YANSS 328 – The hidden geometry that shapes everything from pandemics to democracy

Jordan Ellenberg, a world-class geometer, takes us on a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything.

Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His writing has appeared in Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, and he is the New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong – but in this episode we will discuss his new book, Shape: The hidden geometry of information, biology, strategy, democracy and everything else.

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YANSS 327 – How save ourselves from ourselves by solving the trolley problem inside us all

Philosopher, neuroscientist, and psychologist, Joshua Greene tells us how the brain generates morality and how his research may have solved the infamous trolley problem, and in so doing created a way to encourage people to contribute to charities that do the most good, and, in addition, play quiz games that can reduce polarization and possibly save democracy.

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YANSS 325 – How cognitive dissonance can lead us to believe wrong is now right and right has always been wrong

In this episode, we discuss the landmark 1959 study that popularized the term “cognitive dissonance,” and we dive into the current state of dissonance research with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, a political scientist who studies how cognitive dissonance affects all sorts of political behavior. Lubrano is the co-host of a podcast about activism called What Do We Want? She also wrote a book that’s coming out in May of 2025 titled Don’t Talk About Politics which is about how to discuss politics without necessarily talking about politics.

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YANSS 324 – Why cults often grow stronger after their leaders turn out to be wrong

In this episode, the story of a doomsday cult that predicted the exact date and circumstances of the end of the world, and what happened when that date passed and the world did not end.

Also, we explore our drive to remain consistent via our desire to reduce cognitive dissonance.

When you notice you’ve done something that you believe is wrong, you will either stop doing that thing or stop believing it is wrong.

And if you come across some information that disconfirms one of your beliefs, you’ll either change your belief, challenge the validity of the challenging information, or go looking for some information that suggests no, in fact, you are totally right.

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YANSS 323 – The real (psychological) reason why you are unhappy at work and what you can (psychologically) do about it

Are you unhappy at your job? Are you starting to consider a change of career because of how your current work makes you feel? Do you know why? According to our guest in this episode, Dr. Tessa West, a psychologist at NYU, if you are currently contemplating whether you want to do the work that you do everyday you should know that although this feeling is common, psychologists who study this sort of thing have discovered that our narratives for why we feel this way are often just rationalizations and justifications.

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