The average American voter is NOT smarter than a 5th grader, doesn't understand basic political facts and should probably not be allowed to vote. Philosopher Jason Brennan makes the case for an epistocracy: the rule of the knowledgeable.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Memory researcher Daniel Schacter tells Steve Paulson that you can be confident of your memory and still wrong, and explains other tricks our memories play on us.
It’s 2055, a regular weekday morning… Where do you wake up? With a booming population and more people moving into urban areas, chances are you’d be living in a city. But what might that city look like?
Mitchell Joaquim is an architect, and one of the founders of the innovative design group, TerreForm1.
In 2006, Barack Obama was the new darling of the Democratic Party and was considering a Presidential run in 2008.
Anthropologist Alia Gurtov was one of the first people to crawl into the Dinaledi Chamber to see the Homo naledi fossils. She describes the harrowing climb into the cave, where she had to crawl through tiny passages to retrieve the bones.
Neuroscientist David Eagleman says most of the brain's real action happens below the level of the conscious mind. He calls the brain "a team of rivals," since different parts of the brain compete against each other.
Nicholas Felton transforms data into something beautiful. As a self-described "information designer" and extremely dedicated life logger, he tracks aspects of his life over the course of the year and then publishes them as "annual reports."
The late Christopher Hitchens was one of the most controversial journalists and public intellectuals of recent years. In this conversation, he talks about his memoir "Hitch 22" and the role of intellectuals.
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