• 341 - Positive Rants - Heather Barnes
    Jun 8 2026

    Communications professor Heather Barnes teaches us how to use what she learned teaching at Second City, managing the Museum of Science and Industry, and taking classes at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science to truly engage with difficult people through the power of positive rants.

    Kitted

    Previous Episodes

    How Minds Change

    Heather Barnes

    Improv@Work

    Second City

    The Center for Enlightened Disagreement

    Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    YANSS Facebook

    Newsletter

    Patreon


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    45 mins
  • 340 - Thinking Sideways - Jennifer Shahade
    May 25 2026

    There are more possible chess moves than atoms in the universe, and chess champion Jennifer Shahade tells us how we can borrow from the best chess players' decision-tree approach to avoid considering every possible option and instead "think sideways" to consider the best choices on the board.

    Previous Episodes

    How Minds Change

    Jennifer Shahade’s Website

    Thinking Sideways

    Does chess need intelligence?

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney's BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    YANSS Facebook

    Newsletter

    Patreon


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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • 339 - Enlightened Disagreement
    May 11 2026
    Northwestern University just launched the Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, a real-world institution devoted to "research-backed approaches to cultivating open-mindedness, identifying one’s own cognitive biases, working collaboratively with others despite disagreement and more." In this episode, David McRaney details his time as a resident of the Center, teaching students how to ask questions that activate a person's introspection, and then follow up with questions that evoke a person's motivated reasoning, then keep going until the other side articulates things they may have never considered before, and, in so doing, reveal the deeper motivations and values generating disagreement. You'll learn about this and all the other modules of the Center's pilot program. You'll also learn about a new game they are designing to improve scientific literacy of news consumers and news creators. Previous Episodes How Minds Change The Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement Brad Zakarin Eli Finkel Nour Kteily Medill School for Journalism Patti Wolter The Center for Public Deliberation The Listen First Coalition Better Together America Heather Barnes Martin Carcasson Point Taken The Visual Thinking Lab Steven Franconeri Joshua Greene’s Website Tango Tango Quiz Game Research Love Factually Website Joshua Hudson Protein Research NYT Protein Deep Dive Tylenol Metastudy The Garage Monica Guzman Braver Angels Jacqui Banaszynski David McRaney’s Twitter David McRaney's BlueSky YANSS Twitter YANSS Facebook Newsletter Patreon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    1 hr and 29 mins
  • 338 - May Contain Lies - Alex Edmans (rebroadcast)
    Apr 27 2026

    Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School, tells us how to avoid the Ladder of Misinference by examining how narratives, statistics, and articles can mislead, especially when they align with our preconceived notions and confirm what we believe is true, assume is true, and wish were true.

    Alex Edmans

    May Contain Lies

    What to Test in a Post Trust World

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    YANSS Facebook

    Newsletter

    Kitted

    Patreon


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    40 mins
  • 337 - Cognitive Surrender - Gideon Nave and Steven D. Shaw
    Apr 13 2026

    How is AI reshaping human reasoning? What is cognitive surrender, and how do we avoid its negative impact? What is system three thinking, and how can we get the most out of it? Artificial intelligence researchers Gideon Nave and Steven D. Shaw have some answers, some questions, and some suggestions.

    Previous Episodes

    Thinking: Fast, Slow, and Artificial

    Gideon Nave's Website

    Steven D. Shaw's Website

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney's BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    YANSS Facebook

    Newsletter

    Patreon


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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    1 hr
  • 336 - The 3.5 Percent Rule - Erica Chenoweth (rebroadcast)
    Mar 30 2026

    If you want to overthrow a dictator, resist an authoritarian regime, or create a movement that can change the national status quo, you don't need half the country, you only need 3.5 percent of the population to join – but there are some caveats, and Erica Chenoweth whose research led to the discovery of the 3.5 Percent Rule, explains them to us in this episode.

    Previous Episodes

    Erica Chenoweth's Website

    Why Civil Resistance Works (the paper)

    Why Civil Resistance Works (the book)

    The TED Talk

    The Q&A

    List of Protests by Size

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney's BlueSky

    YANSS Twitter

    YANSS Facebook

    Newsletter

    Patreon


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • 335 - Align Your Mind - Britt Frank (rebroadcast)
    Mar 16 2026

    Therapist, teacher, speaker, and trauma specialist Britt Frank tells us all about her new book, Align Your Mind, an all-access pass to understanding, befriending, and leading the multiple voices within yourself.

    Grounded in the latest research on Parts Work and Internal Family Systems, and offering proven techniques from Frank’s clinical practice and personal challenges, this engaging guide is a user manual to your own mind—and presents a road map for finding peace, confidence, and a deeper understanding of who you truly are.

    Patreon

    Previous Episodes

    Britt Frank’s Practice

    Align Your Mind Website

    Britt Frank’s Instagram

    How Minds Change

    Newsletter

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    David McRaney's Bluesky

    YANSS Twitter


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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • 334 - Magical Thinking - Matt Tompkins (rebroadcast)
    Mar 2 2026

    In this episode, the story of Clever Hans, the horse who changed psychology for the better. We also sit down with psychologist and magician Matt Tompkins. Matt is the author of The Spectacle of Illusion, a book about the long history of the manipulation of our own magical thinking and how studying deception can help us better understand perception, memory, belief, and more.

    How Minds Change

    David McRaney’s BlueSky

    David McRaney’s Twitter

    YANSS Twitter

    Matt Tompkins

    The Spectacle of Illusion

    Prisoners of Silence

    Clever Hans

    Wilhelm von Osten

    Carl Sagan Quote

    Science of Magic Association

    Society for Psychical Research

    Skeptical Inquirer Magazine

    Houdini's Debunking

    Newsletter

    Patreon


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    1 hr and 19 mins