in order to become successful humans? (with AJ Crabill)

185:

Rethinking what it means to learn math (with Eugenia Cheng)

184:

Values, principles, and behavior change (with Eric Zimmer)

183:

Escaping a cult: physically, mentally, and emotionally (with Daniella Mestyanek Young)

182:

Win-Win vs. Moloch, the many-headed monster that may consume us all (with Liv Boeree)

181:

Do technological innovations yield net gains in the long run? (with Justin Smith-Ruiu)

180:

Money, status, power, and sex in nightclubs around the world (with Ashley Mears)

179:

Is bad air quality slowly harming us? (with Richard Bruns)

178:

Journalism in the age of AI (with Dylan Matthews)

177:

Experiments for enlightenment and fundamental wellbeing (with Jeffery Martin)

176:

Mothers who harm their children for attention (with Andrea Dunlop)

175:

Is evolutionary psychology just a bunch of "just so" stories? (with Geoffrey Miller)

174:

Systems of governance built on prediction markets (with Robin Hanson)

173:

Using metacognitive therapy to break the habit of rumination (with Pia Callesen)

172:

How quickly is AI advancing? And should you be working in the field? (with Danny Hernandez)

171:

Can we choose who we are? (with Gavin Leech)

170:

Normalizing catastrophes and catastrophizing normalcy (with Mike Pesca)

169:

What's wrong with society, and how can we fix it? (with Tim Urban)

168:

AI creativity and love (with Joel Lehman)

167:

Glimpses of enlightenment through nondual meditation (with Michael Taft and Jeremy Stevenson)

166:

Crumbling institutions, culture wars, and the dismissal economy (with Ashley Hodgson)

165:

Virtual reality, simulation theory, consciousness, and identity (with David Chalmers)

164:

Deep canvassing, street epistemology, and other tools of persuasion (with David McRaney)

163:

Will AI destroy civilization in the near future? (with Connor Leahy)

162:

Is AI development moving too fast or not fast enough? (with Reid Hoffman)

161:

Where philosophy meets the real world (with Peter Singer)

160:

Large language models, deep peace, and the meaning crisis (with Jim Rutt)

159:

Censorship, cancel culture, and truth-seeking (with Iona Italia)

158:

Why are birth rates plummeting? And how much does it matter? (with Malcolm & Simone Collins)

157:

Science is learning from start-ups (with Adam Marblestone)

156:

The range of human perceptual experiences (with Anil Seth)

155:

The capabilities approach to welfare (with Martha Nussbaum)

154:

Should you become a charity entrepreneur? (with Joey Savoie)

153:

Has political polarization been misunderstood? (with Nick Gillespie)

152:

How can you tell if you're cut out for entrepreneurship? (with Matt Clifford)

151:

Letting ChatGPT make your decisions for you (with Dax Flame)

150:

What good is college now that we can learn everything for free on the internet? (with Nick Dirks)

149:

Not seeing your face as a first step to enlightenment? (with Richard Lang)

148:

Is giving people a sense of agency better than giving them cash? (with Richard Sedlmayr)

147:

Are you working on the most important problem in your field? Why not? (with Rohit Krishnan)

146:

How huge a deal is climate change, really? (with Diana Ürge-Vorsatz and Misha Glouberman)

145:

Becoming a policy entrepreneur (with Tom Kalil)

144:

How to build your second brain (with Tiago Forte)

143:

Does every language have a word for depression? (with Sean Mayberry)

142:

What things in life *shouldn't* we optimize? (with Christie Aschwanden)

141:

How can we make science more trustworthy? (with Stuart Ritchie)

140:

Living a life of service to others (with Tasshin Fogleman)

139:

Mapping metaethics (with Lance Bush)

138:

Do organizations have to get slower as they grow? (with Alex Komoroske)

137:

How can we un-break politics? (with Magnus Vinding)

136:

Why capitalism doesn't live up to its promises (with Martin Schmalz)

135:

Anti-interoperability, vendor lock-in, and high switching costs (with Cory Doctorow)

134:

Separating the sinner from the sin (with Khomotso Moshikaro)

133:

The FTX catastrophe (with Byrne Hobart, Vipul Naik, Maomao Hu, Marcus Abramovich, and Ozzie Gooen)

132:

How to find out what people in rural communities really need (with Robert Chambers)

131:

Building healthy relationships (with Jayson Gaddis)

130:

Bringing rationality into politics (with Elizabeth Edwards-Appell)

129:

Sex workers — empowered, or victims? (with Melissa Broudo)

128:

What, if anything, do AIs understand? (with ChatGPT Co-Creator Ilya Sutskever)

