Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.

For more information, please visit us at NYCCEceptics.org.

Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.

I'm your host, Julia Galef, and with me is today's guest, Professor Susan Gelman.

Susan is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, as well as the director of their conceptual development lab,

and she's the author of several books, including

The Essential Child, Origins of Essentialism and Everyday Thought, which has been very influential

on the field of psychology. Susan, welcome to the show. Thanks. Great to be here. I should also

mention she's the sister of Andy Galman, who was a guest just a few episodes back.

And I have stories about him.

Yes, which I'm very much looking forward to coaxing out of her later.

I was chatting with Susan before we started taping and telling her that my brother,

Jesse Galev, is also a blogger and public speaker. And we have a running joke where if someone meets me and says, oh my goodness, you're the sister of Jesse Galeff,

then he gets a point. And if they meet him and goes, oh my God, you're the brother of Julia Galef,

then I get a point. But it sounds like Susan and her brother have a much healthier,

less competitive dynamic. So good for you guys. Well, we haven't been keeping tallies. I'll put it that way.

Jesse and I have different tallies in mind for who's ahead. But so today, we're, I mentioned

the book, The Essential Child, Origins of Essentialism. And that's the area that we're going to talk about today.

Susan's going to, why don't we kick things off, Susan, by having you just explain what

essentialism is, and then we'll get into the way it manifests and its effects on psychology

and everyday life.

Okay, great.

...