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PODCAST

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Spencer Greenberg

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,

science social sciences

All Episodes

01:26:39

How to communicate better with the people in your...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/08/28

Read the full transcript here. What are the "relating" languages? What strategies do we use when interacting with each other under various conditions? How does one formulate a new taxonomy in a field? What information can we glean from our own emotional and physical reactions? What is authenticity? What are the strengths and weaknesses of various personality typologies?Sara Ness is a facilitator, teacher, and community-builder who is internationally known for popularizing the field of Authentic

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01:18:25

How to hack your own brain (with Elizabeth Ricker)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/08/21

Read the full transcript here. Why should we be doing more experiments on our own lives? How should we approach and get started with self-experimentation? Why are such varying dietary changes able to improve people's well-being? What are some measures and interventions for improving executive function, memory and learning, emotional self-regulation, and creativity? Do brain games actually make you smarter? What are some promising nootropics? Should people use neurostimulation and/or neurofeedback

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01:29:13

Why do civilizations collapse? And is ours next?...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/08/19

Read the full transcript here. What is "long" history? Why don't historians usually focus on what happened before recorded human history? What (if anything) is special about agriculture when it comes to the development of civilization? How far back does human civilization go, and why should we care? Have humans always been gardeners? What factors cause civilizations to crumble or thrive? Should we reboot standardized tests and college admissions every few decades so that measures don't become

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01:17:08

Utopia on earth and morality without guilt (with Joe...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/08/11

Read the full transcript here. What are some of the challenges of defining utopia? What should a utopia look like? What are concrete versus sublime utopias? What are some of the failure modes related to various conceptions of utopia? Is it really that hard to create a shared, positive vision of the future? What is the value (or disvalue) of creating new people, especially in relation to the utopic or dystopic state of the world? What is "whole-hearted morality" versus "morality-as-taxes"? How can

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01:01:29

How do you leverage your limitations? (with Oliver...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/08/04

Read the full transcript here. How can we leverage our own limitations? Why does converting the average human lifespan from years to other units (like weeks) give us such a shock? What are the most useful kinds of reactions to contemplating our own mortality? What causes our feeling that time speeds up as we age? What is the "importance trap"? How should we handle the frustration or disappointment caused by our inability to do everything we want or need to do? Why is patience important in the world

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01:20:59

The secrets of effective learning (with Andy Matuschak)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/29

Read the full transcript here. How can we accelerate learning? Is spaced repetition the best way to absorb information over the long term? Do we always read non-fiction works with the goal of learning? What are some less common but perhaps more valuable types of information that can be put on flash cards? What sorts of things are worth remembering anyway? Why is it important to commit some ideas to memory when so much information is easily findable on the internet? What benefits are derived from

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01:11:46

Exploring your shadow and healing your traumas (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/25

Read the full transcript here. What is metamodernism? How does metamodernism relate to spiral dynamics? What does it look like to apply a metamodern approach to large-scale problems? What are shadow traits, and what is shadow projection? What do our reactions about others' behavior tell us about ourselves? What's going on psychologically and physiologically when we relive past traumas? What dosages of psychedelics are most effective in a therapeutic context? How soon will psychedelic substances

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01:07:50

Dances with robots (with Catie Cuan)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/21

Read the full transcript here. What is a choreographic interface? Is dance for everyone? What is dance for? What can dancers learn from roboticists, and what can roboticists learn from dancers? What are some of the practical difficulties one encounters when programming a robot to dance? Why do robots break or fail so often? What are the pros and cons of using virtual reality to train or test robots? Why don't we see more robots in everyday life? What are some everyday robotics applications coming

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01:49:04

Heaven and hell on earth: a trip to the limits of...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/18

Read the full transcript here. What is "metaphysical geometry"? What do we get out of surrendering to the idea of death? Why do some people find the sensation of intense fear to be pleasurable? Is psychosis valuable? Are all mental states valuable? Why are altered states of consciousness typically socially unacceptable, and why should we move towards accepting them? Could oxytocin be used as a less risky alternative to MDMA in therapeutic contexts?Anthony David Adams is a visionary, inventor,

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01:06:22

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

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/15

Read the full transcript here. What is "the precipice"? Which kinds of risks (natural or technological) pose the greatest threats to humanity specifically or to life on Earth generally in the near future? What other kinds of existential risks exist beyond mere extinction? What are the differences between catastrophic risks and existential risks? How serious is the threat of climate change on an existential scale? What are the most promising lines of research into the mitigation of existential

