Has the idea of “peak performance” as the general public sees it, run its course? It seems like nowadays, there is much more of a focus & value placed upon rest and recuperation, rather than the unsustainable burnout culture & hustle to get ahead that we’ve seen for ages. Brad Stulberg is a writer and fellow at the University of Michigan’s graduate school of public health. He says his work explores principles of mastery and well-being that transcend capabilities and domains, with a focus...
Sep 02, 2022•54 min•Ep. 182
We don't really question the importance of studying mathematics, or the importance of studying science. We don't even question the importance of athletics! But when it comes to the arts, people don't really understand their significance. They think of them as frills, as fun and pretty, but they don't understand their deep significance for humans. Ellen Winner's research focuses on cognition in the arts in typical and gifted children. She studies the impact of arts education on the development of...
Aug 31, 2022•57 min•Ep. 181
Can we teach leaders to become better strategic decision makers? Our guest Zach Shore says we can. Part of the problem he says is that people get stuck in rigid mindsets, which often involve the failure to take alternative perspectives.. In his books “Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions,” and “sense of the enemy’ he aims to create a taxonomy of blunder causing mindsets and recount examples of effective strategic empathy through historical story telling. Zach Shore is a historian of inte...
Aug 29, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 180
In our guest's latest book “Sick to Debt,” Peter Ubel theorizes whether it is a bigger insult to call someone a doctor or an economist. Well, Peter is actually both! Peter Ubel M.D. is a physician and behavioral scientist whose research and writing explores the mixture of rational and irrational forces that affect our health, our happiness and the way our society functions. Ubel is the Madge and Dennis T. McLawhorn University Professor of Business, Public Policy and Medicine at the Duke Universi...
Aug 26, 2022•58 min•Ep. 179
When was the last time you learned something just out of curiosity? Not for school or to advance your career, with no end goal in sight. To learn something new just to learn it? Zena Hitz is a Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis and the author of “Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.” Her book explores the meaning and the value of learning through images and stories of bookworms, philosophers, scientists, and other learners, both fictional and historical. She write...
Aug 24, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 178
When the general public thinks about physics, they’re usually thinking about the origins of the universe, quantum theory; other terms that have bled into pop culture. But true physics isn't elegant in the way it is seen in textbooks. Our guest says the science is much more chaotic than that and Economics has a lot to learn from physics. Mark Buchanan is a physicist and science writer with Bloomberg, and is the author of the book "Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology and the Natural Sciences Can T...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 177
Sibling rivalry seems to exist in all families, whether human or non-human.. So why would animals want to compete, and maybe even kill their nearest relations?? This is the focus of the work of Douglas Mock. He is a Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma and co-author of “The Evolution of Sibling Rivalry.” Doug and Greg analyze some of our most intimate relationships in this episode, touching on scarcity mindsets, siblicide, birth order, and progeny selection. Episo...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 176
Its hard to believe that a book like The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth,” hasn't been written before, which surfaces the structures that we need in order to convert contention into facts and knowledge. Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institute, and the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, ...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 175
The science of parenting…isn't really a science. It's a lot of myths and advice and stories from elder generations. But let's think about where we are getting that advice. Our guest Michaeleen Doucleff wrote her New York Times bestseller “Hunt, Gather, Parent ”after traveling to three continents with her 3-year-old daughter, Rosy. She says Maya, Inuit, and Hadzabe families showed her how to tame tantrums, motivate kids to be helpful, and build children’s confidence and self-sufficiency. Michaele...
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 174
“Belief” as a word can take on so many meanings. Most people only think about it in terms of religion. But our guest says belief plays a central role in many other critical distinctively human things, including economics, love and politics. He further defines belief as the “capacity humans have to commit wholly and fully to this mix of experience, imagination, ideology, thoughts, and ideas.” Agustín Fuentes is a primatologist and biological anthropologist at Princeton University whose research f...
Aug 12, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 173
Greg says our guest's book, “ Bernoulli’s Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science” is “a bombshell in a sense,” making some very, very bold claims. Aubrey Clayton is an applied mathematical researcher, lecturer, and writer. He currently teaches graduate courses in the philosophy of probability at the Harvard Extension School, and has written for publications like the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Nautilus. Additionally, Aubrey says he technically “worked on Wall Street”...
Aug 08, 2022•53 min•Ep. 172
The last time you had a definitive question about something: an actor in that movie, or maybe something your friend did at a party last week. Did you try to figure it out on your own and think over the answer, or head to the internet to confirm your quandaries? Are we losing our ability to be naturally curious by always having concrete answers available in mere seconds? Ian Leslie is a writer and author of acclaimed books on human behaviour. Ian’s first career was in advertising, as a creative s...
Aug 05, 2022•57 min•Ep. 171
As machine learning and AI mature and adapt to the humans that created them, it's important we think carefully about not only what is creativity, but what is uniquely human about creativity. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the Oxford University, a chair he holds jointly at the Department of Continuing Education and the Mathematical Institute, as well as a Professor of Mathematics and a Fellow of New College. His many books dive deep in...
Aug 03, 2022•55 min•Ep. 170
When Greg found out that Massimo Pigliucci had a PhD in biology and a PhD in philosophy, he knew that this was somebody he had to get on the show. Massimo Pigliucci has a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee, and is currently the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. His research interests include the philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophies like ...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 169
When Tina Cassidy set out to write her book “Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born,” in 2006, it was the first time in about 50 years an extensive work had been written on the subject, and the first by a woman. Birth is such an essential and important part of every life cycle, and all of us have been through it. Why haven't we seen more on the topic? Tina Cassidy writes about women and culture. In addition to “Birth,” she is the author of “Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? Alice P...
