How common knowledge shapes the world | Steve...

Dolly Parton's hit songs — like "9 to 5," "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" — have captured generation after generation. In this episode, recorded around the release of "Run, Rose, Run" (her novel co-written with James Patterson and paired with a full-length companion album), ...  Show more

Does the fix for a fragmented world begin with a shared bookshelf? Photographer Rebecca Toh traces how she joined with 180 other people to build a community-funded library where strangers rent shelves, fill them with their personal collections and forge something rare: real conne ...  Show more

Common knowledge is the secret engine of social life, letting us coordinate everything from meet-ups to markets to international diplomacy. In this fascinating talk, experimental cognitive scientist Steven Pinker explores its momentous impact, threading together stories of why au ...  Show more

Learn more about your affect profile by taking the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule quiz (PANAS) here. So much of life depends not only on what we know, but also on what we know that others know as well. This shared awareness—what social scientists call common knowledge—expl ...  Show more

Steven Pinker returns to Conversations with Tyler with an argument that common knowledge—those infinite loops of "I know that you know that I know"—is the hidden infrastructure that enables human coordination, from accepting paper money to toppling dictators. But Tyler wonders: i ...  Show more

Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ad ...