Two Psychologists Four Beers

1:18:05

Episode 134: Applied Moral Psychology (with Josh Greene)

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/10/01

Harvard psychologist and philosopher Josh Greene joins the show to talk about his influential work in moral psychology and why he has partly moved from basic science to applied projects. We talk about two ways he's trying to apply his research to change the real world. The first is Giving Multiplier, a donation platform that nudges people towards higher-impact giving (listeners can get extra matching funds on Giving Multiplier by visiting https://givingmultiplier.org/invite/BEERS). The

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1:47:19

Episode 133: What's the Environmental Cost of AI?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/08/31

Andy Masley joins Yoel and Mickey to talk about a claim that's made him (in)famous: using AI chatbots doesn't meaningfully affect your carbon footprint or water usage. We discuss what data centers actually do with water, why "ten times a Google search" is not a useful metric, and why people really don't want data centers built near them. We also talk about Andy's involvement in effective altruism, which criticisms of it he takes seriously, and whether a grant from an EA funder should make

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1:21:54

Episode 132: If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/08/01

Paul and Yoel talk about whether it's a problem that psychologists seem to be no better than laypeople at predicting behavior. We also cover a recent controversy in anthropology, talk a little bit about the Odyssey (movie), and discuss whether people ought to be drinking more.(Sorry about the clicking in Paul's audio--we did what we could to tone it down!)Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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1:45:33

Episode 131: What's Wrong With AI (with Molly Crockett)

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/06/01

Cognitive scientist Molly Crockett joins the show to talk about what it's like to be known in the field as an "AI skeptic." We talk about where Molly is actually skeptical, but also what she thinks that label gets wrong. Along the way, we cover a bunch of other things too: Molly's research in social neuroscience, computational modeling, and moral psychology; Molly and Mickey's disagreements about empathic AI; and Molly's case for what she's calling "thick empathy." Finally, Molly makes a

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1:12:10

Episode 130: You Should Be Talking to Strangers (with...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/05/05

Researcher, professor, and former Division III football player Nick Epley joins the show to talk about why we underestimate the benefits of social connections. We are a social species, and yet many of us choose to avoid connecting with others. Nick and I talk about his research on this, and about his new book, A Little More Social, which is all about how we can change our behavior to connect more with others. Special Guest: Nick Epley.

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1:08:30

Episode 129: RE-RELEASE: Terrible Advice (with Paul...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/04/07

Instead of a new episode this month, we have one from the vaults that many newer listeners might not have heard (because it came out almost 7 years ago). But, especially since Paul has a new baby (see first link), re-releasing this one seemed fitting. And it's always been one of my favorites. We'll be back with new episodes in the coming months.Original Episode Description Yoel and Mickey welcome Paul Bloom to the podcast, who is not only a returning guest but also the Brooks and

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1:14:08

Episode 128: Why Do We Care About Faculty Diversity?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/03/06

Many academics care about diversity in faculty hiring, but why? Azim Shariff joins the show to talk about his new paper where he describes rationales for diversity in hiring, and an as-yet unpublished study where he asked department chairs how much they actually care about those rationales. We also talk about the empirical evidence for the diversity rationales (it's mixed!), Paul Bloom's argument against viewpoint diversity, and the future of DEI policies in the U.S.Plus, Azim

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1:17:25

Episode 127: The Great Canadian Euthanasia Experiment...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/02/09

Mickey and Yoel talk about Canada's controversial euthanasia law (called MAID: medical assistance in dying). Since its introduction in 2016, an increasing number of Canadians are choosing euthanasia (in recent years, more than 5% of deaths in Canada were the result of MAID). We talk about the history of the law, criticism of it in Canada and abroad, and our own discomfort (or lack of) with legal euthanasia. Separately, we also discuss a new paper that claims to show robust ego

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1:14:33

Episode 126: Using AI to Improve Science (with Paul...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2026/01/10

Paul Litvak joins the show to talk about how AI tools can help us measure research quality and assess evidence in the scientific literature. His first project is a way to extract test statistics and p-values from papers automatically, with no manual coding needed. We also talk about Paul's non-profit dedicated to improving the reliability of scientific research, the legendary judgment and decision making scholar Robin Dawes (whose entirely algorithmic approach to graduate student selection once went

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1:13:14

Episode 125: Citation Diversity Statements? (with...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/11/04

Mickey is back and fired up about citation diversity statements. We talk about a recent editorial from Nature Reviews Psychology encouraging authors to include a "citation diversity statement" in their articles to "to draw attention to citation imbalances and confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers." We discuss what we don't like about the editorial, as well as the strongest case for it.We also talk about SpringerNature's profit margins, posting on

