Meaning Lab
By Cody Kommers
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Category: Social Sciences
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Subscribers: 3
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Episodes: 121
Description
Welcome to Meaning Lab, a show about the pursuit of meaning in work, life, and relationships. My name is Cody Kommers, and I've studied cognitive science at UCLA, Harvard, and most recently for my PhD at Oxford. This show is my opportunity to go deeper into understanding how our minds create meaning from the world around us. In each episode, I talk to a scientist, author, or artist about their approach to meaning-making, from language, to productivity, to writing, to travel. It's all fair game, as long as it gets us closer to understanding how we make sense of the world and our place in it.
codykommers.substack.com
codykommers.substack.com
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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#108: Humanism and the conversation of the ages (feat. Sarah Bakewell)
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Nov 14, 2023 |
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#107: How a really good travel writer approaches her experiences abroad—and at home (feat. Erika Fatland)
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Apr 25, 2023 |
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#106: Rituals matter more than you think (feat. Dimitris Xygalatas)
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Apr 18, 2023 |
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#105: What can psychology tell us about meaning? (feat. Paul Bloom)
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Mar 02, 2023 |
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#104: Palentine's Day (feat. Robin Dunbar)
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Feb 14, 2023 |
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#103: Tired, scared, and busy: why can't we all just get along? (feat. Mónica Guzmán)
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Jan 31, 2023 |
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#102: Awe is the emotional component of meaning (feat. Dacher Keltner)
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Jan 24, 2023 |
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#101: Finding meaning in the maybe (feat. John Kaag)
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Jan 17, 2023 |
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#100: I interviewed 90+ scientists about their career. These are the 12 biggest lessons I learned.
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Jan 10, 2023 |
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#99: There's a Reason You Can't Make Yourself Act like Everyone Else: You're Unique (feat. Chantel Prat)
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Jan 03, 2023 |
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A Small Exercise in Gratitude
|
Dec 30, 2022 |
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#98: A Cognitive Scientist Tries to Convince Me the Mind is Flat; I Don't Think He Succeeds (feat. Nick Chater)
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Dec 27, 2022 |
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My Favorite Book of the Year
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Dec 23, 2022 |
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#97: Is the Biggest Fish in the Pond Happy? (feat. W. David Marx)
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Dec 20, 2022 |
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Can Productivity Be Turned On Like a Faucet?
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Dec 16, 2022 |
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#96: How Words Get Their Meaning (feat. Gary Lupyan)
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Dec 13, 2022 |
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The Off-Policy Theory of Happiness
|
Dec 09, 2022 |
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#95: The Value Landscape of Games—and How Companies Exploit It (feat. Adrian Hon)
|
Dec 06, 2022 |
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Introducing: Meaning Lab
|
Dec 02, 2022 |
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#91: How Technology Shapes Our Tastes — in Music and More (feat. Nick Seaver)
|
Oct 18, 2022 |
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#94: Anxiety and the Hard Work of Being Human (feat. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary)
|
Aug 02, 2022 |
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#93: Debate is a Battle of Beliefs — But Does It Have The Power To Change Them? (feat. Bo Seo)
|
Jul 26, 2022 |
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#92: People Don't Often Change Their Minds on Big Topics. Why? (feat. David McRaney)
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Jul 19, 2022 |
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#90: Stephen Kosslyn on How We Conceptualize the World
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Apr 26, 2022 |
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#89: Tom Griffiths on Formalizing the Mind
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Apr 25, 2022 |
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#88: Leyla Isik on Combining the Rigorous with the Realistic
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Apr 20, 2022 |
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#87: Antonio Damasio on When Self Comes to Mind
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Apr 12, 2022 |
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#86: Tom Pettigrew on How Experience Shapes Belief
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Apr 04, 2022 |
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#85: Alan Fiske on Why It's Hard to Understand Humans
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Mar 08, 2022 |
