Hey there, I'm Jason Gautz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

Started back in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.

On the podcast, we revisit these ideas in new ways.

Our producers surprise me and my guests with short interview clips from Big Things Archives,

ideas that we didn't necessarily come here expecting to discuss.

I'm very, very happy to be here today with the actor, writer, director, and science curious artist Alan Alda.

I grew up watching him in reruns of MASH, where his character Hawkeye Pierce

was so specific and relatable that he feels in my memory like a not too distant relative.

And in Horace and Pete, Luis C.K.'s, 2016, brilliant web TV dromedymedy, Alan underwent a miraculous

metamorphosis into a bitter, racist barman, who is also a fully

fleshed human being.

But wait, there's more.

For decades, Alan Alda has been helping to heal the ancient rifts between highly technical

science and ordinary curiosity.

More on that shortly.

Alan's new book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face, shares what

he and science have learned about how we can communicate better. It's no exaggeration to say that it's a matter of life or death. Welcome to think again, Alan. Thank you. Well, that's an impressive introduction. I can't wait to hear what I have to say. Oh, my goodness, yeah. It's a voluminous one, for sure, I'll tell you. Yeah, I have to say one thing that really caught me, my attention in your book, was when you talked about doing

Scientific American Frontiers, the show where you interview scientists, and how in the early

episodes you went in with a list of questions, or maybe the first episode

only?

Well, no, for a while I did it, for maybe a year of the 11 years.

I really can't remember.

...