127:

Forecasting the things that matter (with Peter Wildeford)

126:

Is the universe a computer? (with Joscha Bach)

125:

Inventions, stories, and ideas that don't matter (with Pablos Holman)

124:

Humble-bragging, counter-signalling, and impression management (with Övül Sezer)

123:

Ambition and expected value at extremes (with Habiba Islam)

122:

Career science, open science, and inspired science (with Alexa Tullett)

121:

Estimating the long-term impact of our actions today (with Will MacAskill)

120:

The differences between analytic and continental philosophy (with Alexander Prescott-Couch)

119:

Voting method reform in the US (with Aaron Hamlin)

118:

Critiquing Effective Altruism (with Michael Nielsen and Ajeya Cotra)

117:

How to form habits effectively (with Jim Davies)

116:

Are scientific journals just parasites? (with Chris Chambers)

115:

Human bias in the definition of intelligence (with Alene Anello)

114:

Guess culture vs. ask culture (with Will Eden and Sam Rosen)

113:

Are we all the heroes of our own stories? (with Cate Hall)

112:

Content moderation and its dis-content-moderators (with Ada Palmer)

111:

Exploring sex science and pseudo-science (with Mary Roach)

110:

The worst mistakes people make with diet and exercise (with Menno Henselmans)

109:

Communicating what you really mean (with Misha Glouberman)

108:

Taking pleasure in being wrong (with Buck Shlegeris)

107:

A philosophical theory of jerks (with Eric Schwitzgebel)

106:

How meanings get words and social sciences get broken (with Literal Banana)

105:

Dealing with our "groupstruckness" and "boundedness" (with Katja Grace)

104:

Math as a perspective on life (with Marcus du Sautoy)

103:

A former Al-Qaeda recruiter speaks (with Jesse Morton)

102:

Cognitive biases and animal welfare (with Leah Edgerton)

101:

Is it bad to coerce yourself to do unpleasant things? (with Matt Goldenberg)

100:

Our 100th episode! (with Uri Bram and Spencer Greenberg)

099:

Volunteering to be infected with COVID — for science! (with Josh Morrison)

098:

What we really mean when we say that something will "probably" happen (with Walt Hickey)

097:

Why is self-compassion so hard? (with Kristin Neff)

096:

Why it's so hard to have confidence that charities are doing good (with Elie Hassenfeld)

095:

Shovelgloves and extreme moderation (with Reinhard Engels)

094:

Mental models that apply across disciplines (with Blas Moros)

093:

Accessing pure consciousness at any moment (with Loch Kelly)

092:

Fight, flight, freeze, fawn (with Sasha Raskin)

091:

The science of addiction (with Crystal Dilworth)

090:

Evidence, reason, and compassion for all sentient beings (with Jamie Woodhouse)

089:

Can the economy grow indefinitely? (with Alyssa Vance)

088:

How many minds do you have? (with Kaj Sotala)

087:

Are you a wamb or a nerd? (with Tom Chivers)

086:

Behind the scenes of the online dating world (with Tom Quisel)

085:

The clash between social justice and anti-wokeness (with Amber Dawn and Holly Elmore)

084:

Tyler's three laws and twelve rules (with Tyler Cowen)

083:

Freezing to (not) death: cryonics and the quest for immortality (with Max Marty)

082:

The pre/trans fallacy, and why you should learn the skill of coaching (with Eben Pagan)

081:

What does humanity need to survive after a global catastrophe? (with David Denkenberger)

080:

To be successful, should you focus on your strengths or your weaknesses? (with Anna Paley)

079:

When is suffering good? (with Paul Bloom)

078:

What causes progress? And how can we stop it from slowing? (with Jason Crawford)

077:

Clearer paths and sharper ideas (with Lynette Bye)

076:

How to measure impact, and why we may have all been doing it wrong (with Michael Plant)

075:

Major and minor scales of consciousness (with Andrés Gomez Emilsson)

074:

The art of being a creative person (with Georgia Shreve)

073:

An interview with an A.I. (with GPT-3 and Jeremy Nixon)

072:

Beyond cognitive biases: improving judgment by reducing noise (with Daniel Kahneman)

071:

How to use your career to have a large impact (with Ben Todd)

070:

Why does psychotherapy work (when it works at all)? (with Scott Miller)

069:

How broken is social science? (with Matt Grossman)

068:

How to communicate better with the people in your life (with Sara Ness)

067:

How to hack your own brain (with Elizabeth Ricker)

066:

Why do civilizations collapse? And is ours next? (with Samo Burja)

065:

Utopia on earth and morality without guilt (with Joe Carlsmith)

064:

