For most of human history, there are whole spheres where we just don't really insist on knowing what's true or what's false.

We want morally uplifting, dramatically compelling narratives.

Given that our species has transformed the world and discovered the secrets of life in the universe,

built amazing things, how do we do it despite these cognitive infirmities, and how can we make ourselves smarter?

I first met Steve Pinker 15 years ago, and I had one lunch with them, and it was such a fabulous conversation that I've been thinking about that lunch ever since.

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

He's an amazing thinker. He's a Harvard psychologist. He's a kind of person who bring

insight to any subject that comes up. And I'd say my favorite research is the work he's done

just documenting the amazing progress that humankind has created over the last 200 years.

And look, I know it doesn't feel like it right now. We're in the middle of the COVID

doldrums.

But I think it's important that we keep in mind that we are on a positive track, even though right now it's not the best time.

Wow, such a pleasure to get to talk today with Stephen Pinker, not only one of the most widely admired public intellectuals,

but also a path-breaking linguist and a brain scientist. So I've met a lot of brilliant people,

but what makes you seem really special to me is that it's so rare, I think, in brilliant people to have any common sense. Would you agree with me that common sense is one of

your best attributes? I'm probably not the person to judge. I know from my own field of psychology

that we are all apt to overestimate our talents. And so if I were to say I had a lot of common sense,

that would probably not be an exercise of common sense.

Here's what I mean by common sense. So you've had this academic career and you do like super complicated linguistic things and yet you've come to write these incredibly readable books that are

loaded with really simple statistics and sensible logic that just, it's really hard to disagree

with your conclusion.

So let's just take an example.

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