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01:16:49

Risk-Driven Development and Decentralization (with...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/11

Read the full transcript here. What is risk-driven development? How should we weigh advice, best practices, and common sense in a domain? What makes some feedback loops better than others? What's the best way to take System 2 knowledge and convert it to System 1 intuition? What are forward-chaining and backward-chaining? When is it best to use one over the other? What are the advantages and disadvantages of centralization and decentralization?Satvik Beri is a cofounder and head of Data Science at

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01:13:06

Statistics Intuitions and Social Science...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/07

Read the full transcript here. How should math be taught in primary and secondary schools? How much is science denialism caused by statistics illiteracy or lack of statistical intuitions? What do p-values actually mean? Under what conditions should null results be published? What are some of the less well-known factors that may be contributing to the social science reproducibility crisis?Stuart Buck was Vice President of Arnold Ventures (a $2 billion philanthropy) for nine years and led its

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00:56:37

Genomics and Health Outcomes (with Noor Siddiqui)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/04

Read the full transcript here. Why has there been such an explosion of progress in genomics recently? What's the right way to think about how genes affect the likelihood of experiencing certain health outcomes? How can people mitigate genetic risks for their potential children? What sorts of moral obligations (if any) do parents have to mitigate potential genetic risks for their children? How does Orchid's focus differ from other companies in the same space? What is "junk" DNA? What percentage of

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00:58:08

Rationality and Cognitive Science (with Anna Riedl)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/07/01

Read the full transcript here. What is the Great Rationality Debate? What are axiomatic rationality and ecological rationality? How irrational are people anyway? What's the connection between rationality and wisdom? What are some of the paradigms in cognitive science? Why do visual representations of information often communicate their meaning much more effectively than other kinds of representations?Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist with a primary research interest in judgement and

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01:20:45

Self-Improvement and Behavior Change (with James Norris)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/26

Read the full transcript here. How can you live your best life? What's a good definition of "wisdom"? What are some possible taxonomies of life outcomes? What are some low-hanging fruit in the realm of self-improvement? What are some useful behavior change frameworks and techniques?All his life, James Norris has been searching for the best ways to change himself and change the world. He started as an entrepreneur at age 6 and since has co-founded or helped build 9 businesses and 16 organizations,

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01:31:47

Everyday Statistics and Climate Change Strategies...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/23

Read the full transcript here. What are "shed" and "cake" projects? And how can you avoid "shed" projects? What is the "jobs to be done" framework? What is the "theory of change" framework? How can people use statistics (or statistical intuition) in everyday life? How accurate are climate change models? How much certainty do scientists have about climate change outcomes? What are some promising strategies for mitigating and reversing climate change?Cassandra Xia (@CassandraXia) is the creator of

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01:15:36

Conscious Processes and Intelligence (with Richard...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/19

Read the full transcript here. What sorts of things do the conscious and unconscious parts of our minds do? How we can make people more intelligent? How much is intelligence heritable vs. environmental? What's the value (or disvalue) of holding interviews during the hiring process? When do we over- and under-use cost-benefit analyses?Richard E. Nisbett is one of the world's most respected psychologists. His work focuses on issues in social psychology and cognitive science. His newest book Thinking:

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01:06:12

Educational Restructuring and Investing (with Matt...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/17

Read the full transcript here. How can we restructure schools around student needs? What sorts of skills do people actually need in the 21st century, and how can education systems reorganize themselves around those skills? What sorts of things do impact investors look for when investing in education companies? How can teachers cultivate critical thinking and passion in the classroom? Should prejudice and privilege be addressed at the primary or secondary levels of education?Matt Greenfield is a

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01:05:32

Chinese Culture and Love Addiction (with Ava King)

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/12

Read the full transcript here. How is Chinese culture different from American culture? For what reasons do Chinese people get plastic surgery, and how do those reasons differ from those of their American counterparts? What is love addiction? Are 12-step programs the only way (or the best way) of overcoming addiction?Ava King is an international singer, songwriter, and producer based out of LA. She was born and raised in France, spent a decade in China, then decided to move to LA to pursue her

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01:11:20

User Engagement and Expert Intuition (with Rob...

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg ·

2021/06/09

Read the full transcript here. How do you design a product to handle user failure? How do you keep users motivated even when they fail? How do you successfully onboard new users? What are some different kinds of search behavior? How and when does gamifying a product increase user engagement and success? What psychological components do games attempt to engage with? How do we develop expert intuition in a domain?Rob Haisfield is a behavioral product strategy and gameful design consultant. He applies

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308 results

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