COMMON KNOWLEDGE: Steven Pinker on Awkward Dates, Cancel Culture and the Necessity of Norms

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Education, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As promised, today we’re bringing you a full-length interview with Steven Pinker about his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. What is common knowledge? For Steve, it is not conventional wisdom. Instead, it’s when everyone knows something and everyone knows that and everyone knows it. That may sound loopy, but the implications of common knowledge — how it’s produced, sustained, and manipulated — are profound. “It's common knowledge,” Steve tells Rufus, “that makes humans human. Humans are not solitary. What makes humans humans is that we coordinate in groups — from couples to nations to, in some cases, the entire world — and I think common knowledge is the underpinning, the cement, the foundation of that ability to coordinate.” (8:00) Why “coffee” doesn’t just mean coffee (14:40) What blushes and laughter unintentionally reveal (30:39) The real reason brands spend millions on Super Bowl ads (35:00) How common knowledge explains cancel culture (48:43) What happens to society when norms collapse? — 📚 Want a signed copy of Brené Brown’s new book, access to our WhatsApp community, invitations to virtual Q&As with top authors, and seats at live events in NYC? Become a Next Big Idea Club member today at nextbigideaclub.com. And use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription. — Want to connect? 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠podcast@nextbigideaclub.com⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rufus Griscombe, and I'm Caleb Bissinger, and this is the next big idea.
0:05.9	Today, Stephen Pinker on the surprising ways that common knowledge,
0:10.9	what I know, that you know, that I know, that we know, shapes our world. Good morning, Caleb.
0:33.6	Morning, Rufus.
0:34.3	How are you?
0:35.3	Pretty good, man.
0:36.4	I thought it'd be fun to introduce this episode together
0:38.7	because, full disclosure, no surprise to you, Stephen Pinker has been a bit of an intellectual hero for me for some time.
0:47.9	His book, The Blank Slate, which came out in 2002, was one of a small number of books that profoundly impacted my view of the world.
0:56.9	All right. So I'm here to just keep your fanboy instincts in check. Among other reasons,
1:01.9	you know, you make other contributions. I mean, something we aspire to do on this show is share
1:08.0	all sides of the arguments of our day, And it helps that you and I don't
1:13.3	agree on everything. That's true, like the nutritional benefit of a warm bowl of pasta.
1:18.4	What nutritional benefit? There is none. But also, there are questions like how quickly
1:25.6	will AI accelerate? Not as fast as you think.
1:28.4	Has woke culture done more harm than good?
1:31.6	And how often am I allowed to have a glass of red wine?
1:34.2	Well, I don't know that we just agree about that.
1:35.7	I think you always have my permission to enjoy a glass of red wine.
1:39.0	But yeah, I think part of my job is to push back when you're suffering from generational myopia.
1:46.3	I appreciate that.
1:47.6	And this is a nice segue to Stephen Pinker because he's ruffled some feathers on the left over the years.
	...

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