Jul 29, 2022•50 min•Ep. 168
It was August 2011 when Mitt Romney famously told a crowd at the Iowa State Fair, "corporations are people, my friend." Corporations have had what you could call a civil rights history of their own, which has gone on in parallel to all other civil rights movements. But with so much knowledge in this field publicly available to us, how could this entire history be so poorly understood? This is highlighted in Adam Winker’s work, and most recently his book, “We the Corporations: How American Busine...
Jul 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 167
David Buss is one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology, currently at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research focus is on strategies of human mating, and he is most well-known for his studies on mate selection, tactics of mate attraction, infidelity, tactics of mate retention, tactics of mate poaching, and the mating emotions of jealousy, lust, and love. David has also authored several books for wide audiences, such as “The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Hum...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 166
Whether it's smoking cigarettes or mindlessly buying things on Amazon, breaking bad habits can be incredibly difficult. Judson Brewer, MD, Ph.D. or “Dr. Jud” is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” who blends over 20 years of experience with mindfulness training and a career in scientific research. He is passionate about understanding how our brains work, and how to use that knowledge to help people make deep, per...
Jul 22, 2022•58 min•Ep. 165
Jordan Ellenberg is the first official mathematician we’ve had on the show, but his work weaves through many different domains. Afterall, whether it's something like game theory or data science, it's all built on math. Jordan Ellenberg is at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics. His research centers on the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry, the parts of mathematics which address fundamental questions about algebraic equat...
Jul 20, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 164
We've covered a lot of ground in 163 episodes of unSILOed. We’ve dug into topics like economics, psychology, biology, and many many more. So today we're going to tackle the meaning of life. It's about time, right?! Iddo Landau, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa. He has written extensively on the meaning of life. His latest book is “Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World.” So let's dive into the meaning of life here. Within that, Greg & Iddo discuss perfectionism, ...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 163
There's a bit of a theme when it comes to Stuart Firestein’s books, with titles like “Failure: Why Science Is So Successful,” and “Ignorance: How It Drives Science.” Stuart Firestein is Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University where he and his colleagues study the vertebrate olfactory system. He says his lab is dedicated to answering that fundamental human question: How do I smell? In this episode, Stuart tells us about his lab, what it means to succeed in science, failure vs. err...
Jul 15, 2022•53 min•Ep. 162
With all of the recent advances in machine learning, what’s left for us humans to do? Well, according to Ken Cukier, there is plenty: humans have not and may not ever be matched when it comes to thinking thru frames and models, using imagination to think through what is not in the data as much as what is in the data. Ken Cukier is a Senior Editor at The Economist, and host of its weekly podcast on technology. He is also an associate fellow at Said Business School at Oxford, researching artificia...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 161
When it comes to game theory, the stories we tell can be incredibly powerful, because it's not enough to just analyze a situation and come up with what you think is the right thing to do. You have to convince people to make change. David McAdams is Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, as well as a Professor of Economics in the Economics Department. McAdams has broad research interests in microeconomic theory and game theory, with particular focus...
Jul 11, 2022•59 min•Ep. 160
There are many many opinions on how genetic engineering is affecting the future. But Beth Shapiro has an optimistic view of how humans seem to be much more conscious of the impact that they're having, and where genetic engineering fits into that impact. Beth Shapiro is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology r at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). She is also the director of evolutionary genomics at the UCSC Genomics ...
Jul 08, 2022•42 min•Ep. 159
From bad teeth to appendix surgeries, it seems like our bodies are breaking down in modern times. So how has society and evolution changed how our bodies work? Alex Bezzerides is a professor of biology at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, where he teaches a wide range of biology classes, from human anatomy and physiology to entomology. He is also the author of “ Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (Or Don't).” In this episode, Greg and Alex cover bipedalism and its ba...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 158
What exactly is science? It's something that philosophers have grappled with quite a bit. Well, the good news is that you don't have to have a philosophical understanding of the foundation of science to understand science. Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He is the author of many many books, including “ How to Talk to a Science Denier,” Post-Truth, and The Scientific...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 157
We all know the diseases associated with aging: cancer, heart disease, dementia. But what if they are just symptoms of and the disease is aging itself? How would this view affect our approach to medical research? While the last few centuries have extended human lifespan by decades, our healthspan has not kept up. New scientific insights are pointing toward a better understanding of the causes of aging and perhaps may lead to the extension of our healthspan. Sue Armstrong explores these topics an...
Jul 01, 2022•55 min•Ep. 156
Robert McCauley is the Kenan University Professor of Philosophy at Emory University with associated appointments in psychology, religion, and anthropology. In his view, our minds are better suited to religious belief than to scientific inquiry because the explanations that religion provides make intuitive sense to us and engage our natural cognitive systems, while science involves abstract thinking and forms of reflection that require a lot of mental work. His books include “Hearing Voices and O...
Jun 29, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 155
In economics and in finance, we're always trying to tease out timeless rules of how markets work. And yet, when we look out in the world, there's a lot of politics, there's a lot of history, there's a lot of particularity. Our guest today emphasizes the importance of narrative, individual case analysis, and historical exploration. Charlie Calomiris is Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School, Director of the Business School’s Program for Financial Studies Ini...
Jun 27, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 154
It's a bold claim. And people outside of financial history might wonder how this could possibly be true. Will Goetzmann will elaborate on this claim in today’s episode. He is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies and Faculty Director of the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management. Will’s current research focuses on alternative investing, factor investing, behavioral finance and the art market. Will has written and co-authored a number of book...
Jun 24, 2022•53 min•Ep. 153
