The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Susannah Cahalan talks about her book, "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness."
This week in Watch This! we talk about Oscar nominee "Karama Has No Walls," and Oscar winner, "The Lady in Number Six."
Do tests such as the SAT and ACT offer a complete picture of a student's abilities? Psychologist Robert Sternberg doesn't think so. He tells Anne Strainchamps that we need to change the way we evaluate students, starting with college entrance exams.
Life gets better for people in their 60s and 70, according to lots of recent studies. Why? Geriatric psychiatrist Dilip Jeste says people often become wiser with age.
Dan Lyons was a magazine writer and the technology editor at Newsweek. But one Friday morning, he found out that he'd lost his job. He was 50 with a wife and two kids. What was he going to do? And then he had an idea -- since he had so much experience reporting on Silicon Valley and the tech explosing, why not join it? So Dan scored a gig with HubSpot, a Boston start-up flush with 100 million dollars in venture capital. It was an experience, to say the least.
There’s been a pandemic or a nuclear war. Most of humanity is wiped out. Armed vigilantes steal your stuff and eat your family. The good news is, you can survive all this! If you have “the Knowledge.”
Roy Kaplan tells Steve Paulson what really happens to those people who hit the lottery.
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