Adam Mastroianni on the Brain, the Ears, and How We Learn

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

Psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni says our minds are like the keep of a castle protecting our deepest held values and beliefs from even the most skilled attacks. The only problem with this design for self-preservation is that it also can keep out wisdom that might be both useful and true. Mastroianni's summary of the problem is "you can't reach the brain through the ears." Listen as Mastroianni talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the implication of this view of mind for teaching, learning, and our daily interactions with the people around us.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics
0:07.0	and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:13.0	Institution.
0:14.0	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links down
0:18.6	the information related to today's conversation.
0:21.6	You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:29.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:37.8	Today is July 5th, 2023 and my guest is Adam Mastriani.
0:42.9	His substack is experimental history.
0:45.9	This is his second appearance on econtalk.
0:47.7	He was first here in February of 2023, discussing peer review and the academic kitchen.
0:54.0	Adam, welcome back to econtalk.
0:55.8	Hey, thanks for having me back.
0:57.8	Our topic for today is an essay you wrote for your substack with the lovely title.
1:02.8	You can't reach the brain through the ears.
1:05.8	It could be a good song title, I think, by the way.
1:07.8	I think it's an opportunity I want to pursue.
1:10.8	But it's a superb, very short essay.
1:13.8	We will link to it obviously and I encourage listeners to read it.
1:17.8	You start off the essay with the story of the used to work with undergraduates helping them
	...

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