Hey everybody, today I am excited to have an old friend of mine, Tim Urban, on the show.

He's a brilliant mind behind the popular blog, Wait But Why, where he breaks down complex topics

in a thoughtful and extremely entertaining way. In 2019, Tim embarked on an ambitious project

called The Story of Us. The goal of the project was to explain why it seemed like everybody was losing

their minds, despite the fact that technology was amazing and everything seemed to be going great.

This eventually evolved into his first book, What's Our Problem? A self-help book for

societies and it was released in 2023. Now the book digs into the psychology behind tribalism

and in-group out-group hatred.

Tim painstakingly explains these mechanisms using real-world present-day examples from both ends of the political spectrum.

Now, as you can imagine, he got canceled by everybody for it.

Now, Tim's writing style, it has depth, wit, and accessibility.

It has earned him praise from world leaders, CEOs of some of the largest companies in the

world, and millions of everyday readers alike.

His work is at the intersection of psychology, politics, science, and technology, always with

an eye toward making the complex feel more understandable.

Today we talk about the psychological roots of tribalism, what it feels like to start hating

an outgroup without realizing it and how you can hopefully stop.

We look at how our minds can become locked inside of idea prisons and what the simple way

out of those idea prisons is.

We disagree briefly on how AI might make our

mental health problems better or worse, what Tim has learned as a new parent, and we get a sneak

peek of his upcoming book on the history of the universe. That's right, it's only a book on the

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