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#84: Elizabeth Loftus on the Societal Implications of Psychology
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Mar 01, 2022 |
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#83: George Lakoff on a Life Lived by Metaphor
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Feb 22, 2022 |
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#82: Annie Murphy Paul on Where the Mind Ends and the World Begins
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Feb 15, 2022 |
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#81: Kevin Birmingham on Where Great Books Come From
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Feb 08, 2022 |
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#80: Sam Gershman on the Structure of Cognitive Revolutions
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Feb 01, 2022 |
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#79.5: Randy Gallistel on Upsetting Neuroscientists (The Story)
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Jan 27, 2022 |
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#79: Randy Gallistel on Upsetting Neuroscientists (The Theory)
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Jan 25, 2022 |
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#78: Philip Johnson-Laird on How Cognitive Scientists Improvise
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Jan 18, 2022 |
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#77: Brian Christian on AI as a Human Problem, Part 2
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Jan 11, 2022 |
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#76: Charles King on Taking the Outsider Perspective
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Dec 21, 2021 |
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#75: Susanna L. Harris on Building Community through Communication
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Dec 14, 2021 |
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#74: Nicole Barbaro on Judging a Book by its Cover
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Nov 30, 2021 |
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#73: Tara Thiagarajan on Brains—All 7 Billion of Them
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Nov 23, 2021 |
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#72: Andy Luttrell on Consistent Quality
|
Nov 16, 2021 |
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#71: David Edmonds on Turning Philosophy into a Career
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Nov 09, 2021 |
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#70: Salma Mousa on Investing in Big Projects
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Oct 26, 2021 |
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#69: Coltan Scrivner on First-Gen to Fame
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Oct 19, 2021 |
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#68: Alexandra Chesterfield on Being a Conservative in a Liberal Environment
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Oct 12, 2021 |
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#67: Rebecca Saxe on the Beauty of the Mind
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Oct 05, 2021 |
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#66: Gordon Allport, the 20th Century's Psychologist
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Sep 28, 2021 |
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#65: Elizabeth Ricker on Personalizing Your Creative Process
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Sep 21, 2021 |
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#64: Azeem Azhar on the Exponential Age
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Sep 14, 2021 |
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#63: Jay Van Bavel on the Power of Us
|
Sep 07, 2021 |
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#62: Edward Slingerland on How to Drink Well
|
Jun 08, 2021 |
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#61: Scott Atran on the Risks We're Willing to Take
|
Jun 01, 2021 |
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#60: Wade Davis on Becoming an Entrepreneur of Knowledge
|
May 25, 2021 |
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#59: Christopher Bail on How Social Media Shapes Our Identity
|
May 18, 2021 |
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#58: Jeff Hawkins on Tackling the Big Problems
|
May 11, 2021 |
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#57: Nancy Kanwisher on Finding Your Niche
|
May 04, 2021 |
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#56: Louis Menand on How to Write about Everything
|
Apr 27, 2021 |
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#55: Brian Christian on AI as a Human Problem, Part 1
|
Apr 20, 2021 |
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#54: Pedro Domingos on Making the Textbook Smaller
|
Apr 13, 2021 |
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#53: Liz Neeley on the Foundations of Good Stories
|
Apr 06, 2021 |
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#52: Benjamin Moser on the Performance of Everyday Life
|
Mar 30, 2021 |
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#51: Damon Centola on How Anomalies Drive Scientific Progress
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Mar 23, 2021 |
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#50: Ethan Kross on Harnessing the Voice in Your Head
|
Mar 16, 2021 |
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#49: Joseph Henrich on What History Can Tell Us About Psychology
|
Mar 09, 2021 |
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#48: Sir Simon Baron-Cohen on Putting Together the Big Picture from the Details
|
Mar 02, 2021 |
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#47: William Labov on What People Actually Say
|
Feb 23, 2021 |
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#46: Nicholas Christakis on Mastering Skills
|
Feb 16, 2021 |
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#45: Tanya Luhrmann on Writing about Culture, Belief, and Life
|
Feb 09, 2021 |
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#44: Anil Seth on Interdisciplinarity in Practice
|
Feb 02, 2021 |
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#43: Denise Sekaquaptewa on How to Make Universities Work For Everyone
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Jan 19, 2021 |
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#42: Richard Nisbett on Telling More Than He Can Know
|
Jan 05, 2021 |
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#41: Michael McCullough on Why We Give a Damn
|
Dec 01, 2020 |
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Actually Against Academia
|
Nov 26, 2020 |
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#40: Howard Gardner on the Synthesizing Mind
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Nov 24, 2020 |
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#39: Yael Niv on the Moral Obligations of Scientists
|
Nov 10, 2020 |
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#38: Barry Wellman on the Academic Social Network
|
Nov 03, 2020 |
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#37: Susan Goldin-Meadow on Being a World-Class Listener
|
Oct 27, 2020 |
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#36: Richard Shweder on How to Observe the World
|
Oct 20, 2020 |
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#35: Annie Duke on Betting on Your Best Self
|
Oct 13, 2020 |
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#34: Don Norman
|
Oct 06, 2020 |
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#33: Mahzarin Banaji
|
Sep 29, 2020 |
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#32: Sade Abiodun
|
Sep 15, 2020 |
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Chapter 1: Warsaw
|
Sep 10, 2020 |
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#31: Sir Nigel Shadbolt
|
Sep 08, 2020 |
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Introduction: "Dear Haily"
|
Aug 27, 2020 |
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#30: Daniel Everett on Being Fully Immersed
|
Jun 30, 2020 |
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#29: Maria Konnikova on Doing the Work
|
Jun 23, 2020 |
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#28: Steven Pinker on Career Uncertainty
|
Jun 16, 2020 |
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#27: Mark Granovetter on Why There Are Revolutions
|
Jun 09, 2020 |
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#26: Alan Baddeley on Proceeding Logically
|
May 19, 2020 |
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#25: Michèle Lamont on Building Big Ideas
|
May 12, 2020 |
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#24: Michael Inzlicht on the Optimal Number of Beers per Psychologist
|
May 05, 2020 |
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#23: Brad Love on Lifelong Exploration
|
Apr 28, 2020 |
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#22: Rob Henderson on the Search for Stability
|
Apr 21, 2020 |
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#21: Olga Khazan on the Power of Outsiders
|
Apr 07, 2020 |
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Lab Lockdown #3: Steve Rathje
|
Apr 03, 2020 |
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#20: Julia Shaw on Who We Are and Why It Matters
|
Apr 01, 2020 |
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Lab Lockdown #2: Jeffrey Lees
|
Mar 20, 2020 |
|
Lab Lockdown #1: Jaclyn A. Siegel
|
Mar 19, 2020 |
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#19: Christof Koch on Incandescent Intellectualism
|
Mar 17, 2020 |
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#18: Michael Tomasello on Writing for Young People
|
Mar 10, 2020 |
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#17: Sander van der Linden on Intrinsic Motivation
|
Mar 03, 2020 |
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#16: Heather Berlin on Bringing Science to the Masses
|
Feb 25, 2020 |
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#15: Nicola Clayton on Enthusiastic Serendipity
|
Feb 18, 2020 |
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#14: Weiji Ma on Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
|
Feb 04, 2020 |
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#13: David Pizarro on How to Find Collaborators
|
Jan 28, 2020 |
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#12: Dorsa Amir on Ultimate versus Proximate Goals
|
Jan 21, 2020 |
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#11: Nicholas Epley on Designing a Good Life
|
Jan 14, 2020 |
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#10: David DeSteno on Being Optimally Interdisciplinary
|
Jan 07, 2020 |
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#9: Linda B. Smith on Making the Best Local Decisions
|
Dec 31, 2019 |
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#8: Cory Clark on Getting Traction
|
Dec 17, 2019 |
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#7: Bradley Voytek on Being a F**k up with Potential
|
Dec 10, 2019 |
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#6: Axel Cleeremans on Getting in on the Ground Floor
|
Dec 03, 2019 |
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#5: Susan Fiske on the Role of Psychology in Society
|
Nov 26, 2019 |
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#4: Scott Barry Kaufman on Planning with Precision and Purpose
|
Nov 19, 2019 |
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#3: Chantel Prat on Unexpected Advantages
|
Nov 12, 2019 |
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#2: Paul Bloom on Picking the Perfect Title
|
Nov 05, 2019 |
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#1: Art Markman on Getting Your Work Out There
|
Oct 29, 2019 |
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Introduction: Bertrand Russell's Cognitive Revolution
|
Oct 22, 2019 |