329 | Steven Pinker on Rationality and Common...

Welcome to the February 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whet ...  Show more

Evolution with natural selection involves an intricate mix of the random and the driven. Mutations are essentially random, while selection pressures work to prefer certain outcomes over others. There is tremendous divergence of species over time, but also repeated convergence to ...  Show more

As Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Steven Pinker's list of accomplishments is incredible; he has been named Humanist of the Year, a top "100 Global Thinker" by Foreign Policy and included in Time mag ...

Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author and Harvard College Professor. One of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind, he is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. P ...  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 ...

How much of our understanding of the world comes built-in? More than you'd expect.

That's the conclusion that <a href= "https://cos.northeastern.edu/pe ...