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1:04:38

Episode 124: Civic Honesty Around the Globe (with...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/10/09

David Tannenbaum (Associate Professor of Management at the University of Utah) joins the show to talk about one of Yoel's favorite papers: a massive field study of honesty in 40 countries that had some unexpected results. We talk about the promises and pitfalls of field studies, what happens when your results are not at all as expected, and how to deal with going viral (in a bad way). Also, we talk about our recent hiking trip and David actually drinks two beers. Special Guest: David

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1:08:11

Episode 123: RE-RELEASE: What are Teachers Good For?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/09/03

This is a re-release of Episode 95, which was recorded in September 2023.Paul Bloom joins Yoel and Alexa to talk about the glamour and humiliation of teaching psychology at the college level. They discuss how they've changed their approaches to teaching over the years, and whether they've become more skilled or more out of touch (or both). Alexa shares her experiences teaching about morality and evolution to a predominantly Christian student body, Yoel laments the fact that his students aren't more

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1:10:41

Episode 122: When to Quit (with Paul Bloom)

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/08/07

Paul Bloom takes over the show to interview Yoel about loss of faith: when to give up on a theory, and which of his own findings he no longer believes. But it's not all doom and gloom! They also talk about what social psychology findings they think are robust, and what new research they are excited about.But before all that, they discuss whether Sydney Sweeney's new American Eagle ad campaign is pro-eugenics. Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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1:23:52

Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology?

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/07/02

Yoel is joined by a mysterious pseudonymous duo called Slime Mold Time Mold, who are proposing a new paradigm for psychology based on principles from cybernetics. This means thinking of the behavior as the result of "governors" (think drives) that are trying to reduce the distance between a set point and the state of the world by motivating you to do stuff. So when you are thirsty, you are highly motivated to drink, and when you need to pee, you are highly motivated to find a toilet. Those are

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1:13:39

Episode 120: Transparent Replications (with Spencer...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/06/06

Returning guest Spencer Greenberg joins the show to talk replications, what psychologist think of terror management theory (and other controversial topics), and a machine-learning tool he developed to predict correlations between psychological traits and survey questions.In this episode, we talk about what Spencer has learned by replicating studies from recent publications in psychology, the decline of p-hacking, and what other threats to validity psychologists should be worried about. Special

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1:46:56

Episode 119: The Future of DEI in Higher Ed (with...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/05/07

It's been a tumultuous time for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts in higher education. Whether due to political pressure, internal arguments, or both, many prominent institutions are revamping their DEI offices (or even eliminating them altogether) and rethinking DEI policies that once seemed unquestionable. Amori Mikami from the University of British Columbia re-joins the show to talk about the changes and what she thinks universities ought to be doing (as well as what she thinks we

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1:12:53

Episode 118: Do We Have a Purity Problem? (with David...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/04/01

Arguably, the last 25 years of moral psychology have been about people's judgments of "purity violations"--ostensibly harmless acts that "are disgusting or degrading to one’s spiritual nature." From sex with (dead) chickens to pet-eating to baby Jesus buttplugs, moral psychologists have been fascinated by purity transgressions. Moral psychologist and purity expert David Pizarro joins the show to talk about the concept of purity and recent critiques arguing that it's a concept too broad to be useful

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1:19:52

Episode 117: Good News for the Chronics (with Mickey...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/03/06

On-again off-again co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to debrief about the recent SPSP (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) conference. We then dissect a new paper purporting to show working memory deficits in heavy cannabis users, including a deep dive into the preregistration. Finally, we discuss a recent Op-Ed in the Guardian that argues that research on AI empathy is fatally flawed.

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1:27:26

Episode 116: Can We Do Science Without Ideology?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2025/01/23

Cultural and developmental psychologist and open science advocate Moin Syed joins the show to talk what he thinks people get wrong about ideology, diversity, and open science. We talk about what role, if any, researchers' ideology should play in their science, and what it means when people describe psychological research as "ideological." In the second half of the show, we talk about what people get wrong about preregistration, and why it seems some misconceptions just won't die. We also talk about

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1:11:47

Episode 115: What's Wrong with Living in a Bubble?...

Two Psychologists Four Beers ·

2024/12/04

Occasional co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to talk about the 2024 election, Bluesky, and his crusade against yard signs. We discuss prediction markets, Democratic declines with non-college voters, and whether Bluesky is a political bubble (and if so, if there's anything wrong with that). Also, Mickey explains his problem with yard signs and defends his beer snobbery.

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