How do you leverage your limitations? (with Oliver Burkeman)

063:

The secrets of effective learning (with Andy Matuschak)

062:

Exploring your shadow and healing your traumas (with Aurora Quinn-Elmore)

061:

Dances with robots (with Catie Cuan)

060:

Heaven and hell on earth: a trip to the limits of human consciousness (with Anthony David Adams)

059:

How can we save the world? (with Toby Ord)

058:

Risk-Driven Development and Decentralization (with Satvik Beri)

057:

Statistics Intuitions and Social Science Reproducibility (with Stuart Buck)

056:

Genomics and Health Outcomes (with Noor Siddiqui)

055:

Rationality and Cognitive Science (with Anna Riedl)

054:

Self-Improvement and Behavior Change (with James Norris)

053:

Everyday Statistics and Climate Change Strategies (with Cassandra Xia)

052:

Conscious Processes and Intelligence (with Richard Nisbett)

051:

Educational Restructuring and Investing (with Matt Greenfield)

050:

Chinese Culture and Love Addiction (with Ava King)

049:

User Engagement and Expert Intuition (with Rob Haisfield)

048:

Psychological Models and Parenting (with Divia Eden)

047:

Productive Conversations and Feedback Loops (with Julia Carvalho)

046:

EA Efficacy and Community Norms (with Stefan Schubert)

045:

Explanatory Depth and Growth Mindset (with Daniel Greene)

044:

AI Safety and Solutions (with Robert Miles)

043:

Online and IRL Relationships (with Steve Dean)

042:

Utilitarianism and Its Flavors (with Nick Beckstead)

041:

Cults and Social Needs (with Alice Mottola)

040:

History and Longevity (with Will Eden)

039:

Knowledge Management and Deugenesis (with Jeremy Nixon)

038:

Crypto Pros and Cons (with Sam Bankman-Fried)

037:

Behavior Change and Interpersonal Connection (with Ting Jiang)

036:

Scout and Soldier Mindsets (with Julia Galef)

035:

Social Science and Science Journalism (with Jesse Singal)

034:

Search Data and Self-Improvement (with Seth Stephens-Davidowitz)

033:

Poker and Productivity (with Chris Sparks)

032:

Moral Discourse and the Value of Philosophy (with Ronny Fernandez)

031:

Superintelligence and Consciousness (with Roman Yampolskiy)

030:

Meditation and Ontology (with Daniel Ingram)

029:

Rationality Education and Dating (with Jacob Falkovich)

028:

Preference Falsification and Postmodernism (with Michael Vassar)

027:

Moral Foundations Theory and Constructive Dialogue (with Caroline Mehl)

026:

Past / Future Selves and Intrinsic Values (with Simone Collins)

025:

Happiness and Hedonic Adaptation (with Rob Smith)

024:

Decision-Making Under Uncertainty and Entrepreneurship (with Miles Lasater)

023:

Sexuality and Dominance Hierarchies (with Malcolm Collins)

022:

Self-Improvement and Research Ethics (with Rob Wiblin)

021:

Antagonistic Learning and Civilization (with Duncan Sabien)

020:

Worldviews and Framing (with Elizabeth Kim)

019:

Intelligence and Creativity (with Scott Barry Kaufman)

018:

Scientific Progress and the Replication Crisis (with Geoff Anders)

017:

Enlightenment and Sex Work (with Aella)

016:

Scientific Progress and Political Feedback Loops (with Michael Nielsen)

015:

52 Living Ideas and the Four Systems Model (with Shrikant Rangnekar)

014:

Learning and Governance (with Emerson Spartz)

013:

Liberalism and Conservatism (with Cassandra Xia and Hank Racette)

012:

Psychedelics and Comedy (with Sarah Rose Siskind)

011:

Comfort Languages and Nuanced Thinking (with Kat Woods)

010:

Education and Charity (with Uri Bram)

009:

Negotiation and Psychological Immune Systems (with Julie Kheyfets)

008:

Life Experiments and Philosophical Thinking (with Arden Koehler)

007:

Death and Story-Telling (with A.J. Jacobs)

006:

THINKERS Workshop (with Spencer Greenberg)

005:

Lines of Retreat and Incomplete Maps (with Anna Salamon)

004:

Forgiveness and E-Prime (with Josh Castle)

003:

Meditation and Enlightenment (with Jeremy Stevenson)

002:

Aesthetics and Polyamory (with Sam Rosen)

001:

Learning and Goal-Setting (with Michael Simmons)

Contact Us

We'd love to hear from you! To give us your feedback on the podcast, or to tell us about how the ideas from the podcast have impacted you, send us an email at: