there was really nothing that psychological science had contributed to understanding this behavior.

And here I am. I'm a social psychologist. I'm supposed to understand thoughts, feelings,

and behaviors, and how those are influenced by the context, the situation, whether it's real or

imagined. And I couldn't tell you in 2010 what why people BS and what the consequences were.

There's basic questions we didn't have answered. So I tackled it and I thought there's no

better word for this behavior, which is distinct from lying. It's not lying. It's often confused

for lying, but bullshitting is not lying. So the liar knows and cares about the truth.

And the liar does not believe what it is they say. The bullshitter on the other hand doesn't

care what the truth is. They're not paying any attention to it. In fact, what they say sometimes

just by chance, by accident, is actually correct. But even they wouldn't know it because they're

not paying any attention to truth, establish knowledge or genuine evidence.

I'm Sreeni Rao and this is the unmistakable creative podcast where you get a window into the

stories and insights of the most innovative and creative minds who started movements,

built driving businesses, written best selling books, and created an insanely interesting art.

For more, check out our 500 episode archive at unmistakablecreative.com.

John, welcome to the unmistakable creative. Thanks for taking the time to join us.

Thank you for having me. It is my pleasure to have you here. So you have a book out called

the Life Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit, which I, as we said before we hit record,

was probably one of my top five favorite books that I read this entire year, all of which we will

get into. And I want to start with what I think is a very relevant question given your background

and the work that you do. And that is what social group were you a part of in high school?

And what impacted that end up having on what you ended up doing with your life and your career?

...