How Much Do We Really Know?

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You probably know someone who thinks they know more about something than they really do. But you could never be described that way . . . could you? This week, cognitive scientist Phil Fernbach explains the "illusion of knowledge" — the fact that we think we understand the world in much greater detail than we actually do. He'll explore why this happens, and how to close the gap between what we know and what we think we know. Hidden Brain is about to go on tour! Join Shankar in a city near you as he shares key insights from the first decade of the show. For more info and tickets, go to https://hiddenbrain.org/tour/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain.
0:04.0	I'm Shankar Vedanto.
0:06.0	Some months ago, I brought seven key insights from the first decade of Hidden Brain
0:14.0	to live stage performances in San Francisco and Seattle.
0:18.0	The evenings were electric.
0:30.2	We got so much positive feedback from those two sold-out shows that we've decided to launch a tour to more than a dozen cities in the coming months.
0:34.9	I'll be coming to Portland, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Boston, Toronto,
0:42.3	Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. To snap up your tickets,
0:51.5	please go to Hiddenbrain.org slash tour.
0:57.7	You can also sign up to say hello and get a photo with me.
1:00.7	In some places, you can sign up for an intimate chat with me and a handful of other fans.
1:06.3	I'd love to see you there.
1:08.5	Again, go to hiddenbrain.org slash tour.
1:13.7	Okay, on to today's show.
1:20.6	This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.
1:24.4	Almost exactly a century ago, a British ship, the Endurance, became trapped in Antarctic sea ice.
1:32.6	Aboard were 28 men led by the explorer Ernest Shackleton.
1:39.7	On October 27, 1915, the pressure of the ice crushed the keel of the endurance.
1:46.6	Freezing water rushed in.
1:48.9	The sailors dragged lifeboats and supplies from the ship onto the ice.
1:53.5	Carrying the lifeboats, they started hiking toward open water.
1:59.8	After a week with little progress, Ernest Shackleton realized they would be better off camping on an ice flow and waiting for it to drift toward open water.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hidden Brain Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hidden Brain Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.